The Barn
|
|
|
The barn was in pretty bad shape when we bought the property. The barn had no front door, was sliding slowly down the embankment and was filled with manure and trash that had been accumulating for decades.
We filled four dumpsters with material removed from the barn , , ,
This is what the first floor of the barn looked like when we began cleaning it out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Due to the fact that the door plus several boards on the front of the barn had been missing for so many years . . .
|
. . . The floorboards at the entrance to the barn had rotted through.
|
. . . and two of the support beams had collapsed.
|
The second floor was not in much better shape than the first floor. Among many other things, I found newspapers dating to the 1960s and books dating to the 1940s.
But it was a wonderful old pole barn!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I hired a contractor to reinforce the foundation.
|
|
|
|
|
I also had them build a floor across the entire rear of the barn.
|
|
|
Needless to say, the rear siding of the barn was not in very good condition!
So I removed all of the siding.
The view of the meadow from the inside of the barn was great!
|
|
|
So I decided to line the whole back wall with windows.
First I had to cover the entire back of the barn with a house wrap to keep the rain and snow out.
Then I framed and insulated the walls.
|
|
|
. . . and installed windows
The next big job was building the barn doors. Amy (a.k.a. "Barn Girl") and I built Dutch-style doors. Besides making the barn more secure, the doors will keep out the weather and keep it from deteriorating all over again. Below are a series of photos that chronicle the building of the doors.
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
Then "Barn Girl" and I installed a door to my workshop . . .
|
|
|
This past winter, I built a hearth and installed a wood-burning stove in the workshop so that I can work there throughout the year . . .
|
|
|
To be continued . . .
. . . probably for quite a long time, given the amount of work that needs to be done on the barn!
* * * * *
