But the 55-year-old Cary house no longer fit him.

Fulghum couldn't navigate tight spaces to the kitchen and bathroom with his walker. He couldn't walk down the back door's steep steps, which didn't have a railing. The house had no smoke or carbon monoxide detectors. His son Steve, 50, had to lift him in and out of the old cast iron bathtub so he could bathe.

"It was very dangerous. I was scared to death every time I put him in the bathtub," said Steve Fulghum.

But by the end of the week, Ed Fulghum will live more safely in his home, thanks to repairs made by the nonprofit volunteer organization Military Missions in Action.

Since it was founded in January 2008, the group's Operation Building Hope program has completed more than $1 million worth of home modifications in North Carolina for disabled veterans who could not physically or financially do the repairs themselves. Volunteers construct wheelchair ramps and roll-in-showers as well as widen doorways and lower cabinets to make disabled veterans' homes safer. Most of the building materials are donated by companies or homeowners doing their own renovations.

MMIA founder Michael Dorman of Fuquay-Varina said Fulghum's home is their largest project of the year, requiring 900 to 1,000 volunteer hours and nearly $20,000 in donations.

"There's a lot of organizations now that are only focused on those returning from this conflict. Well, those who were in Vietnam, Korea, World War II still need assistance also," Dorman said. "We're just vets helping as many vets as we can."

Retirees, church groups, Marine Corps wives and fellow veterans have sweated since July 16 - some days working in temperatures topping 100 degrees - to repair Fulghum's home.

Army veteran Charles Stirewalt, 65, said the heat can be tough, but the work is worth it.

"I can't think of anybody I'd rather help than a fellow veteran," Stirewalt said.

When it's completed, Ed Fulghum's home will have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, a back deck that he can access with his walker, new kitchen cabinets and appliances, hardwood floors and a new half bathroom.

Volunteers also opened up the kitchen and old bathroom so Fulghum can get through with his walker. The old tub was swapped for a walk-in shower, making it easier for someone to help him bathe.

"More than anything I won't be petrified that I'm literally going to kill my father when I'm bathing him," Steve Fulghum said.

Ed Fulghum was drafted during World War II, but the war ended as he was preparing to be deployed. He re-enlisted during the Korean War and served in the Army for 2 1/2 years.

During the war, he injured his arm and leg and lost all hearing in his right ear in a Jeep wreck.

"He doesn't talk a whole lot about it," Steve Fulghum said.

The war injury didn't slow his father down, but age became a disability. The elder Fulghum was hospitalized for low blood sugar, needed a walker and was showing signs of Alzheimer's disease. But he didn't want to move out of his home, so his son and daughter-in-law, Janie, moved in to take care of him.

MMIA arranged for the family to stay in a hotel after the repairs started, but Steve and Janie Fulghum have been helping fix the home almost every day.

"I feel like if I'm able to help and they're doing this for my father, then I want to be able to do as much as I can," his son said.

He took his father to see the repair process three times so he could understand what was happening. At first, the elder Fulghum was worried that he was being taken out of his home and to a retirement community - he didn't think the repairs could possibly be free.

"He didn't think there was any way that anybody was going to be doing all this for him," Steve Fulghum said. "I said: 'Dad...you paid for it when you served your country.'"