In honor of SB Awareness month, my next topic will be about our home, why it's perfect for a little girl in a wheelchair and what modifications we may need to make in the future. We've lived in this house for 3 years, way before becoming a family of 3 was a consideration. I would consider this an impulse buy... if you know Ty at all, you know that he can sometimes get funny ideas into his head and he won't stop until he sees it through. The summer of 2009 we started talking about someday moving into a house (we were living in a townhome at the time). Yes, that would be great, we'd have a yard and have more privacy. I was literally painting the last room of the townhome that needed to be painted when we found this house.
I have to admit, I wasn't in love with it. There were a lot of things about this house that I didn't like... first and foremost it was a 1-level. I always thought that I wanted a 2-story house and the thought of having everything on the same floor didn't really appeal to me. But in the back of my mind as we were going through this house, I kept hearing a little voice telling me that this was our house. I fought it. I tried to come up with excuses why I didn't like it. And yet, here I am 3 years later in this house. I've had other times in my life when opportunities have presented themselves that I have tried to resist but in the end I realize that things worked out the way they are supposed to. In the end, this is the house we were meant to be in.
I think I've mentioned before a little bit about the house, but let me elaborate. Our house is a single story, and while we do have a basement, it's yucky. It has low ceilings and because it's an old house building in the 1940's, there are lots of spiders and other creepy crawlies that I don't like to think about. It's not really a place to hang out. The only steps we have are 2 to get from the garage into the house, and 1 down to the sunken 4-season room, which are easily made accessible. Our driveway is completely flat out to our street, perfect for a little girl to wheel out to the school bus.
We have 3 bedrooms and a den. Right now Leah is in the bedroom closest to ours. Once she gets a little bit older and we're able to better identify what special accommodations she'll need, we have the den that we'll likely convert to her room. It has a bathroom right next door that badly needs updating (it is original to the house, which was built in the 1940's!!!, pink tile and all!!). We'll make that a suite for her, complete with a wheelchair-accessible bathroom. We also plan to put french doors to the outside patio so she can have another escape route if something happens. My biggest fear is that she will be trapped in our house without a way to get out.
The rest of the house is fairly accessible and could accommodate a wheelchair with some minor modifications. We'll have to enlarge a few doorways, and when we get new carpet, it will have to be a very short weave so she can easily get around. Our kitchen has a lot of cupboards and drawers under the counters, and we'll use one section to put bowls and cups and plates for her to reach. The good news is that we don't have to do major renovations, or consider moving to another house. As for me? I've grown to love this house, even more after finding out about Leah's condition and realizing how perfect this house is for her.
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