Gulf Haven

As you pull into the round about approaching Gulf Haven off of Rowan road, in New Port Richey, you notice how almost picture perfect this ALF is. A white, two story home sits with a cement patio on the left. Large potted flowers illuminate the entrances/. There are two clearly defined French door entrances, one on the two story side, and one on the single floor side of the residence. When you enter the two story side of the building it is obvious that this is the main entrance. Once you enter the home there is a private room, large in size with a commode and shower. The entire front of the room is windows that are in draped with white lace curtains. This room has a AC window unit. Across the hall is another residents room that is double occupancy. In the hallway there is a stair case with about 12 steps. The front two residents rooms, the stairs and upstairs apartments are all wood floors. Upstairs there are two operational residents rooms, one of which is a self contained apartment. These rooms upstairs are usually reserved for individuals that have the capability to maintain their self sufficiency with little to no assistance physically. Once you pass the front door entrance area of this home, you enter a large family room with a large projection television. The television has had better days as the picture tube has noticeable gone bad and the picture is very dim and dark. The furniture is two large couches and a recliner and a table with two chairs. There is another double occupancy room attached to the living room with a sliding glass door on the rear. The carpet in this area is thin hunter green. From the living room you enter the kitchen through another set of French doors. The kitchen has a home set up with both a installed bar type table installed and two additional tables in a attached dining area that is rather small. On the other side of the kitchen there is a small hallway that has a little ramp with a slope and on the right is the laundry area and on the left are the refrigerator and freezer. The small ramp has no gradual ramping on the edge, nor does it have a handler bar. In my opinion it is a scary situation for an ambulatory adult. Once you arrive into the obvious addition to the original floor plan, there is a desk on the left and a residents room on the right . This room is pretty small in size, and has a window AC unit. Further down, there is a bathroom that has a shower. Another residents room, with double occupancy is on the right and the front patio is visible through numerous windows on the front of the home. There is both, a double occupancy room and a private room with a commode and shower on the far end of the residence. All of the rooms towards the back of the home are connected by a wrap around wood patio. On the rear of the property there is a two story loft apartment, where the upstairs loft truly has a ladder entrance. This apartment has a private entry and bath. The current activities director has been there for many years. She truly does have the residents best interest in mind in my opinion. There is always art work furnished by the residents strung thru out the living room. If you are searching for a "home away from home" feeling, this might be the facility for you. Every meal is home cooked, lunch is pretty much always some type of heat and go product such as fish sticks and tater tots with veggies. Dinner is mostly prepared as good ole home cooked meals, such as baked chicken, pot roast or such. It is in my opinion, that food is one of the areas that this facility tries to really save money. Every product in the kitchen was generic in form and it seemed apparent that the quality and portions of meat was limited. When chicken is served it is legs and thighs and can meat was used when ever possible. This facility seemed to receive allot of donations of residual bread products,, which was dispersed during the evening meals. There are 11 base floor residents and about 4 upstairs residents at any given time. There is only one assistant in the home at all times. This same assistant is the one responsible for Patient care, cooking, cleaning and any other tasks of running a large family home. There are no call lights, and in a building this large it seemed difficult to locate assistance at times. There s not central heat and air in this building, and for some that is great, for others its not so wonderful. In my opinion this home clean, and the laundry is taken care of on site. If the carpet was newer it would look a lot better. This facility caters to adults of all ages and all exceptionalities.