Osiyo~

I’m back for the regular letter post. If you’re joining me for the first time, welcome! If you are returning, welcome and thanks for coming back for more of my rambles. 😀 I’ll be spending a bit of time today visiting other A to Z challengers and I hope you’ll click the logo above and do the same! Let’s get on with R!

R is for Remodel~

My father in-law has lived with us since  2011, shortly after his stroke. Recently he had another, small but undetectable, stroke that has caused him to lose almost all cognizance and common sense. Before that he was still able to do most things for himself; dress, take meds, do laundry, cook (in a microwave only), care for himself and his dog. Until he lost his license in a separate incident two years ago he could still drive, and did, to dr. appointments, fishing, to the dog park, grocery shopping, etc.

After four days in the hospital this month he came home, and it was immediately apparent we could not care for him here any longer. Physically, I’m unable to care for his needs while hubby works, and he has to work for obvious reasons. For whatever reasons he didn’t qualify for in-home care, nor would he allow it. It was a sad day for all of us, but we found a nice ‘home’ for father in-law to move to and he is adjusting so far.

Closet and new light fixture

Now we are remodeling the two rooms that were his suite in our house. We will now move into that downstairs bedroom and I’m excited not to have to travel, a million times a day, up and down those darn stairs that caused a broken rib, and sprained ankle for me in the first eight months we lived here. Within two months after moving in I slipped on the stairs. The carpet was pretty old and slick, no match for my bare feet. I had my socks in one hand and a full cup of coffee in the other and down I headed. Our stairs have a landing half way and I was three steps down from the top when my left foot slipped out from under me. Socks went one way and coffee another, while I went down two more steps I don’t recall touching. I never dropped my cup, though it was emptied! LOL I sprained my right ankle when I landed. I went on about my day, we were building the horse pens so I could bring my Sonny Boy home. That night I ended up in emergency with a painful, swollen and badly sprained ankle.

Removed closet door

It was a few months later that, while coming down stairs I was almost to the floor when I slipped on the carpeted stairs again. I landed on the ground floor just as fil came from his room. I almost took out his little dogs. I told him I was fine and got up, got Andee off to school and settled in to write. I couldn’t hardly breathe all day. I called Mitch and told him to bring hand rails home to mount to the stairs. I don’t know why the original or previous owners never installed that one crucial thing! But nobody did. Maybe I’m the only person the house had it in for. 😆 He brought the rails home and installed them immediately after getting home. A couple of hours later I finally caved and had him take me to the emergency to learn I’d broken a rib. Soon after, we pulled all the carpet in the house, save for in the one room downstairs. My second broken rib was my fault and happened on the back porch steps a year later after a ice/snow storm. Do not run down icy steps!

New closet door in bathroom hall

So we’ve torn the bedroom down stairs apart, moved the closet door, added a light in the hall of the bathroom and stripped the last of the original carpet out to be replaced with hardwood flooring, like the rest of the house now has. It’s a gutted mess right now, but we hope to have it finished by May. We’ll replace that burnt orange with a lovely beige color on the walls, which will also run throughout the house (now a horrid rotten-hard-boiled-egg-yolk yellow!) The downstairs bath will have an ocean theme with an aqua lower wall and golden sand on the upper half of the wall.

We painted Andee’s room two summers back in a nice blue she loves and our current room is a weird pink. The living room will get the beige with a teal or burgundy accent wall.

Then I can carry out plans for our current room upstairs. It will get a face lift in beige and green once we move out. More on that later. All I’ll say for now is that I’m very excited about those plans and my work future! 🙂

These are plans we’ve had since buying this house, but fil’s illnesses prevented us from using chemicals and paints so we put it off for his comfort.

Dodadagohvi~