Richard Wycoff’s long housing ordeal is almost over.

The west-side Springfield man grumbled, groaned, but ultimately grinned as the first half of his modular home arrived Monday.

“Son, this time next week I’ll be in my Jacuzzi and they’ll be delivering pizzas to me,” Wycoff said. “The big guy upstairs gave me the tenacity to go through what I did.”

When the second half of the modular arrives later today, the two parts will be bolted together. Wycoff won’t have to live in a garage or camper trailer anymore.

A gas explosion destroyed Wycoff’s home in the fall. He battled city officials for the right to live in his garage while waiting for Dogwood Mobile Homes to deliver his replacement modular home.

He paid $52,000 for the three-bedroom home last fall but needed pressure from the Missouri Attorney General’s office to close the deal.

Attorney General Jay Nixon last week ordered Dogwood Homes to deliver the home by May 7 and to stop using “fraud, misrepresentation or deception” in dealing with its customers.

Wycoff was ecstatic after seeing the first half of his new home come rumbling down his street.

But his joy turned to concern when the trailer carrying the 24,000-pound modular home sank deep into soft dirt in Wycoff’s front yard.

After nearly an hour’s worth of jockeying, and shored with metal planks and heavy treaded mats, the trailer eventually was pushed across the yard and positioned next to Wycoff’s concrete foundation.

“Even though it’s heavy, you have to be gentle with it and try not to bend it that much or you can crack the sheetrock walls inside,” said Ted Moore, owner of Complete Site Services of Marshfield.

Late Monday, his crew was poised to lift the home with a tracked hydraulic “Trans-Lift” machine and slide the home onto the foundation.

They hoped to get both halves in place before today’s rains begin, which would turn Wycoff’s front yard into an impassable quagmire.

Neighbors Betty and Terry Doss watched the progress from Wycoff’s back yard.

After Wycoff’s home blew up, the Dosses shared their electricity with him, running an extension cord from their property to his garage.

He returned the favor during January’s ice storm. The Dosses lost power for several days, but Wycoff never did. He shared his electricity with them.

“I admire him immensely,” Betty Doss said. “I would check on him in his garage every few days and take him water if he needed it. We’d sit and visit and drink coffee and solve the world’s problems.”

“It’s a shame he got tied up the way he did, with the city and with Dogwood,” added her husband Terry. “He’s been a good neighbor.”

Michael Jackson, owner of Dogwood Homes, dripped sweat as he put some finishing touches on the foundation Monday.

He said trying to comply with strict city rules governing modular homes slowed delivery of this home.

“They don’t want a mobile home in here. It’s got to be on a solid, permanent foundation,” he said. “And working with the attorney general’s office, I’ve kind of learned what happened here. We’ve said all along that all he needs is his home, and now it’s here.”

Wycoff said he looks forward to enjoying life’s simple pleasures again.

“A home, a roof, a bath,” he quipped. “If I’ve learned anything from this, it’s that you never give up.”

source : www.news-leader.com