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Working Women

Dreams Becoming Reality

2nd in a Continuous Series by Cindy Crissman

At the conclusion of my last article, I wrote about getting ready to move, hunting information on porch and deck lifts, and making the move into my father’s house. I have been working with the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) to get funding for assistive devices such as a lift to gain entrance into my father’s house. OVR “assists people with disabilities to pursue, obtain and maintain satisfactory employment.” I am presently working part-time, as an independent contractor, for the Client Assistance Program. My long range employment goal is to maintain my employment by increasing my weekly hours and eventually travel to agencies to do outreach presentations. In order to achieve my goal I need to be able to get in and out of my house. Prior to getting the actual lift, an architect is going to evaluate and draw specifications to help chose a lift that will best fit my needs. There will also be an evaluation of the inside of the house to offer suggestions for renovations. Then I can tell which walls I can remove and not have the roof fall in on my head. I will also know where the wiring is so no one gets the shock of their life. I was adamant about being in the house as close to September 1, as possible, so OVR is giving priority to the outside of the house, to get the lift in place.

OVR does have a bidding process. With consumer choice I can have the lift company I want included in the bids. The company I want to use is a local company, Accessible Home Automations, www.stairlifts4you.com. I prefer using local companies. I find local companies are more personable and easier to contact for questions or repairs. I needed a minor repair on the porch lift I now have. The lift was freezing up, which is not good considering that is my only way in and out of the house. Accessible Home Modifications came within a day, came back when the first repair didn’t work, and then called to make sure I was satisfied. Those are qualities I want in a company. I’ll let you know how everything works out with the evaluations and lift.

With the lift project under way, I now have to face a huge project of my own. How anyone can get in the mood to pack is beyond me. I’m moving from a fully furnished apartment into a fully furnished house. I have 22 years of accumulated household items, furniture, miscellaneous odds and ends, books, clothes, and just plain junk I need to sort through. I have been trying to divide my possessions into several groups, i.e., items to keep; items to give away; items for a yard sale; items I can’t decide on. You all know about items you can’t decide on. They’re things you don’t need, but don’t want to throw away because they might come in handy in the future? Maybe 10 years down the line? I’m slowly going through things. I’m using see through plastic storage boxes for possessions I’m keeping, such as Christmas decorations, photographs, out of season clothing. I’m using the plastic containers for protection against dampness, and to be able to see what is inside the box. I took a piece of notebook paper to make a list of the contents in the box. I put the list in a plastic page protector and taped the list to the lid of the box. I’m hoping to avoid “rooting around” through the boxes. I like to have everything in a neat order and can’t bear the thought of several brown boxes being opened with stuff thrown everywhere.

I won’t be able to immediately move everything into my dad’s house. His belongings are still in his house. My sister and I have not gone through any of my father’s belongings. Although we are not looking forward to sorting through everything he had, I know we’ll have many bittersweet and wonderful memories. I’d like to keep as much of dad’s belongings and furniture, as I can. Getting everything in the house the way I want is going to be a slow process. I decided to call some storage facilities.

I didn’t realize there were so many factors involved in choosing a storage facility. I never knew there were so many sizes of areas you could rent. Although I guess that makes sense. You wouldn’t want to rent a space big enough to store a boat, when all you had were three boxes of books. There are also heated and unheated rooms. Some facilities rent by the month(s), or by the year. If I want to put something in or take something out of storage, I learned that some have daily hours with someone present at the facility all day, while others were by appointment only. I finally decided on a storage facility half way between my apartment and dad’s house. What I plan to do is take items I’m going to need right away like clothes, towels, sheets, toiletries, etc., directly to the house with me. I also want to include a few other items like photographs, my baseball card collection, a few pieces of furniture and Christmas decorations. Other items I will put in storage and move them in gradually. With that plan in place, its now back to the upsetting task of getting all my possessions packed up and to their proper destination.

With the lift and moving into a new house in the near future, I feel like I’ve been given a new beginning on life. The thought of moving back home is quite comforting. I decided to let go of some of some of my stubbornness I’ve held onto for years, and search the web for products to help me in my everyday life. I am mainly interested in products to use inside the house. I found an excellent website, www.abledata.com. This website has over 1000 product entries in their database, which is divided into 19 specific categories. Products ranged from reachers, to bathroom aids, to a machine to help open those stubborn, hair pulling out, DVD packages. I found information on products I never knew existed. For more information on www.abledata.com, please look under “Message From the Outreach Coordinator” on our website, or visit the website itself, Be prepared to spend a great deal of time reading the information provided. I know I spent hours, and it was time well spent.

For some time in the future, my time is going to be spent on packing and organizing my belongs. Not to mention transporting boxes to the storage facilities and dad’s house, unpacking everything, putting everything away and you probably know the rest. Next time I’ll let you know how everything is progressing, starting with the lift, and how my sorting, packing, and getting things to their correct destination are coming along. In the future I can share some ideas I have for the interior of my new house. In the meantime, please wish me luck.