Another barn arrives

The third barn made its journey to our property yesterday. Because of it's size (and various components), it had to be dismantled first. The base went on one truck...

and the roof went on another. Check out the extra load on this truck...the CAT skid steer caught a ride, too.

Ashley took these pictures because I wasn't along for this adventure. Apparently, the barn collapsed at one point but they managed to get it put back together. It's still pretty rickety and will need a good bit of work to make it usable.

This will give you a perspective of how the backyard is shaping up...

This picture was taken against what will become our back porch. Ashley decided the barns needed to be closer to the house, rather than far away, which will make them more practical and likely to be used. The other two barns are already being used--one to store the pieces of a barn and the other is being used by the framers to store some of their materials.

Moving on up

On Friday the majority of the downstairs was roughly framed in, minus a few walls. By Monday afternoon, the framers were moving on up to the second floor. I'm going to try to take a picture from this angle each time I blog to give a perspective of what is accomplished. As a reminder, you're facing the right front corner of the house (guest bedroom to far left; master suite to the far right; living room in the center).

You can't see it from this photo--but the guys had a small fire going to keep them warm. I guess that's a good use of scrap wood, especially on days when water freezes in the dog's water bowl.

In case you're wondering about the barn project--here's the one that I included in the video. It's now being used to store pieces of one of the other barns (that had to be dismantled to make the move). Ashley and his dad will be moving the final barn either this weekend or the next.

The Barns Come Home

Early Saturday morning Ashley, his dad and two of their employees moved the second barn to our land. Here is the barn, ready to go, sitting in the misty field. What an amazing picture!

Ashley drove his truck ahead of the truck hauling the barn. Even though they were out before most folks had had their breakfast, they wanted to be as careful as possible on the 5 mile drive to our land. Some drivers heeded his flashing lights; others sped by but quickly slowed down when they realized they were about to run into a barn!

And here the barn sits on temporary blocks on our land.

If you recall from my previous post, one of the other barns had already been hauled to our land on Friday. When I got to the land Saturday morning with the boys, Ashley and his dad were waiting on me to help decide where to place it.

 

Here is the barn, waiting patiently on the trailer.

 It was pretty rickety...needed a lot of bracing for the journey.

Backed into place.

Bobcat and CAT skidsteers in place to pick the barn up. 

Lowered to the ground...deciding what to do about the foundation.

One wall buckled when the barn was set back down.

After a little more work, they were able to fix the wall. But I didn't get a picture! I'll take one later. Both barns look perfect on our land--almost like they've always been there.

Check out the the video I made of the barn being moved! It's a little jumpy because I used my regular camera AND I was holding our very wiggly 7 month-old!

The other two structures were not able to be moved via trailer. We'll have to decide how we want to use them now that they've been dismantled.

Recycling Barns

Although we're building a new house, we're consciously trying to make it look established on the land. And because we envision using our land to raise our boys, animals and a garden, we're starting to think of our land as a farm. What completes a farm better than a barn (or two or three)?

My in-laws have been on the hunt for old barns or outbuildings that we could move to our land (they're experienced in this sort of thing, having moved several structures to their past two houses). As luck would have it, Robert (my father-in-law) found a farm that is going to be turned into a subdivision (I always hate to see this happen, but that's another post for another day). A stand of barns is going to be demolished unless someone wants to move them. And the best part? They're free!

We took a look at the barns this past weekend. They're MUCH bigger than I thought they would be. And honestly, I'm nervous that Ashley and his dad will be able to pull this off. They will, I'm sure, but it's going to be more work than they originally anticipated.

Barn A (below) is practically a two-story barn, attached to another barn by a three-bay shed.

Barn B (below, in the back) is also large. The three-bay shed is also pictured.

 

And Barn C is probably what I think of when I think of an old farmhouse with a garage out back.  It's the smallest of the three and should be able to moved on a trailer. The other two will have to be dismantled (too tall to go under power lines) to make the move to our property.

We're not exactly sure how we'll use all of these structures. Right now the plan is to use the three-bay shed as a garage near the house (if it seems sturdy enough once it's moved--we don't want a roof on top of our vehicles!). We'll use one barn for our animals (we plan to have chickens and rabbits, along with our dog and cat) and supplies. Another barn may be used for our gardening shed. And the other? Who knows! If nothing else, our land will have character and we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we recycled barns that were built in the 1930s.

As a side note, I found this interesting web site about a man in Pennsylvania who recycles barns, while also promoting their preservation: http://www.barnsaver.com/