Another Sunday

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

This morning I am sitting in my office on my day off. The sun is just breaking over to the east; right outside my window. Spring is in the air and the snow is melting with a fury. Well, except at this moment. It’s only 25 degrees out. I love being up here in the north and working to improve things on my new homestead. I am ready for the nicer weather so I can be outside more. Yep, I’m getting a bit weary of the cold and being inside. This past winter for me will be memories of the extreme bitter cold.

The cold has driven me to stay busy on the inside. I’m trying to get my renovations done before the summer hits so I can golf, hike, camp, kayak, bike, run, and get out there with my camera.

The latest in my Renovation Adventures is ready to continue in full swing. I finished up the walls in the master bath and I laid down the shower pan. The shower pan project marks a milestone in the project and I was pretty excited to get it down. However, I did it wrong. I didn’t mix the cement properly and it just crumbled. What that meant was lifting the shower pan up and scraping the cement up. That, thankfully was easy because it was like pulling up sand. This was a sign I didn’t use enough water to mix it.

Type N Mortar Mixed Improperly…not enough water.

The timing worked out in my favor.

I left the shower pan out because I was able to line up my drywall guy to come and tape and mud the drywall in the room. It was better the shower pan was not in place so he didn’t have to work around it or cover it. So the shower pan phase was delayed another week.

This past Friday, the taping and mudding phase was complete. Yesterday I was able to make my second attempt at laying down the shower pan. I used a Type S Mortar mix. This time I used enough water and all spread out nicely. I smocked the pan down on top of it and was able to have it settle down into the mortar.

This morning I checked it and that pan is in there solidly. So far it seems things are curing up nicely. It feels solid.

While that was curing, I went ahead an painted up a coat of primer on the drywalls, getting ready to paint. It helps to have many options to do while different phases are drying or curing.

I continue to reflect on all of the many layers I have been doing to bring this house up to specs. It has been a lot. I didn’t know I was going to tear into the house the way I did. In some respects it’ll be a complete renovation of the house; inside and outside. I’m excited because I can see the end is near. In some respects this will be a rebirth of sorts. This is so comparable to how life can be. Work through the layers, some easy and some hard, to make oneself better. I like to think that has been my journey thus far.

Renovation Adventures Season 2 Begins

January 2, 2022January 2, 2022 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

I have reached the point where it’s time to Reno the master bathroom. I’ve had ideas in my mind for awhile but then Ethan made a couple suggestions.

Anyway, I started with the hard part. The jacuzzi tub. It was built in and looked really heavy. Turns out it wasn’t that heavy and I was able to get it out on my own.

Join me on the project descriptions and some personal reflections (skip over those if you want).

Every time I slip into doing a renovation project I can’t help but reflect on how these changes apply to my life as well. When I moved up here I knew no one, including myself. I have spent the past (almost) three years getting to know who I am. This is the longest period of my adult life being single and living alone. At first things for me were a bit uncertain. I wasn’t sure I had made the right decision. But then I started to learn who I am. I believe this is a challenge to do for anyone when married or dating someone. It’s especially a challenge when you have children. Unless you already know who you are.

I have reached a point where I am very content being alone out here in the woods. I thrive on it. Maybe that will change someday and maybe it won’t. The peace and quiet I am experiencing is good for my soul.

My soul was not always at peace. I didn’t have the best childhood mainly because I believe my mom was a deep seated narcissistic, manipulative, angry, and negative woman. She sucked the life out of anything. I’m not sure how my dad and step dad made it through. Then again, maybe they didn’t. I didn’t get to know my step dad Jim (I’ve always considered him my dad…he adopted me when I was six.) My mom did whatever she could to get in the way of my relationship to him. In fact, it wasn’t until I left home for the navy that he and I were able to connect without the interference of her. Sad really.

I was able to lift this beast out of the stand it was setting in on my own. I wasn’t sure how that would go when I started. At one point I asked my son Ethan to come up and give me a hand. He was understandably busy on the short notice. Knowing that I was on my own, I proceeded.

It’ll sit here until I haul it out behind the shop. I’m trying to decide if I want to build a stand for it out back and use it for an outdoor tub.

Lewie continues to check my progress and often inserts himself into the middle of what I’m doing. Sometimes that bothers me, but lately I’ve been taking it in stride. He’s just trying to make sense of the shit changing in his world.

The shower stall is next. I had to break out the edges of drywall around the shower to find the screws to release it from the wall. When I took that thing apart I found it to be so disgusting. Hiding in all of the spaces you can’t clean was years of God knows what sort of filth and junk shoved in there from multiple families. Ick.

I soon realized it wouldn’t fit out of the door. So what do you do when that happens? You cut that fucker in half. I decided quickly there was no way I would be able to repurpose this unit. It’ll go in the dumpster when it gets here.

Tomorrow I’ll decide if I’m going to tear into the walls. I’m planning to tile the walls over so the drywall will need to be replaced with cement backer boards all around. My son Ethan suggests I’ll need to apply some self leveling floor cement before I tile up the floor. Makes sense. Also, the question then becomes, should I put down in-floor heating? That might be a nice touch.

I’m also trying to decide if I’m even going to put a tub back in. I was thinking a self standing unit. Yet, I’m just not a tub guy and it’s biggest purpose would be for a resell if I do that. Right now, I’m feeling like this could be my forever home. Time will tell.

I spent some time reminiscing on the complex layers I’ve been learning about as I work on these projects. I feel like I’ve gotten more figured out, resolved, and forgiven out of this chapter in my life than I ever did with years of counseling in the past. Go figure. Right now I can honestly say I’m more grounded and healthy in my mind and soul than I could have imagined. I’m not a religious man but I am Spiritual. I have a relationship with God and Jesus without the trappings of organized religion. That’s all I’ll say about that for now.

This relationship has only grown stronger and the blessings are coming in fast and furious. I couldn’t do this without that. Thank you God.

Stay tuned for more progress on my projects. Skip over the personal reflections if you don’t care to read them. That’s ok by me.

Outdoor Renovations – Reflections on Life

May 9, 2021May 9, 2021 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

I decided this summer would have a focus on outdoor renovations. This weekend I got a bunch done outside.

Yesterday I was able to head over to the Bass Lake Mill and get a pickup load of sawdust. I the. Spread that out over the raspberry patch. I’m hoping it will help with weed control. And it want it to look nice.

After that I started on ripping out this landscaped bed. It had become such an eye sore to me and it’s one of the first things my clients see when they come for a visit.

I was able to finish it up today. It is a big pain to dig out wood chips. I then found three layers of plastic that had been there over the years. The edges were surrounded with big rocks which had settled down as well. Yep. I dug each one out.

I then cleaned up the edges.

This bed is there because it surrounds the covers to the septic system. You can see the one just past the power boxes.

I put plastic down next.

A nice fresh layer. Again for weed control. There is nothing worse then weeds coming up thru the rock bed.

I was able to get the rock loaded in there. This is where I say the best money spent was on that tractor.

The finished bed looks great. I’m sitting here on the deck enjoying the view of it.

New Rock Bed covering septic access lids

My Reflections

It feels great to have that done. A quick win for the summer project list.

Now I sit and reflect on the transformation it went through. Years of layers of materials people kept adding in; never removing or exploring the layers that came before.

That’s kind of like life. How many times do we just keep adding on things believing it is an improvement? Sometimes we have to step back and review our life and dig into the layers of shit we’ve built up. We build them up thinking it will help, and sometimes it does. Sometimes those layers serve a purpose. Protection perhaps.

Later we find those layers are hurting us more than helping. We need to peel them back. Review the stories that put them there. Then let go of the stories that no longer serve a purpose. It helps to ask God and your Angels to help.

Then sit back with those prayers and release. The cleansing will happen. Peace will surround you, all steeped with Gods grace and His Love. Allow that in. When it is done you can look at the nice new and genuine result of who you really are. Of who you are meant to be.

Feel it. You are blessed. And you are loved.

A Saturday Morning

February 6, 2021February 6, 2021 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ 3 Comments

I’m sitting here by the wood stove this morning. It’s -9° outside. The dog is fed and he’s been out; tho he didn’t stay out long. He’s no dummy. Well, that can be debated.

-9 degrees outside. Warm and toasty here.

Looking ahead on the day I’ll plan to join a friend at breakfast over in Askov. Then we’ll go walk thru the gun show being held there as well. I fear there will be a day when just saying I’m going to a gun show will result in some sort of report to the authorities. But then if we were at that point there wouldn’t be any gun shows so no need to worry.

What startles my imagination is how many intelligent people there are in the USA who are so willing to ignore truth when it’s staring them in the face. Is it fear that does that to people? You know what truth I’m talking about. It’s the truth about COVID-19, masks, the C19 vaccine; and yes, the illegitimate election results.

The truth is it’s sad that I actually fear posting that previous paragraph. You see, my fear is differing opinions no longer seem to matter. We can be silenced now thru ridicule, shaming, or guilt. We can be canceled out of the greatness that was in our country. My fear is based in reality because it is happening now. Look around. It even happened to Lou Dobbs yesterday. I don’t watch Fox News, or really any news for that matter, yet I saw the cancel culture strike out Lou.

If you are willing to be honest perhaps you’ll take notice of where dissension of speech is happening around you and in your lives. How about at the school boards and our children?

Yep, all this over a cup of coffee by the wood stove. Perhaps you’ll join me, even if we disagree. We can talk about all of the shit going on and how we can restore our great republic—without tearing each other down. If you’re able to do that with me, then it’s not too late.

Leave your comments below because Doing so on Facebook leaves it open to censorship. If it is the first time commenting it will get posted after I approve your permissions to post comments. Sorry, that helps keep the spammers at bay.

Milestone Week

September 13, 2020September 13, 2020 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

Renovation Adventures hit two milestones this week.

First, the new HVAC system is in and running. It’s clearly too late in the season to use the new cooling, but I’ll be ready next summer. The system was installed by Michael Becker from All Season Heating & Cooling. He’s out of Cloquet, MN. It took about two weeks to finish it all. There were a few days in there where he wasn’t on site. In the end, it’s a top notch professional installation. I couldn’t be happier.

Here’s a couple of before pictures of the utility room above.

Now the after pictures. New furnace and nice clean epoxy painted floor. Notice the missing chimney. I even had him add in the whole house humidifier, which integrates nicely with the furnace.

Now on to the master bedroom.

Each step that I complete is like another layer of myself. Renovating this house peels back the years of old layers. I never know what I’m going to find as I dig in. Sometimes the ugly goes out, kinda like what happens on self reflection. Examine it and clean it up. Patience is needed on the tougher parts. Don’t do it right and the lesson repeats. I don’t know how many times I had to redo things. I knew I wouldn’t be happy if I let it go in a substandard way. Lessons I continue to apply to myself.

Here’s the before and after pictures of the master bedroom and closet.

I’m going to install some modular type stuff in the closet to help organize things. I think it’ll be a nice addition.

If you notice the color outside the window you’ll see why I picked the color on the accent wall. I wanted to blend in the outside with the inside.

Now on to the livingroom.

Quiet is Moving In

September 9, 2020September 13, 2020 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

Did I mention I love living up north? I do. Where I live the seasons move through noticeable shifts; perhaps not always in line with the Farmer’s Almanac. In fact, this morning the weather service issued a severe weather warning – FREEZE ALERT until tomorrow morning.

I’m not really ready for the freeze to start moving in. It’s timely perhaps because my new heating system is almost complete on the installation.

What’s interesting is I can hear the season change. It’s quiet already. I’m not hearing the usual birds. Nothing. Just quiet. Peaceful.

The way I like it.

Upstairs Phase Begins

August 23, 2020August 23, 2020 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes I wonder why we take on projects. The basement project technically resumed, given I had to open the ceiling and get ready for a new heating system.

I decided to keep moving along on my project. I tend to believe forward progress is always good. Even in everyday things of life. Sometimes it is good to sit and be still, but usually not long enough to get stagnant. I have done this at various times in my life as well. Trust me, it’s usually better to keep moving; even if the progress is in small increments.

The upstairs Renovation Adventure is not a small project; yet it is not as big as the basement turned out to be.

Kitchen on the left; Living room on the right

I began with removing a wall and then the chimney. The chimney is a remnant from days gone by. I’m sure it kept this place warm many nights. I even found a hole on the upper level of the chimney, along with evidence that area used to a room in itself. I pictured sitting here on cold nights in this room by the wood stove. My efforts continued the expansion out into the great “open concept” living space.

Behind the wall you can just see an outlet box. This outlet had been wired across the open air expanse near the wood stove chimney to another wall, which runs diagonal to the livingroom. That outlet never worked. It always faulted with an open ground or something. Now I know why. Shitty wiring.

Once I got the wall and chimney down I pulled the carpet out. I don’t know what’s more disgusting. 50 years of dirt under a carpet or … nothing. That pretty much hits the top. It’s gross. After cleaning it up I triggered a cascade of my allergies like I got hit with a sledgehammer to the head. My eyes swell up, get very itchy and my sinuses run hard. I went to see my nutritionist practitioner who can test for toxic chemicals and I came up with exposure to dioxins. It’s hard to say if that’s what was in the dirt, but everytime I dealt with that floor since it fires up my sensitivities.

I discovered the vinyl floor in the kitchen is actually 1/2″ higher than the rest of the upper floor. The bathroom is too. So I was going to just pry up the 1/2″ sub floor in the kitchen to bring it down level with the rest. Nope. That floor was laid before the cabinets. I would have had to trim all around the cabinets, behind the stove, behind the refrigerator and in the pantry. I decided it would be easier to lay 1/2″ sub floor and bring the rest of the deck up to match the kitchen and bathroom. Just finished doing that yesterday morning. This floor goes all through the master bedroom, closet, hallway, and hall closet. I’ll likely peel up the linoleum.

I picked up the paint for the master bedroom today. I know what I’m doing for the room you see above too but I’ll wait to buy the paint. I’m waiting for my drywall guy to come. He can blend in the wall imprints better than I ever could in the ceiling texture. I wanted to take the texture down, but it had been painted. If I try to scrape it, I would damage the drywall up there now.

Today I patched nail holes and such in the bedroom. I’m ready to start painting in there this week. I will shoot for laying the new flooring by the weekend.

Tomorrow or Tuesday, the new HVAC systems begin the process of going in. The guy will take out the old and the main supply duct. After he leaves, I’ll go in and harvest out the rest of the chimney from the utility room. That will really open up the space for the new furnace and storage.

So back to why we do this? Over the years when I would sell a house, I would spend the few months beforehand updating all the things needed to make the house marketable. And when finished, I would always wonder why I waited until it was time to sell to do those things. It was always nice and regretted not being able to enjoy it.

Now I’m doing this stuff up front. I’m going to enjoy this place with all of the updates right at the start. I know I may not recover all of the funds I have spent. I also know I’ve saved a ton of money doing a majority of the work myself. Even better to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I also believe leaving a place better than when I found it. So it all comes together.

A Big Setback

August 12, 2020August 12, 2020 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

Renovation Adventures just took a turn. So just had a visit with the HVAC guy. Was having trouble with airflow and cooling of the upstairs of the house. It turned out to be one of those moments when I knew I should have tried harder to get someone out when I had the basement ceiling open. Recall, I just officially called the basement project complete the other day. To fix things right, I will need to open the ceiling up in the basement from one end of the house to the other. Turns out whoever put the main supply duct in, cheaped out and used a single supply size for one room to feed the whole house. This would explain why I thought the heat was a bitch during my first winter here as well. Then, the actual heater and A/C are quite old. It would be prudent at this point to rip it all out and put new in. In the long run, it’ll be more efficient and probably save a tank of LP over the winter. I’m just frustrated because I should have listened to that voice in my head when I had the basement open. Now I have a setback in the project, with extra cost. The good side of this is, I’m starting to get things ready for the upstairs renovation and that will help with some of the ducting replacements where needed.

Updating the heat and A/C will be the last major upgrade overall to this house. I think I’ve done all the other important systems.

It’s all in a day, right? Sigh.

A Water Leak!

August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ 1 Comment

Are you kidding me!!! I went downstairs this morning to visit the daily constitutional outpost and discovered water had been leaking at a steady pace since all night. Ugh.

My first reaction was shit! My new floor. I just finished the reno.

On further review the water was located over the bathroom sink and toilet. It was escaping from the shut off valve itself. I had to go further upline to turn things off.

I zipped into town to the local Ace Hardware for a new valve. Got home, and realized it would require some soldering and such. I’m thinking there’s got to be an easier way.

What did I do? You guessed it. YouTube. I found a video explaining the exact problem I had. How to replace an in-line ball valve using the new Shark Bite components. Wow!

I zipped back to Ace Hardware and they had what I needed. I was able to assemble in five minutes.

Of course, I didn’t do this until later in the afternoon. I decided to take a grass mowing break. The weather was awesome after the last several days of rain.

The good news is the water is restored. And yes, I took my daily constitution before heading to town the first time. Priorties.

Basement Reno Phase 1 Complete

August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 ~ Jeff Evenson ~ Leave a comment

Milestones are something when you achieve them. I think back to the beginning of my basement renovation adventure. I started this just after Christmas of 2019. At the beginning, I was only planning on replacing the carpet with new wood laminate flooring. On closer examination I decided to pull out the old 1960’s wood paneling. And so it began.

Yesterday, August 9, 2020 was my official completion data of basement reno phase 1. So, I’ll call it eight months, plus or minus a bit.

As I started peeling the layers back on the reno, I discovered many things that needed to get done. If I didn’t do them at the time, I think I would have regretted it. I could picture myself sitting down there thinking, gosh I wonder what’s under those walls.

Here’s the highlights of the basement project:

Discovered there was no insulation on the outside basement walls. I was able to insulate and get the vapor barrier up.
The Electrical Panel had exceeded capacity in my opinion. The electrician agreed. I had him replace the small panel with a new larger panel. I then put a whole house surge protector in there. Each breaker now serves one circuit; no double taps in place. This really added peace of mind for me.
Wet and dry rotted wood discovered. I removed a closet near the garage entrance. This revealed rotting wood in the framing. As I dug deeper, I discovered water would flow in directly off of the deck above. More peeling revealed black mold. This made the decision for me to pull out all of the walls and ceiling. Good that I did. I was able to clean the mold, then rip out and replace some important framing. I also had to take the siding off the house up on the deck so I could repair from that side.
I discovered a water cutoff valve near the garage. This had been drywalled over. I’ve installed an access panel over it now.
I discovered the clean out piping for the septic. This had also been walled in. It’s now exposed and painted. I haven’t decide yet what to do over that. Maybe nothing.
I discovered the drain for the washer, which is in the bathroom, had been hidden by a built in desk in the great room. I added a wall that now puts that drain in the bathroom next to the washer. When I do the bathroom reno, this will be revealed and used properly.
I removed two sections of wall to vastly open up the great room. But, prior to removing these load bearing walls, I had to install a 20′ 2 x 12 LVL. I glued and screwed that to the existing center beam to provide additional load bearing support. This allowed me to remove the walls. Ethan, my son, helped with this part.
I had to have the gas line to the stove re-run. For some reason this had about 15 extra feet looping over near the wood stove. Yikes.
I framed in the HVAC and other utility conduits down the center line of the house.
Drywalling was sub’d out. I decided to let a pro do that part and he did great. I painted this up pretty quickly with an air sprayer. I remember doing the color first in a light blue. When I came down the next day I felt like I just walked into a giant bathroom. So, I changed it.
Then the flooring went in. Recall this is what I wanted to actually do in the beginning. Eight months later here we are.

I’m very proud of the work I did. I didn’t know how to do all of it. I asked a lot of questions and studied a lot of content on the internet. I figured someone probably made a video. YouTube is a great resource for the How-To videos. Perhaps they should just take political videos off of there.

I go down there and just feel joy and blessings. I thank God for all of the lessons I experienced along the way. I hope I learned them so I don’t have to repeat them.

Here’s a photo montage of the old to the new.