House Modifications

Judy would not be able to get upstairs and there was no bathroom on the ground floor. There was no possibility of putting in an elevator and of course it was not my house. But Joan was very helpful and agreed to any changes that I wanted to make. I was sixty years old at the time and Claire was fifty-seven and the rehab people at the hospital told us that we were too old to take on this job. They recommended that we put Judy in an institution but we would not consider it. We decided to change the old dining room and kitchen into a bedroom and laundry for Judy so that she could stay on the first floor. We then built a new kitchen and dining room combined in the old stone annex that we had been using for storage and burning trash in the ancient fireplace. There was no cellar in the proposed new kitchen and the old rough wooden floor was a step higher than the rest of the house.
However, we went ahead with the job. I excavated about two feet of earth to make room for the new floor and heating ducts. This was a very hard and tiring job that I did mostly in the evening, but when it was finished, I was able to put in a new floor over and above the heating ducts, electric wiring and plumbing pipes that were needed for the new kitchen.