reflections

Renovation Adventures – Upstairs Complete

~ Jeff Evenson ~ 1 Comment

The upstairs. A place where I spend a majority of my time. When I redid the upstairs about two years ago I did not include the bathroom in the phase. I needed to tear out the bedroom below the bathroom so I could have access to all of the plumbing. So I waited.

Recall the start of the bathroom tear out here.

This project turned out to be much more than I anticipated.

Such is life though. In life when we encounter people we only see the outside layers; at least until we get to know them. Humans are pretty complex beings because we know how to hide those deepest layers from the outside. That’s probably not always a good thing.

To recap, I found so many layers in the bathroom tear out. Previous posts talk about that also. The fun part was getting to put everything back together again. If only our lives were that simple. Tear something out, clean it up, and replace. Ha.

As a part of the bathroom update, I was also able to update the plumbing in the entire house. I ended up running PEX home runs back to the utility closet near the well ingress. I decided to rip out or abandon the copper lines running throughout. One main reason for the update is me having to already replace a couple of the copper valves in the old system. I got tired of finding a drip puddle when a valve decided to let go. So those lines are done. I did take out what I could but had to leave others in place. I think I’ve shown pictures of the new PEX manifold system. Here it is just in case I didn’t.

Rerunning those water lines was actually kinda fun. It’s a different way of handling water. Now I’m contemplating adding a water softener into the mix. My skin is taking a beating with this hard water.

Some of the other reno posts cover the progress I made along the way with the bathroom. Let me move on to more pictures of the work in putting this thing back together. Some pictures are repeats over the span of the project.

Seal coating prior to LevelQuick.
Durock going up
Plastic vapor barrier
Working toward the corner
LevelQuick poured
Fingerpainting Ha!
Added a Linen Closet
New Linen Closet
Shelves in the Linen closet
Putting it All Back

It’s important to point out, in the midst of completing the bathroom I decided to retire from my day job of Cybersecurity. I had been doing that type of work for 39 years; if you add in the 20 I served in the navy. In some respects as I was rebuilding this bathroom I was also redefining who I was. The many hours, weeks, months I spent working around my schedule to get this bathroom finished helped me make the decision to let the technology job go. And I supposed that is one main reason I moved up north.

Living up north on this homestead was supposed to bring in a very different life. One that reconnects back to simpler things. When I think of all of my nutrition patients over the years and how I often suggested they do what they can to let the stressors in their life go; even job changes and relationship improvements. I finally decided to hear my own advice. Now I can truly model something for my clients that is genuine to me.

I’ll write more on how that’s going. For now the next steps are to finish tearing out the basement bathroom/laundry room. It’s mostly demo’d. I just left the shower, toilet and sink in place while I finished the upstairs bathroom. Technically I could have ripped all of that out as well because I have a full bathroom out in the shop. I just didn’t want to make the mad dash out there in -30 below weather.

Thanks for tuning in. Please comment below with any questions or discussion items.

Another Sunday

~ 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.

Shower Pan to go in this corner
Type N Mortar Mixed Improperly…not enough water.
Pulling up the bad concrete

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.

TileRedi Shower Pan

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

~ 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

    ~ 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.

    Old Bed filled with Wood Chips

    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.

    Each big rock dug 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.