Trends in home design have made residential elevators one of the most popular new features in home additions. Residential elevators provide comfort, class and freedom to any home. Instead of updating a kitchen, or adding another bathroom, think of the practicality and look a residential elevator will add to your home.

Residential elevators provide its operators the ability to freely move about their home with style. Ranging in design from traditional to contemporary it’s easy to find an elevator that matches your home in style, while fitting into your lifestyle.  I always like the classic style of a traditional elevator but some of the new contemporary designs are quite something. Either design will only add value to your home after installation.

Traditional elevators are offered with a wood finish including finished oak, finished maple and finished cherry. The fixtures can be chosen to be anodized bronze, anodized silver, brass or brushed stainless steel. With so many options a traditional residential elevator can be customized with you in mind while maintaining its classic style and appeal.

Contemporary elevators are otherworldly in design. I’ve written about the Vision 830 elevator before, but must reiterate it’s incredible style and impact on your home. An all class exterior gives a panoramic view of your home as you’re lifted or lowered in your home. As residential elevators go, the Vision 830 creates drama and flair that is perfect for a modern home.

The more I research residential elevators the more I am impressed by their design and affordability. As one of the safest means of travel they provide a practical function while giving your home a completely new look. Trends of the past are wiped away by the new addition of residential elevators.

I would say that one of the top ten fears that a lot of normal people have is a fear of being stuck inside an elevator with no way out. This is certainly a reasonable fear, seeing as elevators combine three commonly held fears: heights, small spaces and speed. As I mentioned a while back, the fear of a stuck elevator has been a well-worn occurrence in movies, like the recent film Devil, where a group of people get stuck in an elevator with the Devil himself.

However, for employees at the KCI Tower in San Antonio, Texas, the effects of being trapped are not entertaining at all. According to a story in Fire Engineering, Kinetic Concepts, Inc. has filed a lawsuit regarding repeated stoppages in the buildings elevators:

“Eleven employees were trapped in an elevator for more than 40 minutes two months ago, prompting a call to the Fire Department to free them.

On another occasion last summer, several employees were in an elevator when it suddenly zoomed upward before coming to a jolting stop. KCI’s President and CEO Catherine Burzik got stuck for a few minutes the same day.

KCI outlines the incidents, along with an array of other elevator-related glitches, in its breach-of-lease suit against the building’s multiple owners and property manager. The medical-device maker, one of San Antonio’s largest public companies, alleges the elevator malfunctions have disrupted its business operations.”

The company that runs the elevators maintains that the lifts are in proper working order, but KCI isn’t buying it. The lawsuit it has filed lists a number of incidents:

“KCI, in its lawsuit, cited an array of issues with the elevators since 2008. They include ‘abrupt ‘jerking’ movements,’ stopping on all floors or going to floors not requested, doors either closing rapidly or slowly, and the elevators stopping ‘off level’ with the nearest floor.

No employees have been hurt in any of the incidents it cites, Izbrand said, but ‘we have had some minor incidents of employees suffering some anxiety.’”

As we all know, elevators are a very necessary item to have for a myriad of reasons. Along with stairlifts, elevators can provide elderly and handicapped people to ability to move freely throughout buildings now matter how high. This is particularly useful in residential homes, seeing as people should be able to move throughout their homes without forcing their wheelchairs or crutches to seem like hindrances. So who would promote an issue by not using such a useful tool?

In a very interesting and somewhat strange news tidbit, it is reported that First Lady Michelle Obama is banning the use of the White House’s residential elevator from her young daughters. Why?

Well, first of all, the elevator is banned for use from her daughters exclusively. This, according to an article in Take Part, is to help promote the First Lady’s message of fitness and healthy food:

“[T]hat’s exactly what the first lady hoped to get across [to students at Maple Avenue School in Newark, New Jersey]—that everyone has an important role in combating obesity.

‘You can do it just by setting an example,’ Mrs. Obama told the students. ‘You don’t have to change the whole world at once. You can change the person who sits next to you in class.’

As for her own home, Mrs. Obama says she walks the talk. ‘We’ve sworn off the elevator at our home,’ she said. ‘We walk up the stairs. The kids don’t like it, but they do it.’”

With Sasha and Malia not being able to use the elevator and the extremely healthy gardening that the White House has been promoting, I’d say the First Lady is succeeding in spreading a message of exercise and health. I still think it would be great to have a custom elevator in my house – I mean, how cool would that be?