Now back to hug-e-bears continuing saga. Actually hug-e-bear didn't even exist as such at this point since he wouldn't come to pass for a number of years. During this period I was probably more aptly known as "grumpy bear". During the seventies CB radios were the big thing and of course we had to have one. With the CB comes the need for a "handle" or name to use when communicating. For those of you who were born in a more modern time this was actually a verbal form of text messaging. Since there was no such thing as cell phones people used CB radios to communicate with their friends. That is they communicated when the signal was strong enough to do so and their friends actually had the CB on. If you were very lucky and listened very hard you might even be able to communicate cross country by "skipping your signal off of the clouds". Susan even talked with her Dad in Michigan on a couple of occassions.In any case it was sort of an adaptation of the radios that emergency responders and police used. So of course it was necessary to also utililize the code letters such as 10-4 good buddy and nobody used their real name. I really wanted to be "Teddy Bear" but Red Sovine had done a song about someone who used that handle and so I didn't want to step on anyones toes. While trying to come up with something that would sound good on the radio, the best I could do was Grumpy Bear and so for a number of years that was what I used. I didn't really see myself as grumpy but it was something that I could identify with to a degree.
Enough of the bear talk for now and back to reliving the good times in the late seventies. When I last posted we had given up on the idea of a new home on acreage since the bank wasn't real interested in lending me money on a piece of ground. Now if I owned the ground then they would be more than happy to loan me money to build the house. Susan's brother kept on bugging us though about how nice it was to live in the country and he even offered to let me carpool with him if we moved out there. Perhaps it was really just a plot to find someone he could share the drive with since it was about 45 minutes from work, mostly all on the freeway.
Then to my surprise came the following events.
-My parents came to visit us and to pick up another new car at the Chrysler factory in downtown Detroit
-Leo overheard my Dad talking about some land that he and some business partners had invested in, out in Utah
-So naturally Leo mentioned to my Dad about some land that he ought to invest in there in Michigan.
-Anyone who has ever met Leo knows that his blood is the blood of a natural salesman and next thing you know my Dad is agreeing to go take a look at the land.
- After looking at it and hearing that we had been considering building a house there; he said that he might be interested in making the investment.
When Susan and I first decided to get married and headed up to Heber City to tell my folks it was not what you would call a pleasant conversation. My Dad proceeded to tell me that there was no way I was old enough or smart enough to get married. He also made it very clear that he was not about to finance such an idea. Being a banker by trade he was very much into the risk of a venture and he saw our propositon of marriage as being outside the range of reasonable risk. Since we had very little money at the time, perhaps he was right, but since we loved each other we decided to go ahead with it anyway. Well to end the conversation he again told us that he was against the whole thing and that we should not ever expect to come to him for any financial help.
This had the effect of causing me to be determined to show him that he was wrong. I made up my mind that the last thing I would do is go to him and ask for money. Perhaps that was as rash of me as his statements seemed to be. Since I had little more than pocket money and needed to come up with a ring to make this whole proposal a reality we went to see the Jeweler. He agreed to sell us a ring for very little down and a few dollars a month until it was paid for. His assessment of our situation seemed to be much more upbeat than that of my Dad. We were happy and proceeded to plan for the wedding. The interesting thing about the whole affair came as a surprise after we were married. Shortly after we arrived in Michigan to settle down; an envelope came in the mail and in the envelope was a receipt marked paid in full for the engagement ring and wedding band. Somehow my Dad had found out where we bought the ring and paid the jeweler the balance owed. He indicated that he didn't want us to start out our marriage by being in hock for the ring.
Now after the background story it is time to get back to what was going on at the time.
- My Dad proceeds to buy the property and then agree to quit claim the deed to me so that we could use it as collateral on the home loan. He did this however after explaining to me that even though the deed was in my name, the property was family property and he was simply allowing us to use it to build the house on and hopefully increase the value by doing so.
- I had drawn up a scale plan of the home we envisioned building and a friend suggested an architect he knew who would draw us up some working blueprints to build from for a reasonable fee.
-getting bids from two or three builders to determine what the building costs might be.
- finding a builder who would allow us to do enough sweat equity to make the whole deal work
- With the deed, bids and blueprints in hand, having the bank agree to loan us the money we needed to build the house
-listing the house we were living in for sale and actually finding a reliable buyer this time who would allow us some time before needing to move out
- having Leo and Brenda offer to allow us to move in with them while the house was being built. This allowed us to be close enough to actually do the work we had agreed to do and gave us the extra months that the building process required.
- driving out to the property and seeing that some dirt had actually been moved around and the whole process of building a new house was finally under way.
We had agreed to do the following to keep the costs down:
All of the electrical work from rough wiring to installing the plugs and light fixtures.
All of the supply line plumbing including the sinks and faucets
All of the tile work in the bathrooms and entry foyer
All of the painting, both inside and out including the staining and varnishing of the interior window sills, railings and ceiling in the family room as well as the wallpaper hanging
The rock work up the two story face of the fireplace
Arranging for the purchase and installation of all the carpeting
Purchase and installation of the wood stove furnace in the basement
Any finish work to be done in the basement along with the shelves in the food storage room
So we were very busy from about August 1988 to March 1989 when we finally moved in and still had a few things to finish up even then. After working all day I spent most every spare minute working on the house and it was tiring but there was a very good feeling to be able to look back on having done it. It was indeed one of the good times and created the opportunity for numerous good times to follow. Who needed a trailer when we lived in the woods? It was great to come home from work and feel like you were camping while sleeping in your own bed. When it really snowed during the winter you could honestly say that you had to take the day off because you were snowed in. Most of the time however we kept the road open by using a blade on the back of an old Ford 9N tractor we bought. Even out pushing snow when it was biting cold provided its share of good times. Put on the old snowmobile suit, heavy mittens and hat and head off down the road. Little did we realize in the beginning what changes (mostly positive) lay ahead for us. While there though we met some of the nicest people we have ever met and had some of the best times that life has to offer.
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