Preparing to Move to a New Home
Today, we had our walk thru in our new home. The home we are moving to in 11 days. To say we are excited is an understatement. Our family has moved a lot. Five times to be exact. All for better services and a better life for Cooper. And we’ve finally found them. We are exactly where we are supposed to be.
Cooper has an amazing village and he is thriving. Sawyer is starting kindergarten in the fall. Jamie and I both love our jobs. We are happy. Live is good.
This will be our final home. I can say that with confidence. You will have to take my dead body out of this one. This home has everything we’ve dreamed and worked hard for.
We will be in a neighborhood full of kids for Sawyer. He is my social butterfly. Jamie gets his four stall garage (yes, you read that right), Cooper gets his own spaces, and I get my front porch and beautiful kitchen. It’s a win-win for everyone.
We also bought this home in preparation for Cooper’s future. We are very much preparing. This home has a basement that will eventually have a full kitchen, bedroom and living room. If, and yes I say if because I don’t have a crystal ball, Cooper lives with us forever, he will have his own space to be as independent as possible.
The first thing I said to the builder today, after introductions was, ‘We have a very smart autistic son who doesn’t understand safety or recognize danger. He will wander throughout this home and find every nook, cranny, nail, outlet, flame, exit, etc. Show us every place he can get hurt.’
We weren’t joking. Our job is to keep our son safe. That’s our purpose. And the current home we have is completely Cooper proof. He can wander throughout the whole house and we don’t have to worry.
Our new house is bigger, has three exits instead of our current two, no fence (YET), a second floor with windows (EEK), and lots of places to hide and switches to flip.
We are nervous to say the least. But, we are going to take every precaution possible to prepare and make this the best possible experience for Cooper and our family.
And thankfully, Cooper is officially excited about the move. We believe he understands too. At first he wasn’t. He got stressed when we spoke about it or even when we drove by the new home.
A few things that we do to prepare him are:
- We talk about the move daily. We always involve him in the conversation. We bring up moving as often as possible. This will not be a surprise for Coops. He likes to know exactly what is coming.
- We added ‘move’ and ‘new house’ buttons to his communication device so he can ask questions.
- We visit the house as often as we can. He has been to this house nearly five times. Each time we make it a huge, fun deal.
- We drive by daily. We point to the new house. We get excited about it. Initially when we drove by he would get very anxious. Not anymore!
- We pack our current home in front of Cooper and talk about his new room and new house.
- We created a social story with pictures of the new house.
- And when we get to the new house, his room will be the first one set up. It will have all of his things, bed, bedding, movies, etc. He will be at Grandma’s during the actual move so when he comes home he will be comfortable.
All of this worked! Cooper is ready! He even points at the house every time we drive by. He’s excited. Thank God!
So, how do we prepare for our biggest worries?
Well, we started today by making a list of the danger areas in the home. The stove, patio door, front and side doors that lead outside, a fireplace switch, basement, and second floor windows made the top of the list.
I want to have safety measures in place for the biggest dangers on day one. I don’t want to wait and then have something bad happen. And if we wait, we will be so nervous we won’t be able to enjoy our new home.
Here are the tested and approved safety tools that we use in ALL of our homes. Learn from us. I promise you these products work:
The KidCo Stove Knob Covers provide protection from little ones turning stove knobs: KidCo Stove Knob Covers, Charcoal
Our new stove!
Patio Door Security (The patio door is right in the kitchen and has easy access. I’m scared.): Ideal Security SK110 Patio Door Security Bar with Child-Proof Anti-Lift Lock (White) – Adjustable 25 to 48 inches – Lockable in open position
Flip Action Steel Door Lock (We’ve used these in all of our homes. They are the BEST lock! We put them on the outside doors and in the new house one will go on our basement door.) Prime-Line U 9888 Flip Action Steel Door Lock, White Finish
Child Safety Locks for Cupboards (Cooper is starting to get very curious about what is inside cupboards.): Child Safety Locks HURRISE Baby Proofing Magnetic Cabinet Door Lock Set Kids Toddler Proof Design for Kitchen Cupboard Drawer (2 Keys & 10 Locks)
Child Proof Light Switch Guard (This is specifically for our Fireplace switch and furnace switch in the basement): Child Proof Light Switch Guard – For Standard Toggle Style Light Switch
Our new fireplace (With Switch)!
Wish us luck! We will need it!
The boys in their new kitchen!
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I think all the work you put into making sure this is as easy as possible on Cooper is great! It’s easy to see how much you guys love and care for him even when things can be challenging. While reading your post I thought of one safety feature you guys could consider if necessary down the road. You can buy double cylinder deadbolt lock for any doors, but specifically for exterior doors, so that you can lock doors with a key from the inside. It would mean that anyone opening a door to go outside would need the key to be able to get out. You guys may have already considered it but wanted to throw it out there just in case ?.