The Robinson House
Gifted by Gordon
Gathered by Makayla Cheney
Evanston, October 2024
Gordon shares a story of building his family's home during the stock market crash in 2007. He describes how important it was to him that he built this home for his family and how it has shaped his family. He also shares some advice he would give himself if he could go back 17 years and do it again.
Photo Provided by Makayla Cheney.
A background note from Makalya: My father, Gordon, told me stories of building our family home while working full-time to provide for 5 young children. He shared his pride in this accomplishment and the struggles he faced as he attempted to build his family home during the peak of the housing market crash in 2007 and 2008. I enjoyed this project thoroughly as I got to hear my father's side of a time in my life that will always impact me.
Kayla: What item did you bring to tell a story about?
Gordon: Actually I didn’t bring it, but I’m sitting in it. My house has a lot of stories and has been a big part of my life.
So where it came from and how it came to be. Starting sometime in 2005 our family was growing and then in 2006 we ended up having twins, which became child number 4 and number 5 because there were 3 older ones. And all of them are great and all of them are awesome. And now they're starting to bring us grandbabies! But after the twins came we were talking about doing things with our house and where we were living in our other home in Evanston, and it was plenty big enough for our family but the market was such in 2006 that we decided to sell that and build our own. The goal was to sell it and make enough money on that one to build our own. What we were able to do was we were able to sell that house and we did make enough to pay cash for the lot that we paid this one on and it paid for a lot of the original building but we still ended up having to get a loan to finish it.
Anyways, so in 2007 we got our house sold and we moved into a rental and we bought the land here and we started building this house here. We started digging the hole for the foundation and the water and sewer lines on the first of June of that year. And then that entire summer I worked very hard on it while working full time I worked on the house in the evenings, and on the weekends and with help of family and Jen (my wife), we were able to work hard on it and build it and put it together. We moved in Labor day weekend in September. So about four months…well three months and a little bit…we were able to have it that far along. It was challenging to build my own house and my kids were all very little. I’d love to be able to build my house with my kids the age they are now with my three boys and my sons-in-law and whoever would come help. There were a lot of challenges in building it and also maintaining a job and a family and there were lots of challenges but it's one of my major accomplishments in my life and I’m proud of it. It was a lot of work then,. It's still a lot of work now to keep it up and we’ve done several remodels as you know and some changes and updates and working on it.
That was a hard summer. It was a really hard summer doing that house. We had sold the old house, had money for the land and built part of it so we were also trying to keep building while securing financing to finish it. And during that time, that’s when the dot-com bubble and the stock market crashed in ‘07… and the country-wide mortgage scandal and a few other things all hit all at once right there. So the market was weird, we had some trouble financing the rest of it but through various channels and opportunities and a lot of help and a lot of prayer and a lot of worry we were able to secure the financing that we needed to finish the house. At least finish it to the point where we could really survive living here.
Kayla: yeah I remember sleeping on a mattress on the floor the first night that we moved in there.
Gordon: Yep. So it was a lot of challenge getting there. There were a lot of late nights working. I think I’ve told you the story of putting up siding with the headlights on the car on the outside of the house and shingles on the roof with the street lights and the moon and that kind of thing. As hard as it was and as much as we had with finishing, the financing and some issues that went along with that and a little bit of family drama with that because I was hoping for more help and things were going weird that way with my family, It all worked out in the end. I still don't know if the house is finished these 17-18 years later, you know? I’m always working on something. We keep updating and changing things.
Photo provided by Makayla Cheney.
Photo Provided by Makayla Cheney.
We just keep updating and even adding on. Since then we’ve changed windows and doors, and some bay windows we took out. We've expanded the garage and we've changed the kitchen. There’s been a lot of things that we continue to work on and I think I do because, one, I enjoy that kind of work. I enjoy building stuff and I enjoy creating things that I’m proud of and I’m proud of this house. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this thing. Also there’s a lot of teaching time for my kids. Especially my boys, you girls help with some things here and there but a lot of the building stuff was teaching my boys too. They’ve come to appreciate that. The twins were just telling me the other day that they dreaded some of the projects and jobs we had going but now they’re like “thank you, at least I know how to do some things, handyman wise. To finish a board or nail this down or how to lay out a floor or how to do a little framing.” And now all three of them are doing little side jobs that entail that kind of thing.
Kayla: [My brother] Logan’s basically building a business out of it.
Gordon: Yeah, Logan is doing well with it. Tyler built all of your Uncle Richard's basement, all the framing and sheetrock and everything in that. Now Nate and him are doing his garage too. Insulating, sheetrocking, and electrical stuff. I think that’s why this is so important to me. It's a huge accomplishment I did, it’s been something I’ve been able to incorporate teaching lessons to my kids, but then again even bigger than that it’s been our home. It’s been where we’ve lived for all these years now and basically raised all of you.
I think you’re probably old enough to remember when we moved in and some of the construction and that kind of thing. I think Kylee was too. But the others were just… I mean the boys were a year old! So it’s been a huge part of our family life and our ups and downs and the things we’ve learned and the things we’ve hurt over and the things we’ve had fun over. The jokes and the hard times and the laughter and the crying. What I remember most, there's the hard times, but it’s the good times that I remember more than the bad from the house.
Kayla: If you went back to 2007, when you started building, and the stock market crash was not a problem and money was not an issue what would you change or what kind of advice would you give yourself 17 years ago, about building a house with 5 little babies?
Gordon: I think building the house I still would have done it. I had always wanted to build my own. I still would have done that. The reason we were working so hard on it to get it done by Labor Day was because of the financing aspect of it. The bank wouldn’t give us a loan because it was half way done. So we had to get it done in order for it to be finalized to be able to put a mortgage on it.
In the meantime our rental situation was going bad as you remember. So it was just a rush there. If I would change anything else I would have been a little smarter with the financing, which would have allowed us to spread it out a little more and not have to work so desperately on it like we were doing, because we were for a while.
I think another thing I would change is that, my family, my brothers and all of them, were great help. They helped a lot. But with the desperate need to finish the house, I think I was becoming desperate for them to help me, and I was becoming more demanding rather than asking for help. And then when they didn’t, it upset me. Does that make sense?
So all of that kind of snowballed a little bit and then the stress of the money. “Are we really ever gonna have the money to finish it?” I guess if there’s any regret I would do more planning on it. A little more planning and anticipating those kinds of things.
Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.