This blog is going to tell the story of our barn restoration project. It is a way for us to see the before and after, share the accomplishments and challenges of the project. I say "our" but it is rather like the royal "we" as most people will know, I do very little actual work.....that Francis does it. I support and suggest from the sidelines.I'm more the foreman/project manager......
Well work continued this weekend. On Friday and Saturday Francis was removing the old hay from the hayloft in the area above where the two new stalls will go. He needed the weight off the floor so he could reposition support posts and get ready to repair the joists. He took apart two stalls so they are ready to be reconfigured/ reinstalled in their new allocated spot. The stall doors are being reused but will eventually have "tops" that fold down so the horses can hang their heads out. He is going to "McGyver" the ones we have now that are fixed grills. The full wall partitions are going to become half solid walls and then we will reuse some of the other grill pieces from the other stalls to make an upper half that is grill work. This has the advantage of letting the light from the windows filter down to the second stall, and allows the horses to "talk" to each other.
Unfortunately, work was delayed on Sunday as Francis had thought Home Depot would be open and it wasn't. So work got "stalled out" :) until Monday when we went to buy 4x4 and 6x6 posts for the stalls.
I've decided to reuse old horseshoes that belonged to my old horse, Romy, to make bridle and halter hooks. I found black paint that gives a "hammered" look-- think it will be just the ticket. This way Romy's spirit is invited into my new horses' home. The horseshoes won't all match but they will add character--- and are part of the barn's heritage so they will add to the story.
Just got back from a site inspection-hehe; Good thing I went out. He had put up two supports for the stalls but one was in the wrong place. We had discussed and measured it yesterday, but he had forgotten the door was going to be on the right side of the stall; he had positioned the post as if the door was going on the left. So poor Francis, had to take it down and redo it....oh well, better I found that out before he had gotten too much further.
Last weekend ( March 19,20) Francis removed three old windows on one of the short sides of the barn, replaced the rotted sill plate, and put in three new windows. He also removed the outer boarding of the barn, installed house wrap, and reinstalled the original boards.
So here are the two designs we came up with for the barn interior. At this time we are only focusing on about 50 feet of the barn.... the barn is about 120 feet long in total. So the top image is the first idea but we have decided to go with "plan B" , the second one.
So this is the video he made before he started the work. We keep joking that we need our own show- Francis and Sue: Design and Do-- its catchy but it needs to be worded the other way around as he is the doer and I the designer!
In this video Francis has already removed the old "tack room" wall-- you can see a few boards going from floor to ceiling on the right hand side as you look into the barn.
So this is my first post to blog about our barn restoration project. This barn has a name and year embedded in the cement floor that says " Walker, 1909". My understanding is that the original barn burned at some point and another was reconstructed on the original stone foundation. The barn is a "bank barn", which means it is built into the side of a hill. On one side, you can drive right in to the upper level or hay mow/storage section of the barn. On the other side, you enter the bottom of the barn, which is where all the cattle would have been housed. Also, earthquake activity a couple of years ago did damage to the cement floor along one wall.
The barn has some major issues at the present time, and the video included above was actually an audition tape Francis made for one of Mike Holmes programs-- he said he was looking for a unique challenge and this certainly fits the bill! Anyway, we never heard back from Mr. Holmes, and so we are going to have to tackle this project or rather Francis is taking it on.
Earlier this year, we had two people come and look at the barn to help decide how or what needs to be done to repair the barn. You see, the whole barn has shifted about 8 inches off the foundation on the one side, and part of the foundation on the other side has crumbled and fallen in. This is mostly where a window in the foundation wall has let in rain/snow/water over the years. The corners or the barn are not bad, but the middle section is the part that has shifted. The one person advised us to shore up the leaning side to prevent it leaning further and repairing the foundation should help. We had someone come to see if they would be willing to help "lift" the barn and put it back straight-- didn't hear from him again, so take it that he's not up to the challenge. Francis has been watching videos of barn restorations and has developed a plan of action....
he is resituating support posts so he can repair some of the floor joists that are broken - he started that aspect this weekend
the old horse stalls are being taken down to make room for the new supporting wall that will be built
two stalls are being rebuilt to accommodate horses for the summer
he will build a new supporting wooden wall underneath the floor of the barn along the entire long side that is "leaning"; this will take weight of the barn off the leaning outside wall
he will put up beams on an angle that go from a cement filled sonotube in the ground up against the leaning wall to prevent it falling any more ( these will be angled beams from wall to ground)
the foundation areas will be repaired
the leaning wall will be removed ( as the new inside wall will hold the barn up
a new wall will be built back onto the foundation of where the leaning wall was
the configuration of the interior is being changed/rebuilt- it will eventually include 4 horse stalls, tack room and feed room
He has already added new jack posts under the main beams running the length of the barn( summer 2015). Some idiot who owned the barn many years ago, had removed some of the steel posts as " they were in the way" or something. This was done while the barn was full of hay! This is what likely triggered the whole demise of this poor old building.
