Augusta Army veteran gets life-changing bathroom renovation

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – It was a joyous reunion on Wednesday between Sgt. Charles Linwood and his wife, and the Quint-Essential Designs team.

Until a month ago, the 70-year-old Army veteran was having trouble moving around his bathroom in his wheelchair.

“It took a lot of strength just to do that, just to get into the bathroom,” Sgt. Linwood said. “Taking a shower was difficult because I always had to depend on her to be there to help me.”

“The bathroom was just horrendous,” said Sgt. Linwood’s wife, Sarah. “Because his balance is off so bad, when I tried to get him in and out the tub, sometimes he’d fall or fall on me, and both of us was hurting.”

This led Sarah to contact homes for veterans, a nonprofit organization that renovates disabled veterans’ homes.

“They responded which was amazing,” Sarah said. “I couldn’t believe it when I first got the email.”

Homes for Veterans then asked Quint-Essential Designs, an Augusta-based general contracting company, to remodel the bathroom to make it ADA compliant.

“There’s a lot of vets in the Augusta area, especially on this side of town, down in this area,” said Quinton Sowell, the co-owner of Quint-Essential Designs. “My dad, he’s a twenty year vet, we remodeled his bathroom to make it more accessible. So we like helping the vets out.”

Donations funded the almost $28,000 project, giving Sgt. Linwood back his freedom without costing him a dime.

“Everything that Homes for Veterans do for us is very appreciated. I definitely appreciate it because I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t have did this by myself,” he said.

Quint-Essential Designs plans to help Sgt. Linwood and his wife with other remodeling projects in the future. To learn more about Homes for Veterans, click here.