Home is where the heart is,
but what about your house? The market is
flooded with articles and pictures that are architectural delights but are
these houses really you? My house
doesn’t look like the ones featured and I don’t know if I would want it to
(does anyone really live like that?). I
am not particularly talented, well not talented at all, when it comes to home
remodeling. Most of the people I know
can hardly afford to replace the couch that has outlived its usefulness, much
less color coordinate the whole house.
Still, it would be nice to have a house that is more than a roof over
our heads or just someplace to store our stuff.
I love to read and every
once in awhile I stumble across an article that inspires me. Today I found an article in the current
Arthritis Today magazine (May/June 2010) by Francine Kaplan that touched on the
idea of turning your home into your sanctuary.
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune and it doesn’t have to look like one
of those unlived in model homes.
Look around you. Are you surrounded by your favorite things (I
don’t mean that pile of junk in the corner)? Does the room reflect your
personality? Are the rooms comfortable and body friendly? Wouldn’t it be nice to turn your house into a
warm and friendly home?
The author started with the
living room. I could tell that she was talking about me, because my living room
(except for the pictures on the wall) falls short in many ways. Flaunt your interests, she says. Surround yourself with photos and trophies
and collections that create good memories and give you pleasure. The second suggestion hit home because my
rocking chair needs to join that couch on a heap somewhere. Now that you are older, you need a sofa and chair
that is scaled to fit your body. It
should be easy to get in to and out of, and it should cushion you in all the
right places. Figure ways to keep
clutter under control. Clutter
contributes to stress so you don’t want your room to look like a storeroom.
Figure out what activities
you enjoy doing in each space and arrange your room to support those activities
(without being a mess of course). Keep comfort in mind and arrange things so
that you don’t have to take unnecessary steps or twist and turn every time you
need something.
The kitchen should be set up
to make things easy for you. Keep your
disabilities, aches and pains in mind when you group things together in zones
according to use. One of the suggestions
I particularly liked was to camouflage gadgets and appliances by creating
appliance garages with retractable doors on your counters. Avail yourself of easy to use gadgets like
touch operated faucets.
Your bedroom should really
be your sanctuary; a hideaway from the world.
The bed should be comfortable
and the room should be quiet. The
lighting should be perfect, the mattress should be just right, and the bed
should be of a height that makes it easy for you to get in to and out of.
The bathroom is the smallest
and least exciting room in the house, unless you go the luxury spa route and
that probably isn’t going to happen.
Other than a few pretty towels have you done anything special to your
bathroom in the last decade or so? Think about safety and comfort. Perhaps a bath tub
lift chair, a walk-in tub, a shower bench, tub rails and grab bars. Oh, and did you know that there was such a
thing as an automated toilet seat (you just tap the raised seat or lid and it
automatically drops into place). You
could be the talk of the neighborhood with one of those.
Basically what the author is
trying to say is that your home should reflect your needs and preferences. It should be place where you are comfortable. You can take one room at a time and
individualize each one. If you like
purple walls or something equally individual, that is okay. Too many of us focus on what would look best
for resale purposes instead of on what we might enjoy right now.
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