In July of 2014, I took some downtime with Megan and Matt in Kansas City and  designed an  elevator location for our Longwood house. On the trip home, I was struck with severe abdominal pain. Major surgery fixed the problem.

 While recuperating at home, with my walker bumping along the walls, and showering being a major struggle, I had a great epiphany; we had to move from my beloved home. Adding an elevator would only be a little band aid and a costly one. Much more needed to be done to make our house not only barrier friendly to Bryan, but Jim and I were not getting any younger or more agile.

 We (Jim, Bryan and I) decided that if we were going to move, we should have a place for Grandma Dot, my fabulous, then 87-year-old mother, to join us. So our list of requirements grew; exterior space to add an addition to house an elevator, a suite large enough for Bryan to have privacy and a bath large enough to add a roll in shower, a two room suite for Grandma and two offices spaces for Jim and I to be able to work from home.

House hunting began that day. Thank God for our daughter, Megan, and Zillow! Megan was staying with us to help with my recovery, but I added “head house hunter” to her nursing duties. We looked at hundreds of homes online and if anything looked promising, Megan, Jim, Dot, and Bryan would join our realtor Janelle to check it out. I, of course, was still on drugs and pretty immobile since surgery was less two weeks prior.

As I reflect on those weeks, I must nominate my entire family for Sainthood. It all seemed perfectly natural to me. I needed to get my family in a safe, comfortable and accessible home as soon as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After just a few weeks, we stumbled upon this 4 bedroom 3 bath ranch. It required a lot of updating but it had the spaces to fit the needs of our multigenerational family.