Setback

Since we were trading services with Lee for the grading, it seemed that it was not on the top of his priority list.  Or perhaps it was because he was waiting for more dirt.  But the grading just seemed to be taking a long time to complete.

One evening Kathy was driving a van load of scouts from our troop over to the Bonita Building for a Court of Honor.  This was back before the freeway.  She had to turn onto Valley Road from the two lane highway that was referred to as the "South Bay Freeway".  There wasn't a traffic light there.  As she made the left turn onto Valley Road, she was broadsided by a motorcyclist.  This unexpected event threw a wrench into the works.  Lee never discussed it with me, but it seemed he stopped working on our job, perhaps out of fear that we might lose the property.  We had $50,000 liability insurance on the van, which was not very much considering he hit her at nearly 60 miles per hour, with no helmet.  (After three months in a medically induced coma, the motorcyclist began a long recovery process.)

Soon we received papers regarding the dreaded lawsuit.  Kathy was called in for depositions.  We were not sure we would come out of this situation financially intact.  There was a good chance we would lose everything.  There was a lot of emotional turmoil as well.  As each month passed, we saw little if any progress on the grading.  We stressed over the outcome of the lawsuit.  Life just was not fun at the point. 

Nearly a year after the accident, as I was perusing the lawsuit papers, I noticed that it named "Does 1 through 20", but I did not see Kathy's name listed in the suit.  I talked to Tom's wife, Terry (our neighbors) about this.  She seemed to be a bit more knowledgeable then I was.  She explained that in a law suit they often put "Does" (like John Doe) into the lawsuit to include anyone that may be liable, but was overlooked when they first filed the paperwork.  But Terry said that Kathy could not be considered as one of the Does, since she was the primary defendant.

I called the attorney who was representing us from our auto insurance company and brought this to his attention.  He called the plaintiff's attorney and explained the situation, and offered him one last chance to accept the $50,000.00 settlement.  By this time a year had passed, and apparently there was some technicality why he could not file a personal injury lawsuit after that much time had passed.  So the defendant's attorney hurriedly tried to have his client declared "incompetent", so the time limit would not apply.  But for some reason that did not happen.  They accepted the settlement, and the issue was favorably resolved for us.

After one long year of stress and concern, things seemed to return to "normal".  Lee found a source for lots of free dirt, and was able to finish the grading to an elevation were downstairs sewer, with slope, ended up being about three feet above the connection point in the street. 

The "Propadirty'

My dad gave me some house plan magazines he had purchased, and I may have bought one or two myself.  We poured over the various house plans for many months.

My dad had built a split level home, and I had seen several others, and I liked the idea of building a split level home to live in.  They were more popular at the time.  My brother, Don, accompanied me to the lot, and we measured off the footprint to see how a split level home would lay out on the terrain.  We discovered that in the width of the house the slope dropped about 8 to 10 feet, and for some reason we came to the conclusion that a split level would not work.  So we decided we would need to have the lot graded to provide a pad to build on.

Eventually we found a plan we liked.  The magazines offered the opportunity to purchase blueprints from them for a very reasonable cost.  The plans even came with engineer stamps.  Unfortunately there was some hitch that we had to have a draftsman draw up the plans.  Perhaps the engineers were not registered in California, or something.

So as we discussed the plan with the draftsman, he asked what features we thought we would like in a home.  I mentioned columns in the front, and perhaps a big clock on the front, and the idea of a split level.  What came out of that, since we didn't have a deep enough lot for columns and a covered porch, we ended up with a pop-out on each side of the porch.  And below the center of the peek of the roof line, we have a big round vent (pseudo-clock), and we have a "split entry".

To get to the stage where we could build, we first had to get the grading done.  I engaged Lee Burch, who was a member of a merchant exchange group that I was a member of at the time.  I was able to do some work for him on an historic home he had moved onto his property and was restoring, in exchange for a portion of the costs involved in grading the lot.  Initially there was a concern that we might have to pump the sewer from the downstairs bathroom.  I mentioned this to Lee, and he said "don't worry about it.  I can bring in as much dirt as you need."

After going through a lot of hoops with the City of Lemon Grove, and lots of red tape, and paying big bucks, we got a grading permit so Lee could get started leveling the pad.  Through his contacts he lined up some free dirt, as well as some where we had to pay "half trucking", depending how badly the other excavator needed a place to dump, and how far away they were.

Of course the project was the center of many of our family activities.  We were always going over to "the property", or talking about "the property."  By this time Alan was a toddler, and when he would talk about "the property", he pronounced it "propadirty".  It was cute, and to this day we will often refer to a lot we are going to work on or look at as "the propadirty."

In pursuit of the dream

Still wanting to pursue the dream, we decided to plant fruit trees along the property line, so that they could become established while we were working toward the goal of someday building a home there.  (See the First Presidency Message for January:  The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago!)

So in between 1981 and 1982 we put in a water line so we could plant and water trees.  This entailed getting a permit from the City of Lemon Grove.  I also had to pay what I thought was a significant amount of money to Helix Water District for a water meter.  I think I paid about $300, if I remember correctly.

We would take the family over to work on the trees on Saturdays.  One Saturday in 1983 we drove over to work in the blue Dodge work van.  Alan was an infant, and Kathy had him in his car seat, secured in the front passenger seat with a seat belt.  The van was parked at the top of the hill, at the southwest corner of our property.  We were working on the other side of the lot, weeding, watering trees, maybe even planting.  I looked up to see the van begin to roll down the hill.  I frantically ran toward the van, not realizing that there was nothing I could do to stop it without perhaps getting run over.  But that is a mute point, because I couldn't run fast enough to reach the van before it rolled past me.  It crossed the road and took out a section of the neighbor's fence and their mailbox.  It continued across their driveway and rolled off their bank to their lower pad, where it took out one leg of their lattice-covered parking structure before rolling over the next bank and coming to a stop when it ran into a tree.  When I arrived, the van was stopped, and fortunately the passengers were unharmed.  Eric, then a toddler, was in the driver's seat.  Apparently he managed to release the parking brake, and had jiggled the gear shift lever enough to pull it out of "Park", which allowed gravity to do what it does best.

I spent some time the following week repairing a fence, a mailbox, a parking structure, and a damaged part of the power steering system.  All-in-all, the property damage was minimal, and bodily injury was insignificant.

As the years passed, I kept thinking how my dad built his "dream house" too late for the family to live in it.  When the house was complete, I was just finishing High School and heading off to college.  My three older brothers had also left home.  So their "at home" family now would consist of my two younger sisters.  It was at this time that he was called to serve as the Mission President of the Mexico West Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  When they returned, only my youngest sister lived with them at home for several years before heading off to college.

I was afraid that might become my reality as well, if we didn't start building soon.

Lemon Grove Property

Early on, even while we were living in a rented apartment in El Cajon in 1974, we had been married for two years and I was beginning to feel the desire of home ownership. 

By this time I was working at Wimsatt Carpet, becoming a tradesman, learning to install carpet.

I remembered that my parents owned some vacant land in Lemon Grove.  After they had moved to San Diego, the Tanners and they went together in the purchase of about four acres in Lemon Grove, a part of San Diego County, just outside San Diego City limits.  They each ended up with a two acre parcel.  The Tanners went ahead and began building a two story home, but moved in after the first story was complete, and never completed the second floor.  Years later, the County of San Diego acquired a strip out of the middle of their property through eminent domain, with the plan of extending College Avenue up to the intersection of 69th Street and Mt. Vernon.  This also took out the Tanner home, which was demolished, leaving only the concrete foundation.

After the section was taken for College Avenue, my parents were left with two irregularly shaped parcels, one on each side of the phantom road.

The community rose up in objection and eventually caused the demise of the road extension project.  Of course the acquired land remained in the name of the County of San Diego.

So in 1974, as a young married couple eager to get started in life, we made an offer to buy one of the lots from my parents.  Wishing to be fair to all their children, they contacted each of them to see if anyone else was interested in buying the land, before accepting our offer of $5,000.00 for the lot that was .59 acre, on the west side of the never-to-be-completed College Avenue extension.  We made payments of $50 per month until it was paid off.

During 1975 & 1976 Kathy and I completed our bachelor degrees at Brigham Young University, and graduated.  Then we went to Inglewood, CA where I earned my MBA and we had the remodeling experience at 515 N. Main Street.

In 1977 Lemon Grove became incorporated as a city.

Late in the summer of 1979 we purchased a 4 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home in Spring Valley.  I set up the front bedroom/den as a home office.  But I built some shelf units which we used as partitions to divide the room in half, to provide a "play room" for the children.

We rented a small store in El Cajon, where we established our "family owned" business.  My parents were anxious to see us succeed, and provided a lot of assistance.  My mom tended the "showroom" while I would be out doing estimates or installation.  Having lived in the area for so many years, they had lots of contacts, which provided some initial sales to get things rolling.  Eventually I hired someone to take mom's place, as her other interests demanded her time.

In addition to building the business, we still kept alive our interest in developing the property in Lemon Grove.  Initially we looked into building a "CAPP Home", which was package home that sold pre-cut pieces of lumber, materials, and supplies.  (Think of it as a huge Lincoln Log kit).  The main advantage would have been the financing they could have provided.  I don't remember why that never materialized.  Maybe I didn't qualify for their financing plan.

One day I saw an ad in the paper by a contractor lady who offered to build a home for what seemed a very reasonable price. We contacted her, and even got as far along as having the southwest corner of the property staked by a surveyor.  But as the negotiations proceeded, this fell through when we learned that FHA would not finance a home on a dirt road.  This all took place in the early 1980's.

Inglewood, California

While working on my MBA at Cal State LA, we lived in a triplex on Market Street in Inglewood, California.  Across the street from where we lived was a rental house at 515 N. Market Street, Inglewood, CA.  It was an old Victorian style house, and the yard was not kept up.  The tenants had dogs living in the house with them, and parked their cars on what once was a front lawn.  One day I noticed a "For Sale" sign in front of the house, and the tenants were gone.

My parents must have set a good example for me in regards to home ownership.  So my sights were set on buying a home some day.  The opportunity seemed to present itself to me at that time.  We looked into it, and eventually made an offer to buy the house for $25,000.00.  I don't know how we managed, but we scraped together $2,500.00 for the down payment.

While working for Wimsatt Carpets before going back to school, I had collected scraps of carpet that would have otherwise gone into the dumpster.  I brought the scraps of carpet up to Inglewood from San Diego and used them to carpet the living room.  Rather than use seam tape to put all those pieces together, I used an old carpet which I turned upside down, and with Multipurpose Adhesive, I glued the pieces to the back of the old carpet.  It was a patchwork of good quality carpet.  It served the purpose.  And it was cheap.  And it became a conversation piece.

Once we cleaned it up, we moved in.  The house was on a very deep lot, zoned R-3.  It was a two bedroom, one bathroom house with a kitchen and living room.  It had a shake shingle roof, which leaked, and there was a detached garage.

One of the early projects was to re-roof with Asphalt Composition Shingles.  I installed the new shingles directly over the old wood shingles, nailing them with a hammer and nails.  I didn't even know about roofing nail guns, if they even existed back then, nor would I have been able to afford one and a compressor.  So I did with what I had.  I'm sure I would not be proud of that job today, but at the time I was pretty proud of myself.  And it stopped the leaks.

The City of Inglewood had been through a period of blight, and was trying to rebuild itself.  So the City was offering low interest loans for home remodel projects.  We applied, and were granted a remodel loan.  So we set about to make some changes to the house.  We needed an additional bedroom because by then we had one boy and two girls, and Kathy was expecting our forth child.  So our plan included converting the back porch into an additional bedroom.  We put in a "laundry room" off the kitchen by making a 3' X 5' closet with the accordion doors. We also added a bathroom off the Master bedroom. My brother, Don came up and worked with me quite a bit, as we worked through this project together.  His major at BYU had exposed him to most aspects of home construction.  He had been involved in building several houses while in Provo, and later remodeled the house he purchased in Price, UT when he moved there to teach shop class in the local high school.  He taught me many aspects of construction while I worked with him.

When we had to open up some of the walls to begin the project, we discovered that the original walls were built the old fashion way, with actual slats of redwood lath which was covered with plaster (that's why it was called "lath and plaster.")  The studs were not planed smooth like they are today, so they actually measured 2" X 4".  Today, after being planed smooth, a 2X4 actually measures 1 1/2" X 3 1/2".

He taught me about working with concrete when we put in a concrete driveway.

He taught me plumbing, as we had to hook up the drain and water supply lines to the "laundry room" and the new bathroom.  And he taught me electrical wiring, as we had to install additional outlets, switches, and light fixtures.

He taught me framing as we put in a ceiling, walls and a door for the additional bedroom.  He taught me how to hang drywall, tape it, and texture after we insulated the new work.

Then we turned our attention to the kitchen, where we tore out the old counter top, and I installed new sheet vinyl flooring.  Kathy remembers well this aspect of the job, as it took way longer than any of us anticipated, and she had to wash the dishes in the bathtub and prepare meals with no counters.  She was a true pioneer.

We had a picture window in the living room.  It must have been cracked, because I remember the adventure we had replacing it.  It was about 4' X 6'.  I found a piece of glass from an old sliding door for sale for about $10, and purchased it.  A friend in our ward knew how to cut glass (he made stained glass windows for a hobby), so I talked him into cutting it for me.  He came over and we set up two saw horses in the living room to support the glass.  The front door was open.  The old glass may have already been out of the window.  He marked the glass, dipped his glass cutting wheel in oil, and with the use of a straight edge, he pulled it along the edge of the glass where it needed to be cut.  Then he attempted to snap the glass along the new score line.  But it was stubborn.  He tried again, but the glass resisted.  Then he began tapping along the score, to weaken the glass so it would break more easily.  All of a sudden the full sheet of glass exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces of glass.  It was so forceful we found pieces of glass way up the sidewalk in the front yard.  He then apologized to me that he had forgotten that tempered glass cannot be cut.  Fortunately no one was hurt.

Eventually I completed my MBA degree.  And eventually we complete the remodel project.  It was time to move on.  We decided to move back to San Diego and open up a carpet store.  So we began looking into selling the house.  We were talking to Realtors and looking at "comps" (comparable houses that had sold in the neighborhood), and were about to list the house for $74,000.00.  But then we found a new real estate agent who was energetic and did her research.  Since our lot was zoned R-3, that meant that apartments or condominiums could be built there, and the land was worth more than the house that was on the land.  So we listed it for $125,000.00.  It eventually sold for $115,000.00 and we carried back a second on the transaction of about $25,000.00.  Unfortunately, a year or so later the buyer became delinquent and the bank foreclosed.  We were not in a position to pick up the payments to the loan so we lost the second.  But we were fortunate that after all our loans were paid off, we had about $30,000.00 for a down payment on the house we purchased in Spring Valley (Rancho San Diego area) for $71,000.00.

We were thankful for the good fortune in selling the property for a price higher that we might have, but in hind sight, we probably would have made as much with out the expense, time, and effort of the remodel project.  But we enjoyed the experience and the feeling of accomplishment and creativity as we completed it.  The house was later torn down and a condominium project was built on the land.

Getting Educated

Since both Kathy and I had taken Child Development at Modesto Jr. College to get our Associate Degrees, I thought it would good career decision to open a Day Care center.  We looked around the various communities of San Diego County, and eventually and naively placed an offer to purchase a house in Lakeside, near an elementary school.  In my mind I worked through remodeling the house into a functioning Preschool.  But once we were in escrow, it became apparent that we were in no position to qualify for a loan even to purchase the house, let alone pay for the expenses to remodel. it  That experience ended poorly as we lost our $1000 earnest money and I ended up paying about a hundred dollars to an attorney in the ward to help get us off the hook.

Meanwhile I acquired a job at the LDS cannery / Bishop's Storehouse bundling newspapers which had been collected to be recycled.  I believe I was making $1.92 per hour.  Eventually I went back to work at Columbia Pest Control (where I had worked before my mission) where I was paid about $2.50 per hour to help tarp and sand bag houses for termite fumigation.  Howard Kent, a member of our ward while I was growing up as a teenager (he is about Melvin's age), was my supervisor.  It seemed that every day we had this conversation: "Dale, you need to find a job that will support a family.  You need to get a trade."  One day he suggested that I contact George Wimsatt, owner of Wimsatt Carpet in El Cajon, which handled the carpet installations for Sears.  Coincidentally, George Wimsatt had been my Scout Master during a part of my scouting years.  George Wimsatt told me to give my boss two weeks' notice, and then report to work.  I learned the trade of carpet installing.  I also learned to drive a forklift and work in his warehouse.  A part of the job involved taking out the old carpet.  And if it was a return-to-vendor, we would have to take out the carpet from the whole room in one piece, instead of cutting it in manageable strips like we would when we were gong to throw it away.  One day I strained my back as we removed a large living room of Axminster carpet.  I spent a month or so going in to physical therapy before work each day, or every other day.  That got me thinking about having a backup plan.  Kathy and I decided to go back to BYU and finish our Bachelor Degrees, in case I could no longer rely on using my muscle to earn a living.

At Brigham Young University I was able to work off all but the first month's rent by doing handyman work for the landlady.  I installed an asphalt (composition) shingle roof on one of her houses.  I re-tiled a shower, installed carpet and vinyl, etc.  I bought an old Ford van which I used to haul tools and things.

While in Provo I helped a local church member replace the carpet in one of the local chapels. This was back when the carpet was stretched over jute pad.  I acquired a carpet stretcher to be able to accomplish this project.

While finishing up my classes to get my Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, I was encouraged by a classmate to pursue an MBA degree.  He pointed out that many of the classes taken for the undergraduate business degree applied toward the MBA, so it could be accomplished in one more year.  So I applied and decided to go to Cal State LA.

That last summer in Provo, I worked for Allman Carpets, a carpet shop in American Fork, UT., before moving to Inglewood, CA where we lived in a "triplex" between our landlady and another LDS family.  It was about 10 miles from where Uncle Melvin lived.  Uncle Melvin decided to join me in the MBA adventure.  We would take the bus to Cal State LA a couple evenings each week for night classes.  The Allmans had a son who owned a carpet shop in Torrence, about half an hour drive south of Inglewood.  I managed to get work there.  I also did carpet repairs and replacements for one of my professors who had some apartments.  So we had some income while working on my MBA.  Kathy was also taking some graduate classes at Cal State LA.