Thinking ahead

It's probably Dad's fault, now that I think of it. The fact that I can't get into any situation without automatically running through all of the possible scenarios, and what I should do, or how I should react in each case. Maybe everyone does that, I really have no clue.

In any case, from the moment that I thought Dad was out of the woods, I've wondered how we would care for him going forward. How far would he progress, what level of care would he need, and how would we, as a family, provide that care.

Towards the end of last week, my wife, daughters and I came to the conclusion that the only logical solution was for Mom and Dad to move in with us. To make a long story much shorter, we are in the process of building a new house. Same basic floor plan, same neighborhood, same builder, but that's another story for another blog.

The basic house isn't overly large, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2700 s.f. It's a 2-story home with 4 bedrooms, a study and a 3-car garage. The basic idea is to connect another structure through the breakfast area. We can add over 1,000 s.f. without infringing on any of the building lines.

The addition should have a sizable master bedroom, bathroom and closet. All accessible by wheelchair without feeling like a hospital room or nursing center. Additionally, a full sized living or great room to allow Mom and Dad separation if the chaos of my own family sometimes gets to be too much. All of that connected back to the main house via a wide corridor filled with floor to ceiling windows.

There's still a lot of work to do. We haven't sold our existing house, and Mom and Dad were working towards doing the same thing. They were in the throes of a complete remodel when Dad was stricken with the "brain attack". My brother has done an admirable job of trying to complete the remodel on his own, and the house is really getting close to being market ready.

After visiting with all family members the last few days, I think we're all comfortably in agreement on the plan. Sell both houses first, my family will move into our new house as planned. Hopefully, we'll have all the plans done by the time we close, and can begin construction on the addition immediately. If we're lucky, and all goes well, then we should be prepared for Mom and Dad within 6-8 months. The interim will be a little tricky, but I think it's made more manageable with a long-term plan that everyone believes in.