Tru here.  … Now my kitchen floor is a constant reminder of FAMILY’s strong love ❤

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My dementia symptoms began dramatically in Feb1999. 
i lost my job in the year 2000, then youngest child graduated, … and we moved, purchasing land on the California Redwood coastline. 
We started designing our house in 2002, and began building the structure in 2004. 
We did not know what was causing my continuing dementia symptoms, but since i had two grandmothers with dementia, we knew there was a good chance dementia symptoms would remain as part of our environment. 
We designed the house ADA, to accommodate symptoms and include flexibility for strategies as much as possible. 

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Along with plumbing and electricity, Husband is qualified to work with PEX tubing, so with a couple young men for helpers, we prepared the site for underfloor radiant heating.  Two tasks we really wanted “professionals” for and that was concrete pour and working with drywall, so we hired contractors for those two parts of construction project. 
Concrete was poured June 2004 — and the concrete cracked. 
The floor didn’t just crack a little bit – it cracked dramatically.

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… so NINE years later …

On 11Jan2013 my family gathered to help us work on the kitchen floor.

Mom and i stained the base colors on concrete. 
Daughter Charlene came up with the idea of the footsteps to camouflage cracks in the concrete,
and son Brad drew and painted the “Strong Love” image that is between the two major doors of the kitchen.

Mom dipped her feet in the brassy-gold concrete stain, and her footprints run alongside the crack that is at the far end of the kitchen – from North to South.  Then husband and i put our footsteps, side-by-side, on either side of the long crack running the length of the kitchen (West to East) leading to the winged heart at the top end of kitchen.  ***  Brad and Christine were born first, so Brad added footsteps going from center to edge on one side, then Christine added footsteps going from center to edge on the other side, AND her two children (our grandchildren) put their footsteps one on each side of Christine’s.  (Youngest was very young infant, so that was a challenge, LOL !).  Elycia added hers, and Charlene added hers.  (Then we added paw prints from the dog on each side of the wings.

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Nothing says “home” like designing and building our own house, —  with built-in reminders. 
Now my kitchen floor is a constant reminder of FAMILY’s strong love ❤

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.* Admin issues: SHARE dementia awareness thru buttons below. Subscribe “FOLLOW” button is at the very bottom of the page, with “Category” Links, “Recent Posts” and “Archive”.  If you put your eMail address there you should get an eMail each time i write a blog entry.  Feel free to leave your thoughts in the form of comments, but please filter your comments with truthful loving kindness to all concerned. … *** …  If there is an advertisement below, I have no control over what is shown. My own full legal name is Truthful Loving Kindness. My current diagnosis is still Mild Cognitive Impairment, but my neurologist said I am in a unique position for helping because I have “one foot in each door”.  Text Copyright © Truthful L. Kindness on 09Jun2021.  include in 2013 section for my memoirs “Bits n Pieces”.  Photos were taken 11Jan2013 at our house.   Tags, alzheimers, art, concrete, dementia, design, family, floor, memories, person with dementia, PLwD, strategy, symptoms, .

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