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.
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.
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.
Ungrounded outlet
Off to the dump
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.
New floor here and in Master bedroom
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.
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.
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.
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.
I woke up this morning at 6. I wasn’t quite ready to get up and start my day. My bladder had other plans. I looked out the window in my front yard and sawfour deer. They were nibbling on my Apple tree out there. One adult, a yearling and two fawn.
The fawn were playing tag and chasing each around the yard. Once in awhile the other two would jump a bit to keep them going. It was just fun to watch.
Fawn
The realization is they make life simple. They’re just doing what they know without a care. If only we could all do that.
I invite you to take some time this morning to reflect. Sit with God. Let Him into your heart. What are you doing in your life to overcomplicate things? What do you need to do to simplify?
As I write this out in my deck. I have a cup of coffee to enjoy. It helps me think. I ponder what the day will bring. It’s Saturday so do I want to work hard on my chore list, my project list, or I’m just gonna screw around list?
The red squirrel decided he didn’t like the grey squirrel getting in on the action. They chased each other up to the top of the tree then down.
A hummingbird bird hovered in to say hi.
I can hear the rooster over at my neighbors place. Reminds me earlier the fawns were curious about a guinea hen. They followed it around as she pecked at various bugs, even picking some of the dead ones from the front of my car.
Peaceful. The world around me is awake. Now I hear an owl declaring the day. God has blessed me this day. Comment below on how God has blessed you today.
I decided to get up and go do something out of the area today. I’ve been on a short vacation since Wednesday. I spent most of the time off catching up on things that slip through the cracks over time.
Today was different. I got up early and headed north to Ely. There was an ATV trail ride today. Something I have never done. And I didn’t know anyone who was going. Just saw a post on FaceBook and took a chance.
We met up at Whiteside park in Ely, MN. I have many fond memories of being in Ely over the years. The town reminds me of Cicily, AK from the show Northern Exposure. Though, today I noticed many businesses are out and not coming back. I digress.
Group ATV Ride Gathering in Ely
There were 40-50 people all in different ATV’s–single riders and side by sides. We drove about 53 miles before stopping for lunch in Babbit, MN. Specifically, we shared the grounds with the Babbit Conservation Club. It took us about four hours to get there.
We traveled through some of the neatest back woods, lakes, and streams of Minnesota. And yes, I got mud on my new ATV. lol.
The plan was to backtrack the way we came. I wasn’t up for another four hours like that so I split off with a bunch of others who took the 20 mile short cut back to Ely.
I then visited with a friend at her business, Evergreen Cottage Wellness Center. Sonja has been my mentor in holistic health since 2008. It was really good to catch up.
I headed out after that and shopped at my favorite store there. Piragis Northwoods, an outfitter. They did try to tackle me down to put on a mask and I refused. Got my shopping done and headed out for home.
All in all I will put this day down as #bestsummerdayever.
Tonight I wanted to go out and mow the back half of the compound. But, there was a good soaking rain over the afternoon and things weren’t dry yet. Instead, I found another activity to capture my attention.
I picked raspberries.
The previous owners had built up quite a raspberry enclosure. Plants galore in there. Yesterday when I was mowing I was snacking off the berries that hung over the fence. It’s like you can taste the energy of the berry or the earth or life.
I’ve never really done this at scale before. Sure, I’ve come across berries out in the woods before. As a kid, honestly I didn’t like that kind of thing. Today, I felt blessed to be wading in among those plants. I’d pick a few, eat a couple. I got a quart bowl filled and I wasn’t even trying.
Fresh as they get
Do you ever just stop and breathe in the reality of your situation? I did tonight. I stopped right there and just felt amazed at the wonderment of it all. Maybe I’m overthinking the experience. It meant something to me to be able to harvest right on my property. I didn’t have to drive anywhere. I didn’t waste any packaging. I put them in a bowl and walked them right up to the house.
I’ll freeze this first batch. I think I’m going to have to be out picking everyday for the next week or so. That’s ok.
Yep, my knee’s are a bit sore from the weekend. And my back. Oh, my hands and wrists too.
No, it’s not because I’m getting older. Has nothing to do with that. It’s everything to do with crawling on all fours; along with the get up and down. I’m so excited to have the new flooring in the basement done.
It was a chore. It took me a good chunk of Saturday and most of Sunday to get it all down. A neighbor friend came over near the end to help me move the freezer and wood stove up over the lip of the new floor so I could get under them. Here’s some pictures.
Before the New FlooringFirst Rows of Flooring
I’m going to paint the steps white on the risers and an interesting dark shade of gray on the steps. I think it will be a nice accent in there.
The Hallway
The hallway was the toughest part of Sunday. I ran the flooring all the way back into the closet. I hope I didn’t screw myself on that move. I don’t remember if I included the closet in the original estimate when I ordered the wood. I can get more if I need. I’ll still have the back bedroom to do in the basement. I’m going to tile the bathroom.
Hallway Done
I was tempted at this point to be done for the day. But, I talked myself out of it.
The Last Row
My next steps?
I’m going to get the trim in. I still need to paint it all, then I’ll put it in. I also need to check to see if my nailer can do the longer trim nails. If so, that’ll make it go quick.
In the end, I’m pretty proud of the work here. Each step to the finish changes the energy of the place. I’m already starting to think ahead on how I’m going to begin work on the upstairs. But, I will force myself to wait until I am done with the trim and outlet covers down below. Otherwise, it might not get done.
I’ll freeze this first batch. I think I’m going to have to be out picking everyday for the next week or so. That’s ok. 
