07/03/2026
We've been a little quiet. Here's what we've been up to. 🏗️
It's been a minute since we posted. Not because nothing was happening. Quite the opposite.
This is the story of the Mercer build. A job that was a solid three-hour drive from home, on a lakefront property on a private lake up north — the kind of setting that would have been a lot more enjoyable if we weren't also racing against the clock and the weather.
Buckle up.
Chapter 1: The Sunday before
Every build starts before it starts. Sunday, June 28th, Brett drove to
pick up the first load of materials.
They were there. Technically. But "there" and "ready" are two very different things, and on this particular Sunday they were not the same thing at all. Five hours. That's how long it took to load out lumber, posts, trusses, and concrete cookies — including hand-picking through the bigger lumber items to find pieces worth putting into a customer's building. We'll spare you the name of the supplier. If you've been following along since the Strum build, you already know. You're welcome. 🙄
He made it home. Eventually.
Chapter 2: Day 1 — The rocks
Monday, June 29th. Brett was on the road by 4:30am. He pulled into the job site in Mercer at 8am. Paul Wojcik of PAW Concrete had been on site since around 6am and already had a head start on the dirt work by the time Brett pulled in. Alex Severson of ADS Construction arrived about 30 minutes after Brett and got straight to work. We love a sub who shows up.
What nobody was expecting was what was underneath that dirt.
Rocks. Everywhere. We're not talking pebbles. We're talking softball-sized to basketball-sized rocks scattered throughout the site, with one coming in roughly the size of a car tire. When you're drilling post holes and you hit rock after rock after rock, things slow down fast. Posts that were supposed to be buried by 10am weren't in the ground until 1:30pm.
Three and a half hours behind schedule before noon.
Now, when we encounter unexpected rock on a job, we typically charge for the additional labor time. That's standard in this industry and it's in our contracts for exactly this reason. We'll come back to why we didn't on this particular job.
Brett pushed through. Posts buried. Framing started. Marked, squared, and moving.
At 4:30pm he loaded up and drove to Eau Claire to pick up the second load of materials. Arrived at 7:30pm. Spent another hour and a half there because — again — the materials were not ready. You know who you are. 🙄
Meanwhile, Wisconsin decided that late June was a great time to become the surface of the sun. Heat index values were reaching up to 107 degrees across the state on June 29th. Brett was working outside in it all day and then sitting in a truck for hours on either end. By the time he pulled into the driveway at 9:30pm, he had been going for nearly 17 hours straight.
The kids had stayed up to greet him. Every single one of them.
Exhausted, waiting, excited to see dad walk through the door.
He helped finish packing despite our best attempts to get him to sit down. We had a very early morning ahead.
Chapter 3: 4:30am, full truck, headed north
Tuesday, June 30th. Alarm went off at 4:30am. We loaded the materials, loaded the kids — under significant protest from everyone involved — and headed north.
We pulled into the job site at 8:15am. Brett unhooked the trailer, grabbed his tools, and sent the rest of us on our way.
Our first stop was the store. We had forgotten a hairbrush, paper plates, plastic utensils, and napkins. Everyone also got sunglasses, which turned out to be a very good call given what the day had in store. Then we made Brett lunch and drove it back out to him at the job site. Meat and cheese on bread. Nothing fancy.
He said it was the best sandwich he had ever eaten.
We're choosing to believe it was made with love and not just that he was running on fumes in 107-degree heat. We're choosing that. 🥪
After lunch delivery, we headed to Carow Park — a beautiful lakeside park right there in Mercer with a pavilion, tire swings, a beach, a dock, and a swimming area. I made PB&J's, ate lunch in the shade, and let the kids run. They went down to the beach, dipped their feet in, sat on the dock, and did what kids do when you give them water and a little room. Then we explored the Wampum Shop and made a stop at the Mercer Public Library.
Meanwhile, Brett was back on site doing what Brett does. Framing. Trimming. Getting the roof ready. And then — and this part genuinely impressed us — the crew poured the concrete and roofed the building at the same time. Two major phases running simultaneously in brutal heat. Paul and Alex showed up and they showed out.
By early afternoon, one side of steel was on.
Our AirBnB opened at 2pm with an early check-in and we were there the moment we could be. Lakeside cabin on Lake Mercer. We got everything set up, picked Brett up from the job site, made dinner, and took the kids swimming in the lake.
The heat did not care that we were done working. The AC in the cabin could not keep up with the temperatures outside. We ended up closing off the bedrooms, pulling a mattress onto the living room floor, and bunking everyone together where it was at least slightly cooler — though "slightly cooler" still meant somewhere around 80 degrees until about 2 or 3 in the morning.
We woke up at 6:30am to 68 degrees and felt like we had won something.
Chapter 4: The finish line
Wednesday, July 1st. Brett was beat up. There is no other way to put it. The heat, the pace, the rocks, the long days — it had added up. This job had not gone as smoothly as anticipated and he had pushed hard to make up for it.
He went back anyway. Because that's what you do.
We dropped him at the job site at 7am and headed back to the cabin. Made pancakes. Played board games. Did some admin work.
Made Brett another big lunch — meat and cheese, same as before — and drove it out to him. Same reaction as the first time. At this point we're starting to think we've been underselling our sandwiches.
Back at the cabin — more PB&J's, the kids helped make them. Rest time. A little volleyball in the yard. Some admin work.
Then Brett called. He was done.
Well — almost done. A few trim pieces had arrived in the wrong color, and a few others were missing or damaged. You know who's responsible for that too. But the building itself? Done.
I talked it over with the kids and everyone agreed: we were going to go help clean up so dad could be done faster. And so we did.
The whole family showed up on that job site and got to work.
The customers thought it was the cutest thing they had ever seen.
Here's what we didn't tell you earlier. Those customers — from the very beginning of this job — were genuinely wonderful to our crew.
Kind, gracious, hospitable. When we hit all of those rocks and lost hours of the day to something nobody could have planned for, we made a decision: we waived the additional labor charge. Not because we had to. Because they deserved it, and because that's how we like to do business when someone treats our crew the way they treated ours.
Cleanup went fast with everyone pitching in. And the evening that followed was exactly what this family needed after a week like that.
Grilled chicken. Baked potatoes on the grill. Corn on the cob. Swimming. Kayaking. Volleyball. Co****le. A fire. S'mores. Late bedtime. Up at 5:30am and back on the road for home.
The part that actually matters
Big shoutout to Paul Wojcik of PAW Concrete and Alex Severson of ADS Construction. You both showed up, worked hard in conditions that had no business being that hot in Wisconsin, and helped us get it done. We don't take good subs for granted.
Brett still needs to make a return trip to finish up the trim situation — but the customers are happy, the building is standing, and western Wisconsin isn't the only place we build anymore.
No job site photos this time — customer approval still pending. But since we happened to be three hours north on a lake, we figured the scenery was worth sharing. Also, we found this gem of a shop in town and felt it was our duty to document it for western Wisconsin. You know what they say up north. 🧀
Mercer — we're coming back. 🏗️
