Saturday morning was one of those great times for a building contractor….the grand opening of Millstream Commons, a beautiful assisted living project we built for Three Links Care Center in Northfield.


The event was held from 9:00AM until noon. The weather was beautiful and there were hundreds of people in attendance.

I was so pleased to see Lonsdale Mayor Tim Rud and City Councilman Fritz Duban in attendance. They are working hard to create an assisted living facility in Lonsdale.

Three Links had wonderful food for everyone. There were good places to sit in the barista that was built for the residents.

We also were able to sit and enjoy food while visiting with friends in the dining room. Three Links CEO Pat Vincent, Northfield Mayor Lee Lansing and others spoke to the group about the project.

There was even a harpist playing for the event.

Everyone at Northfield Construction Company was pleased to work on this fine project. It will provide clean, bright wonderful housing for people that are no longer able to live alone on their own, but are not ready to live in a true nursing home. I thank Three Links Care Center for the dedication and hard work they put into this great project.

Posted by Ray Cox at 1:01 PM | Link

 
We now have a web page dedicated to the home for sale at Circle Lake:


It is marketed by Sonja Freeland at Northfield Edina Realty. See the MLS listing for the house, and contact her for more information.

On Sunday, April 2, she will be hosting an open house to the public from 1-3 p.m.

Posted by Ray Cox at 6:17 AM | Link

 
We recently finished up a nice remodeling project for a client in Northfield. The work involved installing a new kitchen in the existing kitchen location. The end result looks wonderful and the client is very pleased with how everything turned out.

We used granite countertops for this kitchen. Granite is a very durable material that is very stain resistant. With the popularity of stone counters and increased demand, we are seeing pricing come down every year. Granite is a good choice for a long-term, good looking countertop.

As part of the work we installed glass double doors from the kitchen area to the porch. These doors replaced a traditional exterior type sliding glass door. Using hinged doors creates a larger opening, useful when entertaining to carry things from room to room.

It is so rewarding to have clients appreciate the work we do and thank us for helping make their home function better for their changing needs. Contact us if we can assist you with a remodeling project....no matter what the size.

Posted by Ray Cox at 7:10 AM | Link

 
Ellen and I visited Nashville, Tennessee at the end of February for a few days. We had a great relaxing time being in that part of America before I started in with my Legislative duties.

Having been in the construction business all my working life I like to visit and observe how local building materials in an area are used. Nashville didn’t let me down.

In our visit to Belle Meade, a plantation from the early 1800’s, I found some very interesting brickwork. What I thought from a distance was simply decorative brickwork turned out to have a useful purpose.

The dark pattern is created from missing bricks, which creates ventilation. This is on a wall of a large smoke house where over 20,000 pounds of bacon was cured every year.

Another interesting feature on the Belle Meade plantation was found in the log outbuildings.

Some of the log corners were hewn in what appears to be a dovetail pattern…

Others were hewn in a more traditional pattern.

In both case it appears that the joint shed water….a very important feature of log construction.

There also is a lot of stone used in buildings in Tennessee as there is so much stone available in the area. We stopped by the state capitol and discovered that it is made entirely of Tennessee stone....I believe a gray limestone.

Outside of Nashville at the University of the South we ran into some absolutely beautiful stone buildings. People on the campus said stone carvers were imported from around the world when the buildings were under construction.

When I look at these beautiful historic buildings made of stone and logs I always think of the huge amount of labor that went into constructing them. Without the use of hydraulics or modern saws and lifting devices it took a huge effort to do something that today we might do in a few hours.

Posted by Ray Cox at 2:06 PM | Link

 
Work has continued on the new home we are building near Circle Lake for a client. With the roof on it looks of more substance now as it sits on the lot.

Cliff and the crew working on the home have to pay a lot of attention to framing details.

On many of the houses we construct there are multiple windows that must all align properly. Sometimes the windows and door heads must also exactly align if we are mounting a trim board that crosses all of them.

It takes a lot of effort to get things properly framed up. But when you do, you have a strong, well-constructed home that will not settle or twist. And by paying particular attention to window and door flashings you are assured of a tight, weather resistant home.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:42 AM | Link

 
Last Saturday the Lonsdale Chamber of Commerce held their 3rd annual Business Showcase. This year the event was held in a large warehouse of one of the local businesses. It worked out very well and was not too crowded.



There were lots of area businesses represented at the show. Chris Smisek and Phil Olson staffed the Northfield Construction Company booth. They ran into Doug Grove from Northfield who was there with his Grove Landscaping booth.

The Lonsdale Community Days royalty was also at the show. It is always great to see these young women out and about promoting the great City of Lonsdale.

City Councilman Fritz Duban was also there chatting with people about city issues.

It was a good day for this business showcase. Everyone was pleased to see it so well attended. Lonsdale is a growing community and this event helps people learn about what services are available in the area. I thank everyone involved in organizing the event.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:10 AM | Link