2004 717 Stauffer Kingview

2004  717 Stauffer Kingview. Building a House. Gloria’s design, many neighbors helped, sub-contractors, Bob Taxacher, Bill Byler, Greg Schultheis, Robert Cressman, Joseph Yoder, Ken Cramer, Jr., Dan Froble family, an August funk, Sarah Elizabeth (Sadie) June 2 birth, Mattie, Paul and Carol, Roy and Ruby, David and Brenda, Rhoda and Jon Mast, Miriam and Veryl Kratzer, Sarah and Kevin Kehrberg, Ruth and John D. Roth.

During the year 2004 we built a house. This project began earlier in our marriage when Gloria got log home fever and I had land fever. As in many of our ventures, we made common cause, so that in June of 2002 we signed an agreement to buy 14 mainly wooded acres in Upper Tyrone Township behind the old Kingview school, and that fall I was taking soil samples to see if the land was amenable for a sewage system. By the following year 2003, we were owners of the land, and Gloria was perusing log house plans she had been collecting for several decades. In the preceding winter we visited log homes wherever we went in our Pennsylvania and Ohio.

We discovered that log homes were all sizes and designs from small traditional log cabins to expansive luxury houses. We got log home magazines, and visited a large log home show at the Convention Center in Pittsburgh where we discovered a company called Kuhns Brothers Log Homes. I’m not sure how we selected Kuhns Brothers, but on one of our regular treks to Philadelphia to visit Hannah and Anson, we took an extra day and visited Lewisburg where their headquarters, sawmill, and showrooms were located. Most of all they had a salesperson and young architect we liked: Joshua Eck.

Already in the seventies, I had a file called “Building a House,” and Gloria had been collecting house and floor plans for at least 25 years, and she took along a log-home plan called Glendale. Eck seemed to understand her and soon faxed us his own adaptation, and we went back and forth on it, eventually settling on one where the design, size and price were about right for us. The south side was almost entirely glass which provides a seamless view with the surrounding flora, fauna and woods. A pin oak tree outside the great room provides shade in the summer while allowing the sun’s rays to provide warmth in the winter when the leaves are off. I considered our house design a log home adaptation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture concept. By December of 2003, we signed an agreement with Kuhns Brothers to have our log house materials delivered by March 23.  

I felt I had some experience in construction from my youthful days with Jacob S. Miller and Clarence Summers (1957, 1963), and we decided to serve as our own general contractors. I say we because Gloria and I divided the workload so that she took primary responsibility for the kitchen, baths, lighting, painting, and flooring, and I handled the site preparation, exterior, and rough construction. I think the main thing which drove our doing it ourselves was that we could make own decisions as we went along on things such as choosing personnel, design, colors, and quality of materials. We chose almost entirely local people, and with few exceptions there were no signed contracts but simply word of mouth agreements on prices and expectations. Without exception our sub-contractors were helpful in giving counsel to making the project successful, and especially to me as a builder who was four decades out of date. Many worked by the hour, and in one case we were requested to be paid in cash by hard currency, although I suspect this may have had as much to do with taxes as informality.    

Our neighbor Bob Taxacher started us off with site preparation, excavation, sand mound sewage system, utilities hook-up, and basement cement floors with 10-inch poured walls. In other words, he did about everything in getting the basement ready to the first floor and the wood log house. Simultaneously, Greg Schultheis’ Uber Company heating and air put floor heating tubes in our basement and bath floors. What a warm, comfortable and dry winter basement office this installation turned out to be. Both of these contractors were within five minutes of our house. Joseph Yoder (sometimes assisted by Jason) did all the electrical work, and the plumbing and all things water were done by Robert Cressman. Both were family friends, and for all these local workers, I opened a House account at Brilharts Hardware where they bought what they needed, and I monthly stopped in to make payment. As the year progressed Ken Cramer Jr. also did a lot of work on the house from building closets, putting in a shower stall base, and eventually he put in a bath and two guestrooms in the basement as well.

We needed to find a primary carpentry builder, and we settled on William (Bill) Byler from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who came recommended by our friend Kim Miller. Bill and I went to Lewisburg to attend a two-day seminar on building Kuhns Brothers’ log homes. The seminar was a fascinating mix of first time twenty-something do-it-yourselfers and seasoned builders such as Bill who understood about everything. As it turned out on the very weekend we were in Lewisburg, our house was being cut out at the factory (our names on the pallets).  

By mid-March two semi-truck loads of our house were coming from Lewisburg, one at eight in the morning and another at ten. Knowing the date, a Tuesday, I told Bill Byler to have his crew ready to go. But it was a rainy day, and when I arrived at the site mid-morning, Bill Byler and his crew were all here sitting in a big white van, the windows all steamed shut and white tobacco smoke seeping out of the windows. Bill told me not to worry; his workers were studying the plans!

But only one truck arrived and by noon time we got the message that the other truck had skidded off the road and upset. The driver was unhurt, but the load was lost, and the delivery would be made two weeks later. So in the meantime, I had our crew of workers with nothing to do. I told Chris Eckhert (who had replaced Eck) that we needed some compensation for lost time before I would take the next load. The Kuhns company agreed; Chris Eckhert was always helpful as our Kuhns representative and consultant.

Bill Byler generally had one or two quite experienced and capable associates and then three or four kids from fourteen years of age and up. I paid Bill Byler hourly and weekly and he had a simple system of accounting and billing. By the end of the week, on Friday afternoon, he would give me a slip of paper in long hand saying date, number of workers, hours worked, x $15.65 and total of day and week. I would write out a check. Then Bill and the crew would go down to Zaffina’s Beer distribution for a refreshment or drink and head up Route 119 and home. I enjoyed having Bill and the crew coming during that summer, and they did a good job, until they had finished the structural work outside, and then I realized that his crew would not be ideal for the inside finishing work.

Furthermore it was August and our Arthur Avenue properties had not sold and we did not want to borrow more money. But while he lasted, Bill was enjoyable company in good part because he and his crew had Holmes County, Ohio, roots, devout Christians from the Mount Hope Dan Church Amish who had moved to Pennsylvania. When my brother Roy visited one day, Bill exclaimed, oh my, there is my doctor. But to my regret we lost track of Bill Byler after that summer. Six years later in the year in 2010, we got up very early one cold morning and went up to Punxsutawney on Groundhog Day to await the arrival of Phil—but also hoping to visit Bill. In the afternoon we tried to find our old builder friend Bill Byler, but he must have moved. We could not find him.

The neighbors were always helpful as Frank Fratto allowed us to use his business’ parking lot at the bottom of the hill as a staging area for deliveries, and Gregory Shultz of the sawmill on Dexter Road brought his fork life and hauled the piles up the hill.  George Smouse rented us one of his vans where we could store hardware and tools at night. To my knowledge nothing was ever stolen from the site. Robert Taxacher put in our retaining walls outside the basement doors with blocks from Stone & Company in Connellsville. We had regular visitors inspecting the house, especially Betty Dzambo and the Mennonite publishing workers who when going out to eat on Fridays would stop by.

On an enjoyable October day that Fall my brothers Paul and Roy and nephews Kent Miller and Joseph Mast came down with trucks, trailers, equipment, fertilizer and grass seed. In 2 hours 7 minutes 37 seconds (they timed it and recorded it on the photo), they had raked, smoothed and seeded the lawn. Then we went for lunch at Miss Martha’s Tea Room.

The year all sounds positive but there was August, when my journal says “I went into a deep funk and wailed at the stars on how everything was going wrong.” Our 901 and 903 Arthur Avenue properties were still not sold after being listed since the beginning of the year; work had stopped on our new house; and I thought we might not move in until next summer. “The sadness is that this is Gloria’s dream,” I wrote, “and I have not done well in carrying it out. I told Gloria and God that in all our pain, it will eventually come together, and we’ll see the end in sight, and we’ll get the house completed.” I complained of the “toll on my spiritual and cultural well-being,” confessing that “I need to pray to God for strength to keep going. I know that Christ will sustain us in these times, and I trust in God…” Gloria and the children were always supportive.    

And then within weeks, things changed for the better. By October we had closings on both of our properties on Arthur Avenue, and we temporarily moved into Joe and Mandy Yoder’s house on Walnut Avenue. We contacted John and Debbie Comer (D.C. Construction) who lived a few miles down the road between Scottdale and Smithton and had experience with Kuhn’s Brothers log homes. John and his associate Scott did all the inside wood finishing work, including the stairs and floors and finishing the outside.

The Comers were old hands at log home construction, very efficient, and often referred me to local people who could do some specialized projects such as Elliott Levine of Uniontown doing the plastering (on stilts) and Richard Baker of Scottdale laying our brick fireplace between the great room and the bedroom. R. E. Gouker (an entertaining soul) and his son of Uniontown installed our Haas (Nofziger) garage doors. Gloria’s cousin Bob Blosser helped when he had time, and that Fall Nathan Sprunger had returned from Iraq, and he helped on the floors and painting.

Gloria selected bathroom tile and floor designs from Larry Lint Floors who installed them. She selected lighting and design from the Lighting Gallery in Greensburg which Joe Yoder installed. Finally, she worked with Lyndan Cabinets (the Froble family: Windy Tuffs, Zack and their father Dan of Scottdale) to do the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and granite tops. For flooring, we chose wide seven to ten-inch white pine boards from the Woods Company in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. We put in a gas fire place from Nickos Chimney near Latrobe, and Scott Solomon’s crew painted the great room ceilings.

Dear reader, if you are still there after all these names and details, I’ll give some sense of why I entered this quotidian territory of our building year; these people were my adult education on building. First, these people made a fairly complicated project if not simple than at least possible. We could never have done the project without the goodwill, expertise and integrity of these neighbors. I was several decades out of date in construction, and these friends all seemed willing to help the project succeed. They reminded me of the value of nurturing a fairly known fraternal community whether it’s in Holmesville, Canton, Scottdale, Charallave, Botijas, or Berlin (the one in Ohio).

Second, these people and our children and extended family made the project emotionally bearable and often enjoyable. Would I do it again? Probably not, but still I’m glad we did it as a one-time project. In all our busyness, there were the family gatherings; in June we went to Ohio for a birthday party of Roy and my mother Mattie. In September when I was still in the funk of my August depression, the children and Gloria gave me a 60^th birthday party. Church and Southmoreland friends, publishing colleagues, and neighbors came and mother Mattie, David and Paul also came by from Ohio, and this is probably a good time to do a round-up on my brothers and sisters and their families. 

The biggest event in our immediate family world was the birth of Sarah Elizabeth on June 2 at three in the early morning at eight pounds and six ounces. Hannah and Anson said her name was Sadie. Born in Philadelphia on a Wednesday, we went over on Friday and she was home already back at their first floor apartment at 615 South 10^th Street. Sadie was a contented little baby, and we still have the photo images of Anson as a protective lion gently holding Sadie, while Hannah was stretched out with her feet up on the sofa like a lioness, relaxing after a major work. Gloria hovered around and was helpful, but Elizabeth and I were in the way in the city apartment and by evening, we went downtown to a hotel for the night; on the way back the next day, I picked up a bottle of Old Overholt Rye.

Mostly I was thankful that in God’s providence in some mysterious way the Adam and Eve and Joseph and Mary story continues. Little children are born, loved and cared for by parents and a supportive community. Hannah and Anson had good friends in Derek and Renee Steffy Warnick from the West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, and that same week Renee had their first son Drew.   

In her mid-80s, my mother Mattie was busy in sending out birthday cards to each of the children and grandchildren, and now great grandchildren. The cards were unmistakable with Mattie’s cryptic handwriting, complemented by her emphasis on the meanings of the Hallmark poets by underlining most of the printed verse. Mother also included a five dollar bill in each greeting. It was now about ten years that Andrew had died, and Mattie had her own life well in hand. But several times she mentioned that Andrew had visited at night. I never questioned her too far on this nocturnal phenomenon, but she seemed quite satisfied about his coming and also his leaving. She never took the lost husband feelings very far, in part because she had a strict policy of “no pity party.”

We had some relationship with our publishing phones of free Fridays, and I would call Mattie early Friday mornings. With time this weekly call moved to Sunday mornings for the rest of her life. Along with her family, Mattie would report on her cats and especially a dog named Sadie who slept inside and ate cold hot dogs. She had transferred her attendance and membership to the Berlin Mennonite church and became good friends of Ethel Mumaw and Mary Hummel, while she continued active as a volunteer with the local MCC Save and Serve where she had started in 1993. In July of 2002 some of us joined Mattie’s Schlabach relatives for a reunion at Bellefontaine, Ohio, hosted by cousin Levi Schlabach.

Paul age 62 and Carol’s family had a big change in that their eldest daughter Amy Elizabeth married Justin Mark Schlabach on August 11, 2001. The wedding had an unusual sports accent, at least for the Millers, as Coach Perry Reese (1952-2000) appeared on the printed program, and Mark’s College of Wooster basketball team showed up to support him. The unusual became the new normal as Mark, a math teacher was also coaching the Loudenville High School boys’ basketball team, and by 2003 we began what would become annual March treks to the Canton Field House for regional championships.

By 2005, the pattern continued when Mark went to Hiland High School, and now we followed his teams from Canton on to Columbus, eventually winning two state championships. Children William (2002) and Grace (2004) soon followed Amy’s marriage as did sister Laura Stevens’ marriage to Erik Hendrik Beun on July 12, 2003. Then in the summer of 2005, July 28, Ruth married Michael J. Yoder; we cherished them as a couple and also as great cousins to Elizabeth and Jakob. All three sisters had graduated from Malone College and were elementary school teachers. Paul loved to send letters and notes and regularly enlightened us with thoughts from philosophers and theologians at First Things magazine, topics of his Men’s Sunday school class, and unusual nature photos such as a trio of White-Tailed deer mating in three-somes. Paul and Carol moved into their new house near Mattie’s house in February of 2004.

Roy age 61 was named Family Physician of the Year by the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians in 2003. An association of over 4,000 Ohio physicians, Roy was nominated by the attorney Samuel Steimel for his service to the Holmes County community. Still, on the same year of his greatest honor, Roy decided to call it quits from his practice on June 1 of 2003. He sent a letter to his fellow-doctors and patients, noting his age, fatigue, malpractice insurance rates and changing interests, especially in traveling and doing international volunteer work. Roy had a solo practice in Holmes County for 23 years and did everything from chairing the Pomerene Hospital board to delivering lots of babies,

By 2003, Roy and Ruby’s children were in high school (Susan) or out of school (Andrew or Drew). Roy and Ruby and a lap dog would often travel together in their large motor home, especially visiting Civil War sites. Each Fall they would head out to Vermont to see the colorful leaves. Ruby was an active volunteer at the Save and Serve self-help store in Millersburg and helped host an annual banquet fund-raiser (in Save and Serve décor). Roy had an acute sense of when one needed emotional support and during the 2002 and 2003 Mennonite Publishing House crisis; he would occasionally call in the morning and ask if I wished to take lunch with him. At noon he showed up at 616 Walnut Avenue.

David age 56 and Brenda were also in a giving in marriage decade. Kent married Lori Mast on July 5 of 1997, and they soon had Kyle (1999) & Megan (2001). In 1997 Kent also became manager of a Comfort Inn which owned by the Arlie Rhodie family near their supermarket in Millersburg. Several years later, they built a second Comfort inn at Berlin which Kent also managed. David and Brenda’s second child Abby married Matt Yost of Wooster, Ohio. The Yosts took off for Nashville, Tennessee, for a few years, but then returned with Matt joining the Hummel insurance group and his family at the Grace Brethren church. The third child Ellen graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in 2003 in elementary education and met Steve Rohrer whom she married in 2005.

David continued expanding the Walnut Hills Retirement Community with independent living homes and other specialized facilities. But one of his biggest challenges was with the Millersburg Mennonite congregation, serving as chair when the pastor’s tenure became controversial. The various parties seemed to dig in, and our own Miller family members were often on opposites sides of the debate. In the process the older and younger generation fled: our mother Mattie to Berlin Mennonite and the nephews Kent Miller and Joseph Mast to Martins Creek Mennonite. I know, it was much more complicated than that, but that is a little of what I heard from all sides.       

Rhoda at age 50 and Jon Mast  had a busy summer of weddings in 2001 as daughter Rachel Mary and  J. Benjamin Smucker of Goshen, Indiana, were married on June 16 at Martins Creek. Rachel and Ben were headed for Cleveland where Ben studied at the Case Western Reserve Medical School and Rachel worked with children’s programs at the Cleveland Art Institute. A month later on July 21 Joseph and Marie Jo Johnson of Kidron exchanged vows at the Sonnenberg Mennonite Church in Kidron. Joseph soon took up auctioneering, and could practice at home as the Masts had a large machinery reduction sale on April 14, 2004.

A premier auctioneer, by 2008 Joseph bought Showcase Realty, turning it into one of the largest real estate and auction houses in northeastern Ohio with his father Jon as manager. Rhoda continued her leadership as principal at the Mt. Eaton Elementary School. In 2006 she received Ohio and national recognition as Distinguished Principal of the Year. The awards were in recognition for her educational innovations and bi-cultural sensitivity to the Amish and English community in the Southeast School District. She was principal at Mt. Eaton for 18 years until 2011.

By 2004 Miriam age 48 and her husband Veryl Kratzer moved to a farm outside Kidron which she called Milltop and both changed jobs. Miriam’s school Central Christian High School went through a major crisis in 2003, resulting in Miriam leaving. That Fall, she took a position in the East Holmes School District. Veryl continued a niche in agriculture with feed sales for Gerber Feeds in Kidron. Meanwhile, the children headed off to Mennonite colleges at Newton, Kansas; Goshen, Indiana; Hesston, Kansas; and Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Miriam with her “whole armor of God” martial persona would send them electronic mail often ending with the charge: “To your posts!” If the young Kratzers were “withstanding the wiles of the devil” at theses pacifist schools, they were also getting a good liberal arts education and finding equally good marriage mates.

Amos had married Amy Chupp of Goshen, Indiana, on December 16, 2000, and soon Naomi (2003), Moses (2005), Abigail (2006), and Deborah (2008) were born. Amos and Amy went to Chicago for a few years before returning to Goshen in 2003 where Amos joined the admissions office at Goshen College and Amy began pastoral ministries.

Esther and Nathan Koontz of Newton, Kansas were married on December 28, 1998, and soon headed for a Mennonite Central Committee assignment in Egypt. Their first born John Mark (2002) had us all praying when he needed treatment for a cyst in his head at Akron Children’s Hospital, but eventually he became a healthy and bright young boy, joined soon by Simon Tanner (2004) and Anne Marie (2007).

I’m going to jump over Sarah and go to the next daughter Martha who studied nursing at Eastern Mennonite University and met Chip Coleman whom she married on January 4, 2003. The Colemans moved to Kidron where they soon bought a little farm, Chip working at Lehman’s Hardware and Martha nursing at Aultman Hospital in Canton. Silas Jude (2006), Ezra Luke (2008), Nathanael Allen (2010, “Children of the Heavenly Father, safely in his bosom gather”), Jesse Robert (2012) were born. Finally, Hannah studied at Hesston College in Kansas where she met a Virginian Darrell Wenger; they were married on June 18, 2005 at the Sonnenberg Mennonite. They ended up in Harrisonburg, Virginia, loyal members at Zion Mennonite, and have two sons: Abram (2009) and Aaron (2011).

Sarah M. Kratzer, I knew best because after coming to Scottdale for a summer intern she went to work for us after graduation from Bethel College in 2000. She was a good writer and editor and had a good sense for Mennonite culture, music, history and English studies. During the terrible crisis of Mennonite Publishing House, she was a low maintenance associate living in Pittsburgh. She instinctively knew what I was looking for and carried it out, getting on well with the other staff members.

At Bethel College in Kansas, she met Kevin Donald Kehrberg whom she married on August 12, 2000 at the Sonnenberg Mennonite Church. There was a concert and barn dance with their Ohio and Kansas friends as a part of the weekend. Kevin joined PULSE, a Pittsburgh urban leadership program, and he and Sarah were probably as close to musical genius as we had in our family. Kevin was soon playing his bass in some of Pittsburgh’s best jazz venues and later his bass joined Kentucky’s blue grass groups. His band played for the poet Wendell Berry’s birthday, and the US State Department sent them on international goodwill tours. Sarah played her violin with various regional orchestras (wherever they lived) and also led hymns in whatever church she found herself.

In 2003, Kevin and Sarah moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where Kevin began a PhD program at the University of Kentucky, and the next year Sarah resigned from her editing at Herald Press. We missed her greatly, as we did both of them in their short time in Pittsburgh. Adeline was born in December of 2003, followed by Martha (2005) and Paul David (2011).   

Ruth 46 and John D. Roth and their four daughters were graduating from Bethany Christian High School with regularity: Sarah (2003), Leah (2005), Hannah (2007), and Mary (2009) and then made a seamless transition to Goshen College. Ruth served on the Bethany board for many years, helping to initiate a middle school and brought our mother Mattie out for the Bethany spring benefit auctions—bringing a quilt along. Ruth could outline appropriate work projects for her mother such that every Fall Mattie would show up for apple sauce canning, pie baking, sewing, and other projects.

During these school years, the Roth sisters became musical performers with a string quartet which played from the classical European tradition. Soon they widened their repertoire to include gospel, alternative, and folk which would have pleased their grandfather Andrew A. Miller greatly. In fact, I never quite appreciated my father’s music more than when I heard his grandchildren interpret his songs at Mattie’s 90^th birthday celebration in 2008.

The Roth family spent 1996-97 in San Jose, Costa Rica, and entertained a family delegation: Mattie, Gloria and Hannah Kratzer over Christmas. By this time John was fluent in Spanish as well as German and became America’s premier Mennonite historian and lecturer as well as an international interpreter of Anabaptism. During my tenure at Herald Press, he wrote three books on Mennonite beliefs, ethics, and community. The books were widely used in congregational study groups as well as for individual reading, and I thought among our best Mennonite church contributions during my decade at Herald Press.

I was at the Herald Press offices during the day, but by October we were at our log house every evening until ten o’clock to sand, clean and paint with our noses covered with masks. Mainly I recall the dust and returning to Joe and Mandy Yoder’s house on Walnut Avenue, tired but unable to sleep right away. We turned on the TV and watched the baseball play-offs with Boston beating the Yankees and St. Louis winning over the Houston Astros. In the World Series, the Boston Red Sox with their new manager Terry Francona (son of my old childhood Cleveland Indians hero Tito) swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. That was the most TV baseball I’d seen in decades, and I write this in October of 2013 when these teams are in post-season play again, paying attention again thanks to our Pittsburgh Pirates competing with the Cardinals in the play-offs.

We had another break In November when Gloria went with me to American Academy of Religion and Society for Biblical Literature meetings in San Antonio, Texas. She came back with three large Mexican-looking tin mirrors for our new house. We visited Hannah and Anson (and Sadie) in Philadelphia, and picked up a chandelier from Kody Lighting in Wayne. At Christmas we had our family and church gatherings, but our son Jakob was missing for most of these activities, and that will be the story of the next year 2005. By the end of December the long work evenings were coming to an end; snow was falling, and we turned on our new furnace. On New Year’s Eve, December 31, for the first time we slept in our new house.

The house building information comes from my files of 2004 and memory. The August funk quotations come from my journal “Thoughts on Life” August 21, 2004, entry. My brother Roy’s letter telling of ending his medical practice was May 19, 2003. The “whole armor of God” King James Version Bible reference with my sister Miriam is from Ephesians 6: 11. The Herald Press books which John D. Roth authored were Beliefs: Mennonite Faith and Practice (2005), Stories: How Mennonites Came to Be (2006) and Practices: Mennonite Worship and Witness (2009).