Decorating for Seniors and Moving Mom
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Decorating for seniors can be challenging to balance safety and personal style preferences. It can also be an emotional time for seniors with changes in their health and mobility, their routines and leaving friends behind.
Moving Mom...
This past month has been insanely busy for me. I have prepared my basement apartment for my elderly mother to come to live in. This was no small feat. The biggest challenge was getting her to agree to move in the first place!
She was living an hour and a half away and had established a nice life there over the past eighteen years. The last few years she has had increasing health concerns though and it was impossible for me to be there for her to help. Almost all of the family live near me, including my brother, so the logical thing was for her to move here. Knowing that my mother is as fiercely independent as I, I bought this house a few years ago with the basement apartment, with the intention that some day she would come here.
My brother and I have offered to take turns taking her to see her friends at her former apartment an hour and a half away at least once a month if she likes. Our old family home where she lived for over thirty-five years is not far away. She still has friends in this area too that hopefully she will get to see more of now.
Decorating her new apartment...
Renovating and decorating for seniors...
The entire apartment had to be painted and a walk-in shower installed. I had to co-ordinate the new shower with the existing tub and shower that had plain white square tiles. I found some white rectangular tiles and decided to make it a little nicer with a strip of mosaic tiles that I had selected for my kitchen back splash. (Kitchen reno coming soon.) New Moen tub and shower faucets were installed on both sides so hopefully they will be good until it will be time to renovate again.
Safety features when decorating for seniors...
Grab bars were added to the tub and shower and a handrail was put in by the entrance hall steps.
Coming soon...
I have also ordered two new windows. The kitchen window had broken seals and even though I cleaned them, they still looked dirty. The basement window was an old, wooden frame one and had no screen. I’m sure it couldn’t have been very energy efficient.
Mom is moved in and is gradually getting things in order. Her internet is up and running so she can keep in touch with all her friends and play Spider Solitaire. We finally got some pictures up and most of her boxes are unpacked. A yard sale is in our future though.
Despite encouraging Mum to get a few new things for herself she is content with what she has. I returned the comforter set I bought her, but she agreed to keep the mat I got her for the bathroom and the mat for the mudroom. Even though the layout of her new apartment is totally different, she has been trying to re-create where she kept or displayed things in her old apartment. She says that this helps her to remember where things are.
She has already taken the bus by herself and has looked into some exercise classes for seniors. Hopefully we will have many more years with her and she will be happy in her new home.
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2 Comments
Deborah Montgomery
What a beautiful story of how you were able to use you creativity to welcome your mum…you do amazing decorating and organizing projects…good for you!!
Carole
Thank you.