Part 5 - Grandpa's House!

8) Grandpa's House

I bet when you first read that I was going to go through all of the places I've lived, you thought, oh, how cute and charming. What a lovely trip down memory lane. Little did you realize that I have lived in so many different places, and that this series would never end. Yeah, well, neither did I....

On to the last place I lived, where I just moved from...Grandpa's House! You see, while Tony and I were living it up scared to death of the gang next door in style, my wonderful and loving Grandpa Frank (whom I adore) had a series of bad falls (as one does in their eighties) and needed a lot of extra help. Since Grandpa wasn't too bad off, and just needed someone to help with the cooking, cleaning, etc., my parents came up with the great idea that Tony and I move in with Grandpa Frank, which happens to be down the street from them, and help take care of him in exchange for rent.

We took my parents up on the offer, for a number of reasons - we were broke and desperately trying to save up for our wedding; we wanted to get out of the city; and, of course, we loved Grandpa Frank. So we did and took care of Grandpa for about a year.

When we first moved in, I spent several months just clearing out junk and trash and clutter from 70's on. Here's what I learned about grandparents: they save everything. Rubber bands, paper clips, receipts...must be a leftover from the Depression. Let me put it this way: my grandmother had the property tax from her & her parent's house going back to 1920. Yeah. So I spent a great deal of time organizing, tossing, and archiving (of photographs, etc.). Don't worry, I kept the taxes.

Now, although everyone warned me that caring for the elderly would be difficult, I didn't quite prepare myself. And although I loved caring for G.F., it was very hard, especially as he physically had a lot of problems. So, sadly, we as a family had to move Grandpa Frank into an assisted living facility about a year ago. But in the end, it was the best decision for him: he gets around the clock care, gets to meet people and make friends, and hey, he's even got computer classes now! (Grandpa Frank, if you're reading this, Hi!).

Anyways, I loved that little ranch house, and wished we could have stayed, but alas, our jobs require us to move (still in Chicagoland, but closer to our commutes). Here's a few shots of Grandpa's house (post my organizing, of course!).

You've already seen the library....

Here's our bedroom - which is what our next new bedroom will most likely look like....

The big backyard with our red fox visitors....

I will miss that house! But, on the next project...