May 1999

Company Sells Home Solutions

Items offer control to seniors, disabled.
Nashville Tennessean, Business Section, May 2, 1999

Installing a shower grab bar or wheelchair ramp may not be as glamorous as building an architecturally dramatic house addition.

But home renovator Mark Fry has seen the market potential of focusing exclusively on selling and installing home modification products and services to senior citizens and the disabled in Middle Tennessee.

"We all know people are healthiest and happiest in their own homes," said Fry, president of Life@Home.

Even thought he started his own construction business, MKF, four years ago, numerous requests from clients for safety lights or bath tub grab bars persuaded him to launch Life@Home last year.

"With the senior population growing, we decided it was something we could tackle as a separate company," Fry said.

He and two partners, remodeler Richie Simmons and Ronnie Ferguson, started Life@Home with $25,000 of personal savings. Fry and Simmons remain active in MKF.

The company projects sales of $100,000 for 1999 and has just moved into larger offices on Trousdale Drive.

"It's a new industry and we're pioneering in it," Fry said. "We have to explain to everybody who we are and what we do."

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