3 1/2 Months

Grandma Savage (Phyllis) used to say, "Growing old is not for sissies!" I now say, "Being your own general contractor is not for sissies!" It was one harrowing summer for Bruce and me. We've been in our new home for three and a half months and it feels SO GOOD to be in. In our 16 years of marriage we have moved six times and all but this one have been cross country moves. Unfortunately, the only move that was completely paid for and included packers and movers was one that occurred before we ever had children and probably a lot less stuff. All the rest we've done our own boxing etc. About two weeks before this move a burning red rash began flaring up on both my arms between the wrists and elbows, I'd never had anything like it before. I finally figured out it was a stress rash. A few days after we moved it went away completely. I have also never in my life had insomnia so bad due to stress. I would go to bed at 2:00 a.m. and wake up at 5:00 a.m. exhausted, body aching, but could not, no matter how hard I tried go back to sleep.

We were trying to put a lot into July, the house had to take shape and come together. Bruce was finally done teaching summer classes and I was mostly finished shuffling kids to summer tumbling, dance, and scouts. We could (and had to) focus on the house full time. We pulled out of all our other obligations: Bruce's conference in Seattle, the Wimmer reunion in South Jordan, our trip to Mandy and Trent's wedding, our traditional Independence Day parade in Cache Valley, the library's summer reading carnival, even my class reunion. We gave notice to the owners of our rental unit that we would be out by August 1st. Bruce was scheduled to attend scout camp with Trent August 4-9 in Island Park. The new school year with a change of schools for the kids would be shortly after that. We simply HAD to be moved out!


The way things had been going and with the stress Bruce and I were both feeling, I feared the worst. It was difficult to try and build a house with the ages our children were: 11, 8, 5, 2. With Benjamin being only two he needed constant supervision and with Trent only 11 it was a little scary leaving the kids in his care for very long. He had begun watching them for short times but if we left them for very long what usually happened was we would come home to a house that was trashed and ended up being more work than if I had just stayed home and taken care of the kids myself. If we brought them out to the house with us they would get filthy dirty and be a lot of extra work to clean up once we got back to the rental. There was not much for them to do than play in the dirt. Bruce finally took the tractor and dug a big hole and filled it with water for a "swimming hole" to entertain while we got things done on the house. That worked for a while, you know, until someone got a sliver in their foot and everyone was dirty and muddy from head to toe. Either way was just difficult trying to get a lot done with four young children.

By that time of the summer the dirt was like baby powder. It was so dry there was a puff of dust with every foot step. In fact, I woke up one night in a panic realizing that with the problems our concrete guys were having with their previous job, we were going to have carpet before our concrete (stairs, sidewalk, and driveway) was poured. That concerned me because most sub-contractors refuse to remove their shoes and just walk all over your new carpet getting their work done - and there was plenty of work that still needed to be done! We were able to push our carpet back by three days which was a huge relief. That gave the painter and finisher time to get more work done. Those two were our worst and most frustrating subs. We could not for the life of us get them here to finish their work. They were too busy. They did not care about our deadlines, we were not going to be repeat business for them They didn't answer the phone when Bruce would call, and they were never her when they said they would be. We had (unfortunately) paid them 75% of what we owed them so they seemed to care very little about coming back to finish the job. This was extremely frustrating to Bruce and me. They were holding up everything! They could have come in weeks earlier but hadn't and now they had other jobs they were working on. We wanted to fire them (and they deserved it!) but we could not find any replacements, and believe me we tried! It was pre-parade-of-homes season and it seemed everyone we talked to who could do the job had other work.

Our ordeal with our painter was a nightmare I don't even want to relive here. To make a long story short after he painted the doors, he stacked them up before they were dry and they stuck together. So when we went to pull them apart they pulled wood and paint from each other and were a big mess. I was so disappointed I wanted to cry. I wish now that I had demanded all the doors be sanded down and RE-SPRAYED and stood my ground. That would have been a lot better than the patch work of puttying and brush painting they tried to do. Hindsight is 20/20 isn't it? Does anyone out there know how to pull a bond? Who were our favorite subs you ask? Our windows guys, of course, they are the BEST in the business! O000r should I say the best who were recruited to the business. Thanks Bert, James, Josh, Roy, Blake, and Grandpa!!! We also dealt with the BEST BANKER in the business. :)

Anyway, we'd been working our tails off on the house when we took a short break to attend Mandy and Trent's open house in Cache Valley on Saturday, July 26th. While there Heather OFFERED to take the kids until the following Tuesday when she could send them back up with Grandma and Grandpa who were bringing their truck to let us use for the move. This was AN ENORMOUS BLESSING! We brought Trent back with us to help. Heather ended up having the three younger ones until Thursday because again our favorite subs (can you hear the seething sarcasm?) hadn't finished their work. That week I barely had time to take care of myself with all that we had going on let alone look after kids. I was supposed to be packing up the rental but spent most of my time babysitting sub-contractors at the new house.

The days before the move Bruce and I had insomnia so bad I finally told him I wasn't going to bother undressing and trying to go to bed for the night, I was just going to plan to pack all night and when I got too tired I'd curl up on the couch for a nap. He would be out at the house all day then go into his office to make sure his computer runs were still going and end up being there for several hours.

Not knowing anyone in SE Idaho the only manpower we had moving in in '06 were Bruce, Blake, Cody, and seventy something year old Grandpa. It was a loooong and exhausting day. I was getting nervous about how we were going to move again. The Elders Quorum at church move people all the time and I'm sure they get tired of it, and who can blame them? Besides that I hate asking for help. I know, I'm too prideful for my own good. I finally started calling moving companies and learned that you can get two men and a truck for $89 per hour and I was willing to pay it (Bruce....maybe not) but apparently the end of the month is a popular time to move especially in the summer as none of the three companies had anyone left available for hire. So finally out of complete desperation I fired off a friendly email to some of the women from church whom I had gone to book club with announcing our "moving party" Thursday and asking them to send their husband's muscles over to help move the big stuff at 6 p.m. that night. Bruce also had asked two of his colleagues to help us beginning at 3 p.m. that day. Luckily one of them recruited 4-5 of his students to come help too. Bruce said these guys worked fast!

On the day of our move, after the second truck and trailer load had been taken to the new house I stretched out on the bedroom floor of our rental that had only moments ago been covered with furniture and looked up to the ceiling and said out loud, "This is a miracle! We aren't even going to need the church people." If you had seen the garage of our new house that night you would have said we had a MESS not a MIRACLE. But I know a miracle when I experience it firsthand. It was a bloomin' miracle! (I would have taken a picture but I had even packed the camera)! Other blessings that led up to our miracle include:
* Roy and Grandpa helping immensely with the electrical, supplying advise and a variety of odds and ends which are too many to list.
* A woman from church whom I'd never even met called me out of the blue and asked if we needed any boxes. I told her we could surely use some. Her husband delivered two loads of big nice boxes with handles.
* My mom and sister split a week watching the kids so I could work out at the house. Denette had recently moved herself and brought up packing materials and packed my wall hangings - the glass of the photo frames and pictures - my least favorite to pack.
* Due to the fact that we were moving in when the finisher had barely moved all his equipment out of the garage it was covered with sawdust and lots of other mess (even though I'd cleaned it numerous times before). I had wanted so much to get in there to clean it all out before we moved everything in but there hadn't been time. Bruce was somehow able to get everything out of the garage and hose it down which gave me big time peace of mind.
* Grandma watching the kids during the move. They wore her out completely, and that' s not easy to do, she'd still Miss Energy you know. She was trying to keep them out of all the dirt, no small task!
* I had stocked up on lots of water and Power Aid but since we were moving around dinner time, Grandpa bought all our help chicken and chips, which was really nice.
* Another big blessing that contributed significantly to our miracle was my cousin, Monica. She drove over from I.F. and just began tearing through our rental like a tornado...the good kind! She taught me the art of HUCK AND CHUCK!
* Finally, Lisa took Trent and Teagan home with her for a couple days to give us a chance to start organizing everything, but it was slow going. Bruce and I were so exhausted from it all and just needed to decompress.

So HURRAY we are in now and loving it! Thanks for being part of our miracle...