The Holiday Surprise

The Holiday season is in full swing with festive music, twinkling lights, hectic street traffic, but most importantly household traditions that are performed with love. Some people may bake their favorite batch of cookies, or hang important family decorations, while others may be cleaning or decluttering to prepare for a huge home renovation.

We have been following the progression, and sharing stories of our current clients heartwarming home remodeling project over the past few weeks blog posts. For our client, the holiday season has been consumed of floor plans, proposals, and talk of walls being torn down come the new year. He and his 82 year old mother are eagerly awaiting the chaos of construction; however, before any of that can begin the organization of existing furniture, pictures, clothing, etc. needs to take place. The cleaning and decluttering phase can be fun. It can be a time to see old things that may not have been seen in a while, rid your space of things that may not belong there anymore, or even discover things that you completely forgot about or never knew existed. All of the above has occurred with our client, but the last point of discovering something that he never knew existed will be the focus of this post. 

One afternoon while cleaning out the garage, our client stumbled upon a wrapped present that was addressed to his mother, with love from his father. He couldn’t tell how old the present was, but he assumed it was maybe two Christmases ago, since his father could not get out shopping last year before he passed. This will be the first Christmas they both will spend without him. As he looked at the present, a ton of memories from when we was a boy rushed back into his head. He shared with us that he just stood there silent; looking at it, holding it, like he was standing there holding onto his dad. The tenderness at this time of year is present in their household, but there is still so much joy to be seen. It only took one present that was discovered tucked behind a pile of old boxes to bring peace to their hearts. 

What if they weren’t in the process of remodeling there home? Well, we’re certain that they wouldn’t be organizing, decluttering, and cleaning out their garage at this time of year. Which means, that this little present would have sat behind those old boxes collecting dust just waiting to be found. However, their preparation for construction prompted the best holiday surprise ever. They found a message from a loved one just when they needed a little extra TLC! 

We love to be apart of these incredible memories, but we love even more that our clients want us to be apart of them. From the team here at Ellen Farber Strategic Design, we give you the warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful Holiday and a happy New Year!

Every Path Leads to Home Safety

Daily routines consume our lives. Whether you’re a stay at home mom, working dad, high school student, or retired grandparent, everyone has their own schedule. 

We were recently contacted by a client to review and update the interior space for his mother, who had been living in her home for 52 years. Her husband had passed away in the last year, and she was looking forward to remaining in her home and "aging in place". Our job was to create a safe, comfortable and beautiful home to help her remain happy and independent for as long as possible. The son was busy decluttering, going through photos, and clothing in preparation for our work together. As we toured through the home, they both shared some important stories regarding their home and their lives. 

Although we were hired to help with the interior space, we were asked to review some plans that were already in process regarding improvements to the exterior yard. As the story was told, the mother had recently fallen on the front step while running across the front lawn to reach the covered porch to the front door. The son explained that he had just cleared the yard, was installing new sod, and repaving the driveway and pavement and creating an additional pavement from the driveway to the front door to alleviate the issue which had recently occurred. Upon examination of the plan, and review of the space, we discovered that the primary problem with the path to the door was actually the one step up to the front door. To our surprise, one pathway took us in another direction that changed how we were helping our clients.  We brainstormed a few different options and decided to schedule another meeting with the landscaper and the pavement contractor to determine the best cost effective solution. 

At our next client meeting, we agreed that the best solution would be to retain the step, install a railing around the entire raised porch, and install two small handrails next to the step to assist in walking up the step. Although the preferred solution would have been to put in a gently sloping ramp at the front entry, we decided to install a small ramp in the garage in order to create an accessible entryway into the home, so safety mission accomplished. 

At the end of the meeting, we said our goodbyes, got in our car (which was parked on the street in front of her home), and to our dismay we witnessed an entirely separate issue that wasn’t even on our radar. Our client was slowly walking down her front lawn to her mailbox. No walkway, no railings, no safety what-so-ever! She was so sweet, smiling and waving not even realizing our dropped jaws from what we just witnessed. Her daily routine incorporated walking down that unpaved railing-less path to her mailbox and back to her house. Questions began streaming through our heads: 

• Does she walk to her mailbox everyday or does her son normally get the mail? If so, what is she using for support? Is it lit at night?
• What does she do if it's raining, or in ice and snow? Does she walk this same unsafe path with an umbrella in her hand? 
• And the biggest question of all, why hasn’t her mailbox been moved to some place that’s easily accessible (like next to her driveway or mounted to the wall directly outside of her front door)? We actually discovered this unlikely location was "grandfathered in". They went out of their way to keep it in the same place it had always been!

It seems like such an obvious problem right? Yet we didn’t even catch it until witnessing it ourselves right before we left. This brings us back to the notion that we discussed in last weeks' post about staying aware, proactive, and up-to-date on home safety recommendations, and the need for a full safety review to highlight these issues. Sometimes we can catch these things if we, stay long enough in your home, but sometimes a complete Home Safety Review is required to uncover areas we may not quickly observe.  

Since we pride ourselves on providing our clients and others, with cost effective and easy to implement ways to improve home safety and home independence; when we saw our client take this trek to her mailbox we knew our work here was just starting. We suggested moving her mailbox from the street to the front porch. Since collecting her mail is an essential part of her daily routine, it’s important that we ensure the process is convenient, easily accessible, and can be executed safely everyday. Moving her mailbox to the porch will lower the chances of her falling, eliminate any restrictions of gathering her mail in a variety of weather conditions, and ultimately allows her to continue with her daily routine in a safe manner.  

Where is your mailbox located? Whether it’s at your home, your parents home, or the homes of your neighbors in your town, I'm sure everyone could take the time to check it out. All pathways must be clear, accessible and safe (especially those to exterior locations like your mailbox). So, we hope this information encourages to take a closer look at your current routines and make any adjustments to improve your home safety.