2025 National Sauna Week Tour

This past Sunday, Julie and I hosted a stop on this year’s National Sauna Week Tour.

Our sauna can best be described as a recovery project that dates back to the year before I retired. At that time the masonry chimney was sinking the entire building into its center due to the joists rotting out as a result of the excessive moisture near the lake. My Dad was encouraging me to just take the building down, but, given the significance of the structure to our family and being half-Finn, I took this as a challenge to save it. As fate would have it, Julie and I were up in Calumet one afternoon during this stay in July 2014 where we took an interest in a building with a tall smokestack near the schools. We got out of our vehicle to look around where a few guys were sitting outside. We asked them if we could check it out and one of them told us that Phil could show us around. Phil Sladek was a young man riding up on a banana-seat bicycle. He would show us around the facility which is Universal Metal Works. As we were finishing up the tour, we noted that they had sauna stoves. We talked about our interest in getting a new one but had that not so small matter of repairing the structure first. Phil indicated that he had just gotten his contractor’s license and that he would be willing to take a look at it. Phil came by that evening and we discussed a strategy for repairing it which would involve cutting out the existing floor while leaving the walls and roof standing. This first phase would involve installing new 2 x 6 flooring over new joists and beams with the inclusion of a Universal Metal Works wood-fired sauna stove with a stove pipe instead of a masonry chimney. We agreed on an hourly rate and that we would cover materials. We headed back to Kansas and Phil would start working his magic.

I found these photos that Phil took after cutting out the floor.

My Dad was there at the time and here he is looking in on the project.

After installing new beams and joists, Phil installed the new floor.

Then came the new stove.

By our return trip in September, Phil would have it ready for use. After moving up after my retirement in 2015, Phil would finish up the steam room with cedar walls and a cedar ceiling. He would also add cedar veneer and beer can shelves to the changing room and add a metal roof. Since then, this is what we and our Airbnb guests have enjoyed and what our Sauna Tour visitors saw on their visit.

Phil does business as Early Bird Construction. In addition to our sauna, he built our waterfront deck, replaced our seawall, put a metal roof on our cabin, made significant repairs within our cabin, and built our garage with its overhead studio. You can reach Phil at 906-369-3511.

While the weather was less than hospitable on the day of the tour, we had a great time meeting those who came by to see us. I would meet two more remote workers I did not know about and would learn about a third.

Monday would be bitterly cold with the temperature barely making zero along with below zero wind chills. We would pass on our swim due to the conditions, but my exercise in its place would be to get up on our roof to dig out our furnace and bathroom exhausts and then shovel the well over one-foot of snow across the entire roof. The project would take about three hours to complete.

The day would also provide the opportunity to knock out the minutes for the December Hancock Trails Club board meeting and to provide input on sites to consider for inclusion on a revitalized Keweenaw Water Trail. We would push our Chassell Historical Organization board meeting out a week due to the weather conditions and several board members’ illnesses.

Do you embrace winter and have the ability to work remotely? Consider locating in the Keweenaw where you will find ubiquitous natural beauty, no congestion, and lower crime! Not sure? Come UP for a workcation to check it out! Learn how at Visit Keweenaw at https://www.visitkeweenaw.com/plan/trip-ideas-itineraries/workcations/ Visit Remote Workforce Keweenaw at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com. Learn about those making the decision to locate here by following the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw.