2020

While the Carpenter has been working very very hard… I’ve been feeding baby goats! Heaven on Earth Farm Baldwin, Wisconsin

I haven’t felt like writing a post. Has felt trivial in a lot of ways. Covid, riots, politics.

To be transparent we had to lay off our crew March 2020 as the pandemic hit and our spring projects all canceled. Thankfully work contacts picked up like crazy shortly after the panic of the pandemic subsided. We couldn’t believe it.

But our crew was too afraid of Covid to return to work in private homes. The Carpenter hired subs, let go subs, hired one employee and let go one employee. Had to keep wearing his “bags on” hat, meet with prospective homeowners, oversee projects, and purchase/pick up most project supplies. We stayed open. And thankfully are still open today.

I made a list of the projects we have worked on January 2020 till today January 2021 just to gather my thoughts …

-Home 1 White Bear Township large basement finish with kitchenette and media area
-Home 2 Maplewood rambler basement update including: guest bedroom, media family room, lower bath, new build recording studio space and first floor bath remodel
-Home 3 White Bear Lake rambler great room addition with shiplap cathedral ceiling, new kitchen countertops, new kitchen windows and cabinet remodel to fit new windows
-Home 4 Vadnais Heights multi level owner’s suite bath update
-Home 5- Maplewood multi level new wood laminate flooring installed on second floor office/hallway and lower level family room
-Home 6 Old downtown White Bear Lake bungalow new craftsman exterior entry door with sidelights installed, and new millwork for interior airlock foyer and entry
-Home 7 White Bear Township 2000 sq ft concrete driveway replacement
-Home 8 Lino Lakes two story dining room renovation into home office
-Home 9 Scandia rambler exterior update/LP Smart Siding, new exterior doors, windows, and custom matched stain to existing interior stain for window millwork
-Home 10 Lino Lakes two story all new interior millwork, laminate wood floors and carpeted staircase– rebuilt to be all wood (stain custom matched to laminate floor) and metal rail spindles
-Home 11 Falcon Heights Cape Cod basement finish including new bath and laundry area

And looking at this list I am amazed at the amount of projects we tackled in crazy 2020. Hopefully 2021 is as busy as 2020 but not as crazy. We are currently looking to bring on sub framers, and trim carpenters. The Carpenter looks forward to project management and meeting with homeowners only in this new year.

Thank you to all our homeowners that signed on with us during the pandemic. We appreciate your patience and confidence in us and the future as we continue to work during this unprecedented time.

PS Photos coming. I’ve been absent from project sites due to Covid. Waiting for some build project photos from the Carpenter’s phone. ;) I also am starting to get some final photos taken and various projects uploaded to facebook.

Hello...

the Artist

The Carpenter on a current project. Family room addition built onto the back of a rambler in White Bear Lake.

I’ve been experiencing a creative dry spell. I commented to the Carpenter the other day, that I didn’t know what to write about. I think I have 2020 fatigue.

How has your summer gone? It’s been kind of crazy in many ways hasn’t it? What we hoped was a couple months blip in our lives.. has turned into one long ragged line. The virus, riots, the coming election drama and now hurricanes. We’ve all been touched one way or another.

Early during the pandemic most of our spring scheduled projects canceled. We had to lay off our crew. Then our crew chose not to return.

And then project contacts started rolling in… and in. What?! Home office renovations, basement remodels, bathrooms, decks, siding and window replacements. We came to realize that homeowners “under quarantine” seem to be focusing on what repairs and renovations their homes needed.

So the Carpenter has kept pulling his rig out onto the road every day to keep things moving along. He has jumped back in… “bags on”. Along with good help from subs, we are making it happen. We continue to look for carpenters, lead carpenters and subcontractors to join our team.

We are confident this time will pass. The virus will pass, the storms will blow themselves out and the election.. well we’ll see.

And we can keep on “helping you love where you live”!

PS The term “bags on” refers to the tool bag carpenter’s use while on the job.

Take out?

the Artist

A lot has happened since my last post. That’s an understatement. We’ve been riding the rough seas of the current small business climate. Along the ride we’ve experienced the best and worst of human nature. It has been eye opening. It really does take (in this case) a pandemic to find out who are friends and who are aren’t.

I’ve thought about writing off and on over the past few months. I strive for transparency… what it’s like to own a small business, who we are, that’s the reason behind this blog. Sharing the happy and successful is easy. We want to always project prosperity and positivity. But I can not share the hard very well. And of course there has been hard, for Applewood and for everyone right now. So I have been torn.

The good is we are fortunate to be considered essential. We have been able to keep working… not at full capacity but working none the less.

Small businesses resonate with me. I have felt really bad for my hair salon, the little gift shop that opened in our town right on the cusp of the virus, my dental hygienist, our local restaurants. I miss eating out the little bit we did. I miss meeting the Carpenter for coffee or stealing away for a good breakfast. I drive around our town and see the empty streets, the dark store fronts and it makes me sad.

I do think it’s wonderful our local restaurants have been able to reinvent themselves with “Take Out”. I’ve been racking my brain about how we can adapt and improvise too. Could there be such a thing as “Take Out” Carpentry? Curbside pick-up. Specials on “Additions in a Box” or “Decks to Go?” Kidding. But seriously.

Looks like this pandemic isn’t going away any time soon. So we continue to be open for business. We have had some chilly homeowner meetings on outside patios, and heated garages.. keeping our social distance. We’ve made it work.

We are scheduling projects for late spring, summer into fall. If you give us a call… we can meet wherever you are comfortable. At least it is warming up for outside meetings! We are hanging in there and hope you are too.

Be well and we look forward to speaking with you.

Photo by Hello Lightbulb on Unsplash