We successfully closed on our new house Monday afternoon.
Monday evening we got to work. Our families came over to see the house and began taking paneling down in the kitchen before I'd even finished putting the paint samples on the walls. By yesterday afternoon, Benjamin had brought his toolbag over and was saying, "So, you want this wall down?" Jenny says she picked the right day to take a personal day from work. We put up a new light for Dad Turner in his office, raked the leaves in the front of our new house, looked at paint colors, took down the wall between the kitchen and living room, and began widening the doorway for Grandma Lila's temporary bathroom. None too soon, as it turns out. Grandma Lila suffered a fall last Thursday and was gradually noticing more and more pain from her leg and hip, so she and Mom Turner spent all day yesterday at the hospital where they discovered a small fracture at the top of her right leg where it joins the prosthesis from her halfway-complete hip replacement. Part of the reason Grandma has such a difficult time walking is because of a fall in 2006 that resulted in a hip replacement-gone-wrong. She's been walking with just a spacer in there rather than the full hip because of an infection that forced the original replacement to be removed. The fall this week resulting in a small fracture is a fairly serious thing, because without surgery it means Grandma would most likely have to remain in a facility that allows her to be on IV pain medication for quite some time, if not permanently. Assisted living is not able to administer IVs, so Grandma would have to be in a genuine nursing home. Our goal is not to have that happen. Grandma doesn't want to be in a nursing home and none of us want her there either, so we are united in doing what it takes to bring her home as soon as possible. It does change things, however, because she may be in a convalescent facility for a bit recovering before she can come home; and then she may be wheelchair-bound instead of mobile with a walker as she's been up until this week. We've been preparing our addition plans as though Grandma was in a wheelchair, since we figured it was best to plan that way given her usual difficulty in walking; but this pushes up our timetable quite a bit further than before. Life can change very, very quickly. One of the reasons we came up with the plan to temporarily modify the house so Grandma could live with us before the addition was ready was a possible scenario like this; and now we're very glad we were already working toward this goal. So modifying our house as soon as possible is at top priority. Considering all the activity the past few days, I would say we have a very good shot at having the house livable for Ben by the time Kim comes into town and needs a place to sleep Tuesday night (already!!!) and then having the house ready for Grandma very soon thereafter. I'm going to put up a slideshow on the House Progress page showing the activity from yesterday. You can get to it by clicking HERE.
Emily25069
11/17/2011 11:34:09 am
The house is looking good. You have a very handy family!
Lauren
11/18/2011 02:03:45 am
The house is really changing fast - I do have such a wonderful family! I think I'm going to go over right now to put up paint samples.
Emily
11/27/2011 06:33:47 am
I plan on bringing cookies for your crew very soon. Comments are closed.
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Author: LaurenWife of Benjamin and mother to two wonderful little girls who are getting bigger every day. Enjoys writing down thoughts and discussions we are having within the family and sharing them with whoever is interested in reading. CommentPlease don't be shy! If you're reading the blog updates, we'd like to hear what you think. Click on the "comments" link to send us a note.
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