Then in 2011, Trusavage's home and his neighbors' homes were wrecked by floodwater.
Newswatch 16 took a boat tour of the devastation throughout West Pittston that September.
The flood-soaked homes were left a mess, and even to this day, the hardest hit areas have not fully recovered.
Now, Trusavage is stepping up his recovery by putting his home above the 100 year flood plain.
"It was either rip it down and leave the lot vacant or lift the house up and stay in town and keep the tax base," he says.
It took two years to plan for this move, and he says he'll hopefully be back in within a month. He added that two more places in West Pittston which were flooded are planning to do the same.
Trusavage says, "we're the first ones to do this so everyone was waiting for us to be the guinea pigs here."
Neighbors have taken noticed to what Trusavage is doing to stay above any future floods, but they can't see many others following suit.
"I don't think it's going to be a trend because most of the houses are too large. This guy certainly doesn't care if they get dikes now. He's going to be above the water line," says Ken West of Pittston.
Trusavage says the move could also help his flood insurance go down to just hundreds of dollars per year, whereas if he would have stayed put, it could have skyrocketed.