Homegrown

Regan Sweeney’s dream house in northwest Wisconsin is largely a do-it-yourself affair with do-it-yourself materials

When Regan Sweeney was 5 years old, his father, Irvine, bought 160 acres of land north of Jim Falls, Wisconsin, in the northwest part of the state, a little over a hundred miles east of Minneapolis. The land was on a dead-end road facing 30-acre Parker Lake. Filled with wildflowers and a meadow, it was a private place, frequented by wildlife far more than humans.

The land had special meaning for the Sweeney family. Irvine’s wife, Connie, a nurse, had grown up on a farm nearby. Her parents had operated a little tavern in the area. So, when the property came up for sale in 1969, Irvine, an over-the-road truck driver as well as an avid outdoorsman, grabbed it. It was very important to him that the land stay in the family.

When they were young, Regan and his brother, Kevin, spent much time on the land. They planted, weeded and picked cucumbers, which they grew on two acres of land that their father had cleared out. They spent a good deal of time planting Norway Pine in the open areas of the land, dreaming, no doubt, of the day the trees would grow thick and dark. Neither knew, of course, that several decades later, they would be cutting down some of those trees to build a rustic house for Regan, who today is a sales rep for MWI Veterinary Supply.

Born for the country

Regan Sweeney was born and raised in Chippewa Falls, Wis., just north of Eau Claire, which itself is just about 25 miles from Jim Falls. He attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and graduated in 1986 with a major in agriculture and three minors: animal science, agronomy and farm management. It seemed clear that young Sweeney was destined for a life in the country.

Upon graduation, he went to work for Land O’ Lakes as a livestock production specialist. Land O’ Lakes, famous for its butter and other dairy products found at supermarkets, is a cooperative dedicated to helping its members produce high-quality milk, eggs, meat and crops. Sweeney’s job was to work with dairy farmers on improving the nutrition of their livestock and to promote a number of animal health products. “I became well-versed in nutrition as well as the management tools necessary for good bottom-line efficiency and business ethics,” he says. “It was a heck of an education.” He enjoyed the job and worked there eight years.

In 1998, he took a sales job with Iowa Veterinary Supply (now IVESCO), calling on a wide array of veterinarians - equine practitioners, poultry veterinarians, large-animal veterinarians and companion-animal vets.

It was quite a transition to sales, he admits. “There was a learning phase.” But, as he had at Lake O’ Lakes, he seized the opportunity to learn more about the industry. “I was very fortunate, because I had the enthusiasm and drive to look into something new and different from what I had previously been doing,” he says. “But I had a good track record and good communication skills, along with the drive to do well and to grow. I was looking for an opportunity to prove myself, and the decision-makers at Iowa Vet gave that to me.”

Indeed, Sweeney learned that he had some traits that would suit him well in sales. “I had the ability to read people well and adjust my selling style based on their personality,” he says. “You have to be cognizant of body language. And I’m typically not the hard-driving, down-your-throat type of person. I ask for the order, overcome objections and help the client deal with any objectives they may have. I make people feel comfortable with me. I’m knowledgeable, and I like to think I’m a
likeable person.”

Dream takes shape
Three years before joining Iowa Vet, Sweeney’s dad sold his 160 acres to his son. He knew that some day, he would build a house on the land and live there, but that was in the future. Indeed, the land sat undeveloped for a number of years. Then, in the fall of 2000, while Sweeney was visiting, he was taken by the beauty of the area, with the fall leaves and fresh air. “I thought, ‘Now is the time to start planning,’” he says.

He put together a crude drawing of what he wanted the house to look like, then ran it by a friend of his sister-in-law’s, Richelle Seibel, who draws up house plans professionally. The drawing went back and forth many times over the course of a year.

“As weird as it may sound, having a three-door garage was important to me,” says Sweeney. He wanted plenty of room for his boat as well as car. “I also wanted to use natural things - field stone and wood. It was important to me from a cost-savings standpoint and a sentimental standpoint. I had the land and the logs. My feeling was, ‘Why not use what I have?’”

Felling trees
With the plans drawn up, Sweeney, his father and brother began the strenuous task of cutting down 250 to 300 trees from the land - white pine for the ceilings and cabinetry, red oak for the tongue-and-groove flooring and trim. “It was great bonding time,” says Sweeney of the tree-cutting experience. It was completed over the course of a couple of winters. “I would cut the trees down, my dad would skid them out with a tractor, and my brother would decide what lengths to cut them in.”

At their own saw mill, the Sweeneys cut the trees into boards. The house is framed with 2×6s, with interior walls using 2×4s. One-inch boards were needed for the roof and sidewalls. Once the cutting and sawing process were completed, the boards were laid on slats for drying - a two-year process. Once dried, the boards were planed smooth.

As far as the baseboard, trim and flooring Sweeney hauled the dried oak boards to a local Mennonite business for finishing. “It called for some intricate designing, and that’s something you have to have all the equipment for,” he says.

He toyed with the idea of building a log cabin, or at least of finishing the exterior of the house in cedar. But he decided on aluminum siding. “I thought of the high maintenance of log and cedar, and the staining. As I get older, I decided that’s not something I wanted to do.”

Natural feel
But everything else about the house is natural and “of the land.” Given Sweeney’s desire for a natural feel to the house, he finished the entire first-floor ceilings in pine. The cabinets are also pine. Over the garage, he built a recreation room with a couch, TV and a conference table for drawing up hunting plans. He keeps his fishing lures and other outdoor gear there. The house has a finished basement, complete with a theater, bar and vault for hunting weapons.

In the living room, he built a floor-to-ceiling fireplace with natural rocks from the land. He started collecting the rocks in 1995, when he cleared some food plots for deer. “The glacier was good to us in that it left a lot of rocks in this area,” he says. So, while digging up land for the food plots, he saved the most attractive rocks and kept them in a pile. Then, during construction of the house, as land was cleared for a power line, he collected more rocks. He didn’t have quite enough for the entire project, but still, 80 percent of the rocks in the house are from his land.

To heat the house, Sweeney had an outdoor wood furnace installed (as well as a gas backup). The burning wood heats water, which is pumped under the ground into the house, and dispersed through pipes that run under the floors. He had professionals install the tubing as well as the electrical system.

A place to come home to
As an MWI rep, Sweeney covers the western half of Wisconsin, and is on the road one to two nights a week. He is always eager to return to his house on Friday nights, and spends his weekends doing outside work or hunting, fishing, canoeing or four-wheeling. A state snowmobile trail, which runs about half a mile from the house, allows Sweeney to enjoy another of his favorite outdoors activities.

Digging for the house commenced in spring 2005. Sweeney was able to move in January 2007. In between, he took a job with MWI. And although the work was long and strenuous, he never doubted it would be completed.

“I knew I was going to do it,” he says. “I didn’t know exactly when.” Calling on veterinarians up to 70 hours a week, then switching companies mid-stream, made it a formidable task. But it was well worth it. And he learned a few things in the process.

“One thing I learned is that you really need to be appreciative and thankful for what God has allowed you to receive,” he says. Another lesson was the need to be patient and to persevere, even in the most stressful of times. “I would never do this again,” he admits, speaking about building the house. “But you have to have a positive attitude and faith that you will achieve your goal.”

Finally, he learned something that he cautions all home builders to keep in mind. “You can never plan enough. I planned five years ahead of time before I started building. Anybody who’s going to undertake a task like this needs to know that you really need to plan and prepare accordingly.”