Wrapping up 2025

We've had a few, final exciting highlights….  

My family and I had the joy of celebrating my granddaughter Madalyn’s wedding in Boston. Out of my six grandchildren, Madalyn is the oldest and the first to spread her wings all the way to the east coast. Madalyn took a position as a worship director at a church and her recent wedding gave our family a much-needed opportunity to re-connect and see the sights. 

Because we had a group attending this wedding, our family gave it no extra thought to rent an oversized SUV that came fully equipped with more screens and gadgets than both my computers combined. Anyone who knows me understands: When something is a challenge; suddenly I am interested. If something seems impossible; I am already grabbing my tools. 

However, the challenge of driving a small tank, in the dark, in the rain, in an unfamiliar city with lanes disappearing without warning … well, let’s just say… I aged a decade trying not to get my family in a car accident. Boston is one of the most intense cities I have ever driven through – ever. 

If you think I am exaggerating, consider this:

My oldest son Chris flew in separately with his fiancé Kristen, rented a car and got hit on TWO different occasions on the same day. We are fortunate nothing serious happened to either of them. Let’s just say, driving through Boston is not for the faint of heart or for the faint of constant, aggressive breaking! 

Needless to say, the wedding was absolutely beautiful. 

My granddaughter looked beautiful and the ceremony was filled with joy, worship and family love. She’s officially married to Wyatt Bahr who (fun fact!) also has roots with the Bemidji, Minnesota community. Small world. A big congrats to the newly-weds! 

Second, with a well-rounded crew, Paul and I were able to sneak away in the middle of the week to go hunting. Everyone who owns their own business knows first-hand how difficult it is to take a day off for yourself. However, I want to be intentional about spending quality time with my son Paul. Some days, I just want to be his dad and not only his boss. Those two lines unfortunately overlap a bit (ok…a lot) and this uninterrupted time in the field, with beautiful fall weather and our bird-dog Jaisey was a much-needed reprieve we both needed. Not to mention we got seven birds! 

Finally, we have lots of home remodels we are proud of. It’s hard to choose! This Christmas we’ve decided to highlight the Straus Addition. This detached garage first required hiring out a couple subs to excavate the land and pour the concrete. Next our team came in to frame the garage. This was slightly more difficult than normal due to a graded hill. 

Once we got the framing secured, we added sheathing on the exterior walls, followed by house wrap. From there we went straight into doing the roof. We had to manually install the trusses (“which sucked” …according to my son). From there, we split the crew in two (one team on roof + the other team on the log siding). We all worked together on doors and windows, which went smoothly. 

What didn’t go smoothly was an error occurring in the product order. What was thought to be an order of log siding ordered by square foot, was instead ordered by the vendor in linear feet. This was a specialty order to match the client's house that had multiple checks for proper quantity. (In layman’s terms – this shouldn’t have happened). Talk about frustrating! With an incorrect order, we ran out of material and had to switch to a different job until the siding arrived. Not to mention our entire team was facing heat exhaustion due to a particularly hot few weeks of consistent outdoor work. 

However, with all the hills and valleys of this particular job, the final product turned out amazing! Also, the clients were fantastic to work for. We do our best to prepare our customers for setbacks, but you never quite know how people will react. This family was kind, go-with-the flow and incredibly encouraging. Not to mention, they were more than happy with their final product of a custom-built detached garage. Thanks for choosing us for your addition!

That's it for 2025. 

We hope to see you all in the New Year!

Jeff Haseltine