Local firms can help with remodeling, maintenance, real estate listings
Local firms can help with remodeling, maintenance, real estate listings
SUE WEBBER • CONTRIBUTING WRITER
If you already have a lake home or cabin in the Brainerd Lakes area and are seeking help on a remodeling or maintenance project, a variety of local firms are available. Several are listed below.
• LakeLife Homes, PO Box 504, Crosslake, MN 56442; 218-398-2156; lakeliferestoration. com
• Clean‘ N Seal, 4503 Brady Blvd., Brainerd, MN 56401; 218-232-3863
• Northland Cabin Care, 10935 Gull River Road, Brainerd, MN 56401; 218-824-1626.
• Bercher Design & Construction, 7676 Design Rd., Ste. 100, Baxter, MN; 218-829-1381
• Start to Finish Builders and Remodelers, 17025 Commercial Park Road # 4, Brainerd, MN 56401; 218-828-0585
• Hy Tec Construction of Brainerd, Inc.; 218-829-8529
• Hoffman Weber Construction, 607 Oak St., Brainerd, MN 56401; 218-520-2025
• Crosslake Builders; 218-820-7233
• Sander Brothers Builders, 15776 MN-6, Deerwood, MN 56444; 218-330-8725
• E. L. Builders, 28393 Mayo Hills Road, Pequot Lakes, MN 56472; 218-839-4158
• Artisan Builders, 12317 Alliance Way SW, Brainerd, MN 56401; 218-866-2876
If you’ re considering purchasing a cabin in the Brainerd Lakes area, several realtors are listed at brainerd. com / business-directory / realestate / agents, including:
• upnorthproperties. com /, 15324 Dellwood Dr. St. 100; Brainerd, MN 56401; 218-820-7355
• positiverealty. com /, 15244 Highway 371, Baxter, MN 56425; 218-829-1777; 4820 County Road 77, Nisswa, MN 56468
• brainerdlakeshore. com /: Chad Piepho, Realtor; 4687 Skillman St., Brainerd, MN 56401; 218-963-MOVE
Further information about cabin repair specialists and agents in the Brainerd Lakes area may be found at Brainerd. com / businessdirectory / real-estate / agents
This is the Andersons’ view from their beach house across Gull Lake to what used to be the Ranger Tower Hill and is now Mount Ski Gull.( Submitted photo)
Brainerd has changed a lot since his early years there, Jim said.“ It has a lot of box stores now,” he said.“ When were kids, we had a favorite gas station where we went to load up on treats.”
If there was a downside to going to the lake, it was the driving, Jim recalled.“ They’ ve expanded the road, but it’ s still obsolete,” he said.
The other downside is maintaining the cabins and homes, he said.“ We built a big porch on the front of the old farmhouse,” Jim said.“ At first, we shared a log cabin built in 1913 and lived there during the remodeling. It wasn’ t winterized.”
When it came time to do some restoration work, his dad added onto the cabin and used a contractor from the Twin Cities who was a good family friend.
“ My dad would use a general contractor out of Golden Valley who is no longer in business, but they used all local electricians, plumbers, lumber yards, etc. from the area,” he recalled.
“ There were carpenters who would do additions or paneling. There are at least a dozen builders who will build a house or put on an addition.”
Subsequently, his dad bought three places across the road that had been part of an old farm.“ There were 100 acres with one house; my brother fixed it up,” Jim said.“ We also fixed up the old house.”
“ My mom, who died in 2009, moved to Brainerd full time after my dad died in 1989,” Jim said.“ My three sisters didn’ t want the place, so it was me and my brothers and our families. We sold off one house.”
In October 2024, Jim retired from practicing real estate law with Minnesota Power, his Twin Cities law firm, and he and his wife moved from Golden Valley to the Brainerd home permanently.
“ Ginger and I did not have children but had a foster daughter and she and her husband and children come to visit from Atlanta,” he said.“ My brother and sister-in-law have five children and 10 grandchildren that spend a minimum of all of July at the lake, and my sister, an attorney who is not an owner, comes with her husband and daughter off and on year around.”
“ The cabins are full now between mid-June and mid-August,” Jim said.“ It’ s mostly my brother’ s family,” he said.“ My brother and his wife live in Bozeman and spend most of the summer here. He is a retired attorney and pro-ski patrol at Big Sky in the winter and she is a professor at Montana State University.” His sister-in-law is president of the Nisswa Garden Club.
Regarding yard maintenance, Jim said he hired a local guy, a good friend, in the mid-70s, and he’ s still doing the yard work.“ We have a huge vegetable garden my dad started, and we carry it on for him,” Jim said.“ My wife and sister-in-law love it.”
Although he retired from his law firm and is not taking on new clients, Jim is working part-time with a lot of clients who are in the Brainerd area.“ A lot of people buy and sell lake homes, he said.”
Summing up his new way of life Up North, Jim said,“ I’ ve traded dress shirts for flannel shirts.”
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