Thursday, 20 April 2017

Additions and Dreams...........

So after the feed room was completed, Francis moved on to constructing the first of what will be 3 more stalls. We have had an ongoing debate as to whether we should even bother as I will certainly never own 5 horses, but Francis and my daughter-in-law, Dani'el are seeing visions of me with a boarding stable in my retirement and of me having horses here on a full-time basis. We have no intention of filling the whole barn and we are going to make a divider between the " stall area" and the rest of the barn that we will basically leave empty- it will be used for hay and shaving storage. One reason for a divider is to keep any heat generated by horses confined to a smaller space which would hopefully add  a bit of warmth IF we ever over winter horses here. That is still up for debate/discussion.....The barn is massive ( 120 feet long) and two horses will do NOTHING to heat it and it will be COLD if not downright frigid....So we will see what develops over the next few years.

That being said, Francis convinced me to buy enough grill work so we can build 3 more stalls ( so a total of 5).Over 25 years ago, I bought 6 stall door kits and my ex-husband and I put up 4 of them, but 2 were never opened. We have been just been reusing the old stalls up to this point, but we used all the "grill" sections of the 6 doors to make the 2 stalls we have currently. You see I wanted "open concept" stalls to allow horses to see and visit with each other, as well as make them more open, airy and light. (Remember, I like sunlight).So about 2 months ago we made a trip down to Guelph to pick up more stall parts- enough for 3 more stalls. 

These next stalls are going along the opposite side of the barn ( where the new wall put up and new windows put in). When Francis asked me how far apart to put the windows I said 10 feet.....I am now wishing I had said 12. .You see the stalls on this side of the barn can not be as deep as the others due to where the main beams are-- they are 10 feet from the foundation wall; whereas on the other side, the beams are 13 feet from the foundation wall. Francis insists that the windows be centered in the back of each stall-- and I must admit esthetically it makes sense. I do want each stall to have a window for a horse to gaze out of, and get a breeze from on hot summer days/evenings. So the new stall he has just built is 10ft x 10ft-(with a window centered in the back wall) doesn't sound bad and is a common enough size for a box stall, but oh dear it looks so SMALL!!!  IF is had put the windows at 12 ft then the stall would have been 10 x 12---- unfortunately, that is NOT something that can be changed at this time ( the windows I mean). I could make the stalls 12 ft wide but then the windows would be all higgledy-piggedly and the esthetics would be off.
 Perhaps it is because one side is solid and not open grill work?? You see I had planned to have an area next to the tack room to hang blankets ( you saw the blanket rack construction last year) and keep the brooms/wheelbarrow etc for now. Thoughts were that this area could be used to build tack lockers for boarders IF that happens in the future as my little tack room/lounge will really not suffice for boarders. Perhaps, I will have to reconsider that, and make the wall grilled instead-- my poor Francis I am constantly changing my mind. We will see. For now as there are no boarding horses, it does not matter anyway so the point is moot--
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Anyway below are the photos of production. I did not have all the photos to post when I blogged about the walls in March so am including them now. The first photos show what that side of the barn looked like before he started this spring. The photos will show the new walls and window grills and the new stall that has been completed.At present he has one completed... there is to be a second one and then another across the alley. Just in case there is a horse who is not a friendly character or is sick and should not be in contact with others.
Here you can see what he started with-- you can still see
one wall of the original stalls at the far end
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This is the same area looking from the other end.This picture
shows the outside walls before he insulated and put up the
finishing lumber



 Same area, AFTER-- beautiful walls and window grills installed.
The grills open for easy access to the windows





The walls after Francis has worked his magic


The photos above show the area before the stall was put in.

Francis had to break the current concrete floors, dig down and pour new cement footings for the support posts. Old support posts had to be removed. You can see the patches of wet cement in the pictures.A few joists had to be repaired.This shows the side wall- the only one that is not grilled. The wall opposite this is the tack room wall, and houses the blanket rack. In future there is room to put 3 tack lockers that would go floor to ceiling and be 3 feet wide. Boarders (future??) would be able to lock up their equipment. I have already designed the lockers- shelf of top, then a saddle rack against back wall, with a box with a lid at the bottom for "stuff".....


We reused the old boards from the old stalls, which is why the one wall looks dirty and stained. We intend to pressure wash that this summer to make it look nice and new like the other wall.
Front view- no floors yet as we haven't decided what we are putting down
Tadaah!!!! One additional stall all finished.

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