New Barn Built with Old Materials
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While we were not blogging for the past month, we also were not working on the house. Instead, we have turned our energy to building a barn. And in our usual style, the traditional route is not for us. Rather than just building a barn, we built our new barn with lumber we recycled from an old cotton barn that had stood by the railroad track in Newborn for nearly 100 years.
Above, you can see the new, nearly-completed barn. At left, you can see the old cotton barn that supplied most of the material. More pictures are on my Picasa photo-sharing site.
The house we are restoring came with two out-buildings -- a barn and a smokehouse -- that were (to be kind) in disrepair. We wanted a decent barn or workshop for our wagon, the lawnmower, my workshop and other stuff that doesn't belong the house. (As an aside, you should know that I [as any civilized person would] still plan to keep my bicycles in the house. [Don't tell Andi; we'll just let that be our little secret.])
Just so you know, we did hire somebody to help us build the barn. He and a couple of laborers would work all week and we would work all weekend. The entire project (dismantling and new construction) took about six weeks. Andi and I built and hung the doors this weekend to finish the last of the major construction. We'll try to get the final trim work and inspection completed this week. Painting and bricking around the foundation will probably have to wait until springtime.
The old cotton barn was just a strong wind from falling down, and the city had sent a letter to the property owner telling them they had 90 days to make it safe or dismantle it. Since the barn had no real use these days, we arranged with the owner to take it down for them. The exterior skin of the barn was useless, but the remainder of the heart pine lumber was in surprisingly good shape.
The new barn is a good bit smaller than the old barn, but we think it'll be just right for our needs. We have an interesting paint scheme planned, and we'll share more photos as we make progress on that front. (But it may be a while, because we may turn our attention back to the remaining projects in the house -- the dining room and master bathroom.)
We have a good bit of lumber left over from the old cotton barn. It's great wood and I'll probably use some of it to build some furniture. And, a local antique dealer is interesting in trading for some of the left-over lumber. We need about 2,000 old bricks, but might settle for some nice furniture. We'll let you know how that turns out. Stay tuned.