B.G. Willers

It’s been 2024

The year of the floors and doors I might call it. There has been a lot of change this year, and it will probably in the long run be remembered by the long running remodel of our house. Throughout everything that has been going on . All the ups and the downs, this remodel project of the new house has been a constant.

I spend a decent amount of time journaling on my old computers (not as much as I would like) but I still need to handcuff myself to a keyboard in order to crank out a blog here. Then I find myself condensing these huge swaths of time down into a just a few paragraphs. There has been a ridiculous amount of things happen this year, and a ridiculous amount of ridiculous things.

It has been a year of loss. Katie lost both her best friend and her mother within weeks. I still wish I could help carry the weight of her grief from time to time. Even just for a day. It’s hard watching someone you love suffer. Then later this year we lost my Grandma Dee and a co-worker of mine within weeks. I’m sick and tired of funerals.

I will have completed a year here in Hutchinson on January 1st. By all measurable metrics, it’s been a great year. Sales are up, profit is up. But it has been challenging to balance work and personal life for sure. Whether at home, or at work, there’s always something I could be working on instead of relaxing or playing games. It’s been hard to do things I want to do for fun, without feeling guilty I’m not giving that time instead to family or work. And it’s hard to line up so many obligations without resenting that it’s taking away from my own personal interests. I don’t think I’m unique in these struggles, as everyone strives to find that balance. But for sure I’ve felt off balance for a good part of the year.

The Youtube channel has been on the back burner. I have some video yet of the move from January that I still need to find a way to edit into a video. And I have been reluctant to dive into making new videos until I get my room set up the way that I want. And of course that’s something that will take time from all the other things. But I need to just crank out a quick and easy video to get me back in the swing of things.

So the house… we moved in December 15th, but even before that we ripped out all the floors upstairs in 2023, painted all the walls. It’s an old doublewide trailerhouse, so we pulled all the wall strips off that they used to cover up the drywall seams and mudded in the drywall so that it looks more like a normal wall without all the strips.

The goal was to have everything done by Christmas. It was a good goal. Haha. We were sorta on track too, but a delay in the trim of about a month, and here we are still working on it. But even though there is still work to do, we have gotten so much done. Replaced the floor in every room upstairs except the bathrooms. That’s three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room hall, foyer, launrdy room. It’s a lot of floor! Painted every room but the bathrooms. New doors…

The doors have been a journey. We went and bought some pre-hung doors. In trailer houses though, they didn’t have door casings. They just trimmed out the rough opening with fake wood and hung a door on it. So when we measured the door openings, and bought doors, the new doors were too wide. I mean the DOOR was the right size for the opening. But the door casing wasn’t in the measurement. Learned that about buying doors. Also, every door was about 2 inches too tall. So we were faced with either returning these doors and custom ordering special doors. Or … making these fit. The cost of 10 custom doors didn’t make much sense, so we busted out the sawzall and made them fit. We widened every single doorway. And we cut the bottom off of every door. It has been a monumental amount of work, but I’m satisfied with the finished product.

It’s hard not to be proud of all the work we have gotten done. It’s not perfect, but I can see the finished product in my head and we are really close.

2024 is also the year I got engaged! Katie and I had been talking about it for quite a while, but on her birthday I finally got down on one knee and asked her with all her friends around. It was a lot of fun and even though we knew it was going to happen she was still surprised! It was nerve wracking having the ring around for the couple weeks leading up to the day. I’m not especially good at hiding things, or waiting to give gifts that I’m excited about. So I was pretty proud of myself.

The only one who knew was her Dad, as I had talked to him a month or so prior and asked his permission to ask Katie to marry me. He was a good partner in crime too because he never said a word!

We’re set to get married in October of 2025. Probably before I write the next blog entry here!

Looking back we’ve gotten to do so many cool things. We took the kids to the KC Renfest again this year. Ever since my first trip I knew I wanted to share that with Katie and the Kids. And this was the second year we all got to go. Luke started asking about it last year, asking when it was going to be and when we would get to go again. This year it was quite a different experience than last year. 2023 was rainy and mild. The crowd was pretty small. This time it was warmer and the crowd was big! Luke did find a cool knife to take home, and Emma got some pretty jewelry. It was a blast, but I think for 2025 I want to try to find another location and see what it’s like. Colorado Springs has a big Renfest out that way and while it’s a longer drive, it’s not so far that it’s impossible.

This place is the first place I’ve had where I live “in the country” since (depending on how you look at it) Woodlawn. I guess if you count living at a feedyard the country, then there was that too! But first time I’ve ever had to worry about the propane tank. Maintaining a driveway. All the critters you’ll find.

We’ve had deer drinking out of our pool. An armadillo got stuck in our basement window well one day. Rabbits ate all the sunflowers we tried to plant this year. And there’s about three cats roaming around that we don’t claim but they stop by. No snakes yet!

We are far enough from town that it’s no big deal to run and grab what you need. I’m actually closer to a grocery store than I was when I lived in Albert. But we are far enough off of pavement that you really have to come looking for us. Nobody is ever “in the neighborhood”!

So you may have gathered from the tone of this blog that this year has been a lot. It’s been tough mentally but really so many great things are going on. We have accomplished a lot both here at home and at work. And the losses we have had have really been driving home that life is too short to be anything but happy. There is so much I am grateful for in my life right now. And I have a lot to look forward to! Another year in the books.