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All this talk of Step stools. I need to buy one. Still standing on a 100 year old chair to reach the high fixtures. Not good at 68.
We have one like this. Three big, non-slip steps, a platform to hold paint or tools, and a sturdy grab rail. I used it to put glow in the dark stars on my ceiling last night.
That's a very timely post, since just this morning we had our first frost, 27F when I got up. We get much less snow here, normal is 3-5 snow "events" /year, with 2-6". We do sometimes get hit though, in our 27 years I can remember 24", 12" 3-4 times, and 14" twice. The last two year that we got heavy snow, both my wife and I were ill and had many medical appointments, and at 67 then I was also getting too old to shovel the driveway. We were very surprised when we looked out and our driveway was completely cleared, and we were able to go to our appointments the next day. It turns out that over two years there were 4 times that two high school boys down the street had come up and cleared it for us, without saying a word. This year we'll just have to stay home, because they have both gone off to college.
This is what we do. When it snows here, we stay home. As you say, in W Washington, we don’t get that much snow.
Our elderly neighbor in Michigan was in a technological arms race with the snow as he aged. When we first arrived he was using a walk-behind snowblower on the driveway but still shoveled his walk and porch. As he experienced health problems he had his walk and porch reconstructed to be on one level with the driveway, and widened, and when we moved away he was riding a small, heated enclosed-cab lawn tractor with a snowblower attachment that could blow everything without exiting. He was the one who was doing us (family of thirty-something parents) a favor by often blowing our short driveway while he was at it.
I wouldn't have expected anything different from a retired engineering professor He also had a sort of crane rigged to lift a snowblower up to his roof for the once or twice a winter chore of clearing the roof during (even heavier) wet snow years.
I love playing in the snow but as I've become older and wiser I don't like living in the snow so much. I tell people that the Sierra Nevada region is perfect for people like me - regardless of the other positive and negative qualities of living here, it is easy to live below the snowline and yet travel for only a short distance to be above it for the day. Same for the Oregon and Washington and Northern California coastal areas and valleys. In the Rockies you still get a lot of snow in the valleys, until you are further south into Arizona, New Mexico, maybe southern Colorado.
Last edited by alaskaflyer; 11-22-2021 at 10:00 AM..
I don't mind helping, but all these neighbors in need of assistance prove to me that somewhere on the near horizon my wife and I will face similar challenges, and it will be best for us to act proactively to move to a lower upkeep dwelling BEFORE that day comes. Likely needing to move within 5 years as we are 62 & 65 currently.
I didn't read all the other posts besides your opening post, but I agree.
I recently convinced a 70+ friend (in Michigan) who had major back surgery this year to move into the detached condo he inherited. The association fees are quite low, includes yard maintenance, mowing, and snow removal including the driveway. His other house has a long driveway, significant setback of the detached garage, and huge backyard that requires a riding lawn mower, not to forget cleaning up the incredible amount of leaves from massive old trees. His surgery recouperation has been amazing, but why press your luck? And why spend your elderly years fighting to do the tasks of a younger stronger person? Isn't there also, far more interesting and less painful ways to spend your time? Because raking leaves as we age is not fun at all, it hurts.
As he hasn't sold the house with the large yard yet, he's still planning on getting on the roof to clean out the gutters this week. I'm just shaking my head....
Yes, most likely but my brother will help as much as he can but has some serious health issues as well. We are snowbirds and are not there during the winter. I just called them yesterday to ask if we can hire (or they hire for their independent mindset) a person to come and plow their very long driveway. They said nope, Dad wants to use his “new” John Deer mower attachment with a plow. Their house is full of stuff that I tried convincing them to go through. Mom will say once in awhile she cleaned out a drawer,
Quote:
Originally Posted by alaskaflyer
Our elderly neighbor in Michigan was in a technological arms race with the snow as he aged. When we first arrived he was using a walk-behind snowblower on the driveway but still shoveled his walk and porch. As he experienced health problems he had his walk and porch reconstructed to be on one level with the driveway, and widened, and when we moved away he was riding a small, heated enclosed-cab lawn tractor with a snowblower attachment that could blow everything without exiting. He was the one who was doing us (family of thirty-something parents) a favor by often blowing our short driveway while he was at it.
That's the other thing that some folks fail to grasp as a key to continued independence. Fighting change in any way it presents itself is not the same as fighting the changes that are most important to you.
I've met plenty of people that have extended their independence by doing just that, the "arms race" against threats from aging. The plow that might seem overkill, the riding mower, the leaf-vac that they tow behind the mower...all things that I've seen older neighbors or relatives do.
I have other neighbors that are mostly at their beach house, which is three stories. But they installed an elevator (relatively common at the beach in Coastal NC), so the knee replacements and other trials of age aren't that big of a deal.
4. Clearing snow from driveway approaches. Snow accumulated on the plow blade has no place to go but in the right-of-way, which includes driveway approaches. The City possesses neither the personnel nor equipment to clear thousands of driveway approaches within the City. Help your neighbors.
I clear full width of our driveway, from garage door, thru the parking lane adjacent to the curb, and the near side travel lane.
Then I clear the entire parking lane for the full width of our lot. The snow on the blade of the plow truck needs to go somewhere!
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Solly says — Be nice!
He also had a sort of crane rigged to lift a snowblower up to his roof for the once or twice a winter chore of clearing the roof during (even heavier) wet snow years.
