One extreme to the other

What a difference a week makes. This time last week I was baking Christmas cookies wearing capris with the window open. Today, our high was 44 and we are experiencing overnight lows in the mid 2o's. We've had a nasty wind all day today as well, making the day feel much colder than what the thermometer stated. At least this winter we have a reliable source of heat and the house is almost completely insulated.

Since we moved here we've experienced a variety of circumstances related to our living conditions. The house we were supposed to live in when we moved was uninhabitable so we had to scramble for housing. Luckily we were able to find something we could afford to purchase with the profit from the sale of our house in Connecticut. What we found was 15 acres with a single wide trailer on it. The trailer was ancient, circa 1969, but it had "city water", a septic tank, power, and was hooked to the natural gas line. Although the trailer only had 2 bedrooms and was in reality too small for us, we moved in and dreamed of bigger things.

We had to duct tape holes in windows and hang blankets over the front and back doors because of the air gaps. The furnace quit the second winter we lived in the trailer. Thankfully there was a gas wall heater and we supplemented that with the gas burners on the stove. We were never really warm during the winters in the trailer, but it was tolerable. Summers were another matter entirely. We discovered our first summer that the previous owner of the trailer had used a product, JB Weld we think, to permanently close the louvered windows. This made the daytime temperatures in the trailer at least a balmy 105. Temperature inside the trailer were 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. You could literally stand at the front door and feel the heat pouring out of the trailer. There was no central air, only a place for a window unit in the kitchen. On our meager income there was no way we could afford to run an air conditioner, so we spent as much time as possible outside in the shade. We ate lots of sandwiches, salads and did lots of grilling on our gas grill. Anything to stay out of the sweatbox that was the trailer.

In September of 2003 we thought our circumstances had stabilized enough for us to be able to afford an upgrade in our living arrangements. We owned our land free and clear, but did not have any cash reserves, nor did we have a large income. Under these circumstances we did have very many options. We looked at double wide mobile homes, but decided against that option. There is a company that operates in this region of the country that builds houses on your land and your land is your downpayment. This is the option we chose. In order for us to get the most house (square foot) for our money, we chose to have the house built only as far as the "shell" stage. This means that the house is complete on the outside, but the interior is completely unfinished. Bare studs, no walls, open rafters and just a layer of plywood for your floors.

And so our work began. Randy did all of the wiring, with Jeremy's help. Anything that Jacqueline and I could do we also did. The employment situation in this area is abysmal and layoffs abound. We had many months that Randy was laid off. This made things hard as far as just making our monthly bills, never mind purchasing supplies for the house. In April of 2005, we made the decision to move out of the trailer into the house. We couldn't face the thought of another summer in the heat, in the trailer. We had no walls still, and our first night in the house was like sleeping in Grand Central Station. I began bringing cardboard boxes home the next day to staple up as walls to help muffle the sounds. That first summer in the house was cooler than it had been in the trailer, but since there was still no insulation in the house, it was warmer than it should have been. Some friends who knew our situation purchased some sheet rock and some insulation and came one weekend and put the insulation and sheet rock up in Jacqueline's room. Being a girl, they felt she should at least have some privacy. There was enough sheet rock and insulation left to cover 1/2 of our living room ceiling.

All went well until about October of 2005. Temperatures started getting cooler. We still had no walls, no insulation in the majority of the house as well as no heat source. We wore layers of clothing, including hats and mittens in the house. We slept with hats on at night. Thank God for electric blankets. I have a customer that comes into work each day who knew that we had no heat source. He had a used wood burning stove that he no longer needed and he offered it to me. We gratefully accepted. One of the fathers of a band mate of Jacqueline's used to work in construction and he came out on Thanksgiving Day to help Randy install the stove pipe and the wood stove. He then brought us 5 pickup loads of scrap wood from the local furniture factory. Now we had a heat source and fuel for that source.

Gradually we have been able to add insulation and sheet rock in some areas of the house. While we have more rooms that do not have sheet rock than those that do, we add sheet rock as money allows us to purchase it. In addition to putting up sheet rock in rooms, our next focus has to be on the plumbing for the house. Currently there is no water to the house, and it is not yet hooked up to the septic system. The trailer is still sitting in it's original location, which happens to be about 12 feet in front of where we had the house built. Good thing it's not further away, since we have to go into the trailer for all of our water needs. We have to go into the trailer to bathe, wash dishes, wash clothes and of course to answer natures call. I for one will be glad when I no longer have to go outside and into another building to use the bathroom when I wake up in the middle of the night. This is lots of fun when it's 15 degrees outside or it's raining. Washing dishes will also be a lot less of a chore when I can wash them in the kitchen sink of the house instead of having to box them up and take them into the trailer to be washed.

After more than two years of living in a construction zone, I'll be so happy when we finish. I can only hope that day will be soon.