Home Decor for the Spousal Caregiver

I was watching a show on TV on the Fine Living Network which features unusual homes custom-designed by people to support and complement their unique lifestyles. There was the condo that was mostly kitchen space for the gourmet cook; the home with the secret passageway behind the bookcase leading to the underground wine cellar; the circular, all-windowed, rotating house perched on a pedestal in the woods; etc.

It made me think they could do a segment on my "custom" (ha-ha) caregiver home—how I have turned my suburban split-level into a nursing, rehab center for my ill husband. So let's take the tour:

Let's enter by the front door, where we immediately have a transport chair to our left, and the stairway featuring chair lift. There is another smaller stairway going down to the family room, also outfitted stylishly with a matching chair lift.

The family room is a large area where my disabled husband spends his peaceful days, living every man's dream of sitting in his La-Z-Boy recliner and watching his flat screen TV. The other furniture is old, like most of the furniture in this house which belonged to my husband before I married him— historically old—like from the 1950s! Nothing I ever would have bought, but our lifestyle of spending all our savings on home health aides and my not working due to being a full-time caregiver does not allow for new furniture, unless it is something therapeutic such as the recliner with the automatic lifting mechanism and the chair lifts on the stairs.

Also in the family room is my work center with computer on the very old and splintery desk with drawers that barely open, and my plastic file cabinets and plastic shelves—Target's best! The room is further accented by an assortment of walkers, exercise equipment (it's also my home gym!), and a bookcase that is so old and rickety that it has to lean strategically against the wall to stay up.

Now for the dining room.  No longer used to entertain people or family for dinners, the large table is totally covered with my assortment of blenders for pureeing my husband's food; a suction machine which I have yet to be brave enough to use to extract phlegm from my husband's throat; folders of paid bills and records from the weekly payments to the aides.

The master bedroom is decoratively accented by a porta-potty next to the bed; a handicapped bathroom with grab bars, a raised toilet seat, and shower chairs.  The bedside table is accented with boxes of baby wipes, adult "underwear" and exam gloves.  The dresser is adorned with various ointments and creams for my husband's delicate skin.

There are three other bedrooms, which are mainly storerooms for more incontinence supplies, wheelchair, walkers, and piles upon piles of medical and insurance paperwork.

. . . So, the perfect home for the stylish caregiver!!!