A Farewell to Shoulders

As the outside of our home was close to completion it came time for our part of the work to begin.  The house was mostly framed inside and the sweat equity was ready to fly!  I wasn't surprised when Dave wanted to swap out work with some friends and the tile and paint were basically a given because of Dave's past work with both of these in previous homes.  What I wasn't expecting was for him to do the electrical!  Mostly I was worried because working with wires, electricity and potentially life-altering danger really scares the pee out of me.  But, he's a very determined guy and since I love him I tried to be supportive and reminded him to not come home fried up like crispy bacon.

He spent weeks reading books on the subject, scribbling out incomprehensible notes on how to wire each room, and basically driving me nuts.  Soon, however, he was placing boxes all over the house and spending all his free time pulling wires.  This was great in some ways since we got to choose where and how many outlets we got without worrying about cost.

Then came the fateful day when all Dave's plans got really complicated.  He went to work at the house and after he had come home for dinner he disappeared.  I was sure he was back to work pulling wires.  We were just getting kids ready for bed when I received a phone call from the emergency room.  Dave was on the phone letting me know that he had dislocated his shoulder and needed me to pick him up as the anesthesia would preclude him from driving himself.

I was stunned!  What?!  He was in the emergency room after hurting his arm?  Why didn't he call before? What was going on?

Well, I stopped my inner-dialogue and my dad drove me to the ER.  When we got there my husband looked as vulnerable as I have ever seen him.  He was shirtless, with all his verdant hair growth on display, completely knocked out and snoring like a congested bear.  On top of that his shoulder looked like someone had taken a perfect ice-cream scoop out of it.  They had me leave while they popped it back into place (Dad stayed to watch apparently not even breaking out of small talk with the doctor) and then 90 min later had me take my very wobbly, semi-lucid husband home.

The poor guy had been over-working his shoulder and a silly moment with Sam threw it out of whack.  He was sure it would be an easy fix and so tried to sneak out to the ER and sneak back with all of us none the wiser! :)  I felt so bad and was really worried about how he would take this setback since this disaster struck right at the time when we were to be doing our part of the building process.  Crap.

We found out he had to get surgery and staple his tendons back in place!  (I don't think I'll show the pictures the surgeon gave us.)  Ouch!  So, not only did he have to go in a sling for 3 weeks at first, he had to have surgery (to which he never responds well) and then go through a 4 week recovery in a sling and 6 months before he got full use back.  For a guy who's been dreaming of doing some work on his dream home for literally years, this was quite a blow.

But what about the house, you say?  Well, the thing is that while Russells can be stubborn and more than a little bit crazy about admitting to needing help, they are also the first people to jump up to solve a crisis and to prove that even a major injury wouldn't slow them down!  So, Dave's brothers Darrin and John, and our Sister-in-law Jenny and niece Shai, gave up their days off to come pull wires for my husband (now affectionately known as "Lefty") and to nail boxes.  My dad who loves a good home improvement project pitched in as well.  With their help (and an actual electrician to come in and set up the box as well as fix inevitable errors), we got the basic stuff done the day before Dave's surgery.  And of course, David Ray Russell never gave up.  He did what he could left handed, directed everyones' work and basically was amazing with his resiliency.

While recovering from surgery the house was dry-walled and soon ready for paint.  Dave was going to have the builder do it, but I insisted we could still make this work.  And although I shouldered most of this work (pun totally intended) I didn't do it alone!  Dave's other brother Mark, his wife Kirsti and their kids came up for 2 1/2 days and worked their guts out painting with us.  My mom spent every morning for a week helping me out and my sister Leslie gave time and cookies to the work.  Dave himself got really good at painting left-handed and never missed a moment.  We got the entire house cleaned, primed, and painted in a week and a half.

 

(The hard corners on the vaulted ceiling were only reached with a paintbrush tied to a broom handle-pretty handy!)

*Just as a note, Dave's final brother, Joe, would have come in a heartbeat, but his sweet wife Annie was ready to have a baby any minute while this was going on and he needed to stay where he was.  Even then he offered to try to finagle something, but his thought in this case certainly counted!  Thanks for the emotional support, Joe!! You guys grew a darling baby!

Soon after it was time to tile and I knew we couldn't stop Dave now!  I became Dave's apprentice tiler and spent 9 days measuring and cutting tile and then grouting and cleaning it.  It was a lot of fun once I found out that you can't really cut yourself on a diamond blade (silly me) you could just get a really bad burn.  (Our builder offered to go put his finger on the tile saw to prove his point to us-"I'll put my finger on it right now and show you!"-but we took his word for it.) 

(My new best friend, the tile saw)

And even though I have unexpectedly spent the last 6 weeks doing a lot of hard labor that seems to be interminable (I found out that everything in a house has 3-4 steps to it, and learned not to get comfortable when I was finished grouting, for example, since two sessions of rinsing and sealing were still to come.) I am now familiar with almost every inch of wall and ceiling, and with at least 2/3 of our floor.  I know this house like the back of my hand and I haven't lived a day in it yet!  Plus I'm pretty proud that I'm not always just a lazy bookworm, but have proved I can get my hands dirty.

(Part of the finished tile floor)

And to the gracious family members that stepped up and helped us when we choked on what we already couldn't chew, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!  When you need any kind of hard labor support, Dave is ready and waiting! (and almost healed :) .)

Mostly I am amazed at the fact that Dave set out to prove that he could still do all this despite his injury and that he prevailed.  And not only that, but by letting us all help him we created memories that will make this house special to us for years to come!

(What a man!)