I hear you. It is reasonable to feel blue. After a certain age, I have found that I am not replacing friends. I am lucky to not have lost a friend through death, but one just moved and one long time friend I just don't get to see as often as I used to. Invite her to come back and visit you in a few months. This way you will both have something to look forward to. I have a sister that I am close to. She lives twelve hours drive away, so we don't see each other very often. But we text, talk, send emails etc. It does keep you connected. But, we do try to see each other at least once a year.

We gave our Roomba away - the cons outweighed the pros. The dust bin is very small and if you have a hairy dog it fills up very quickly. It sucked up the fringe on my rugs and after untangling the vacuum from the fringe the fringe was shredded and several threads had broken off. It worked better on short fringe. It did a decent job of picking up surface dirt from carpets but it isn't a substitute for regular deep vacuuming. It was fine on ceramic tile. The suction isn't very strong and it was unable to pick up dirt when one wheel was slightly elevated on an area rug and the other wheel on the tile. It was very noisy. I used to put it in a bedroom and shut the door and let it run - it was low enough to go underneath the bed and get the dust bunnies.

thanks everyone. I apologize for not leaving other details beforehand. my friends family has full access of the home. and has been maintaining the proper in the meantime as they have worked thru probate for other assets. the home was in trust, and thus will be sold that way and then distributed based on their uncles wishes in his LT. unfortunately, his health has been bad for over a decade and though everyone tried, the inside of his home is filled unfathomable amount of things, boxes, etc. The family is in the process of hiring a company that will take possession of any belongings they want to purchase otherwise the rest will go to a non-profit for veterans getting back on their feet. my friends father is a pastor and he and his wife are the simplest and most humble people I know. But like some of us, clearly if and when someone passes, its 2 full time jobs trying to figure things out and put all the pieces together. the home has power and full use. so all these suggestions are easily possible. as for me trying to do too much, I'm just circling the world of ideas from a great consulting community like all of you from HOUZZ, because there are some things that will be done to the inside and I just want to make sure that if needed, no ideas arent thrown on the table for the outside. I clearly will not do anything that isnt driven by the family or in the best interest of the home, family, etc. and I also understand that you can look at it in tiers of cost like was mentioned above with 3 different categories. my friend is going to sit with her folks tomorrow or Friday so I was just measily trying to other some thought when I know that they don't have the time to think thru all this. so I appreciate everyone's comments. I really do and all will shared.

Yes, very sweet. Bo looks to have a lot of Sheltie in him. I've been owned by three Shelties and they all three thought they were nurses. Great dogs.