Big Transitions

 It has been a while since I felt the need to blog, but I hope that these next series might be of help to others. I also hope that my readers might be able to help me as I navigate new changes in our home. 

So let's get right to it!

The big news!

Life changing news!

My in-laws have moved in. 

They are now living with us in our home.  We have a "wing" that is fully accessible for those who need extra supports.  My mother in law is having some mobility and stability issues and the grab bars in our bathroom, our elevator going from the garage below to the first floor of our home, and the large doors and hallways with chair rails all along the walls in every room are more than helpful to her.  We also have a walk in shower with a large bench seat and grab rails all around.  In their area they have two large rooms, one for their bedroom and the other for their "sitting" room.  In their sitting room they have a small kitchen counter with storage cabinets underneath, a small refrigerator, and a microwave oven.  They have their kitchen table with chairs so they can sit at the table.  They also have a sitting area with chairs and their large screen TV.  This wing has a door that separates them from the rest of the house so they can come and go as they please.  They can also open that door and feel more a part of the household activities.  

The entire moving in process was quite involved.  Prior to their move, we were using those rooms as our bedroom and my craft room.  We had to move our bedroom upstairs to the old master bedroom.  My craft room was packed up and moved into both storage and our upstairs bedroom closet.  Thankfully this upstairs bedroom has two closets.  This was a process because had to get rid of a lot of things, including much of our clothing and other items.  This new bedroom is much smaller than our previous room. We had to downsize and get rid of two large chests of drawers and reduce to only one small closet for the both of us to share.  This was a bit of a struggle. The bigger struggle was the bathroom situation.  Previously we each had our own large bathrooms and shared the large shower room.  Now we have a small half bath that has only a toilet and small sink.  It is so small that only one person can fit in there and all you can do is turn around.  You step in, turn around and step out. There is no storage in there either.  Under the sink I have a little bit of space for a few items, but the plumbing takes up most of the space.  We now share a hall bath with our two young adult daughters.  So far (12 days), it has been okay.  No one has needed to shower at the same time as another.  No one has used all the hot water either.  But I am sure there will come a time....

We also had to make room in our very full basement for my in-law's items that they couldn't part with.  They moved from a three bedroom two bath home where they lived for 14 years.  We were lucky that they have moved a few times over the many years and they have weeded out some items.  However, their house still was full of things they weren't ready to part with.  We welcomed their stuff as we knew it would be very stressful for them to have to get rid of too much all at once.  It was already stressful enough to have to move in with us.  We chose to weed out our things to accommodate theirs.  Much of what we got rid of needed to go anyway.  It just took time and many many loads to Goodwill.  

They have now been here 12 days and I am beginning to see them relax a bit.  We are still finding our way together, but I think we are all settling in to new routines here.  

Over the next several posts I will talk about growing pains, how we decided to have them live with us, and lessons we are learning.  

Let me know:

• are you living in a multi-generational home?
• How did you get to where you are?
• Are you a full-time care-giver? How much support do you provide?
• What lessons have you learned?
• How are your kids handling this?