Recent content by JMartens

I'll see what I can do on updating some of the pics this weekend.

Barn is 76 x 100 and it is split 60 x 76 for the house and 40 x 76 for the shop/gym. The loft adds another 800 SF of living space.

We have a basketball court in our shop section. Ceiling height is 16'8. When we were building, I had one of the high school players who shot with range and a lot of arch come out and watched from the scaffold. He would get within a foot or so of the ceiling. Lights are on the far side of the...

I thought I would update on how well the floor has lasted. It has been 7 months almost with a lot of gym use and some automotive use. If you look at the floor from a low angle you can see sneaker scuffs in the clear coat but no scratches or worn spots yet. The gym has seen a lot of use over...

Hadn't thought of dodge ball. The floating baseboard on the right wall is the line for "racquetball" All shots have to hit above that. We stretch ropes from wall to wall for the out of bounds and makes for a fun game. We use the same out of bounds lines for volleyball. 2-4 players on a side...

Few more shots:

My wife and I finished the gym/shop floor tonight. We used Seal Krete due to the amount of color choices and it is a gym first, shop second. I would have liked to use an epoxy given the prep was the same for both but it cost significantly more and the color choices were so much more limited...

For the rail, I plumbed and leveled all of the 4 x 4's in place first. Once I was satisfied with that, I removed them and set up the drill press to drill all of the holes so they would be perpendicular and spaced perfectly. I then counter sunk the holes slightly to soften the edges. We then...

Pond is coming along nicely. We have a lot of small fish so the blue gill and bass are spawning. All of the bass we catch are very thick, although the bigger ones are getting harder to catch as I think they have plenty to eat. For the most part it stays clear with a reasonable amount of...

My wife and I bought an old hay barn and converted into a house with plenty of shop space. We are extremely happy with it over a conventional home. If you are financing the build it will probably take some searching to find the right bank. Finding comps on a shouse keeps the loans from being...

We got the ceiling up in the gym/shop space over the last two days. It is old metal from the original roof. We also marked the gym floor. We are still looking at finished floor options but for now the concrete works pretty well if kept clean.

Here's a pic of the stairs. Nothing too fancy. I actually used a kit from Menards designed to retrofit carpeted stairs.

I finally finished the rail on the loft. The top rail is made out of barn oak salvaged from the build. I ended up with a knee high pile of shavings to get the 10 boards I needed. The top rail is close to 1 3/8 and the vertical rail is around 1 1/4. My wife still needs to stain and clear coat...

Here's some updated pics of the exterior. I still have soffit and facia to do and the gable above the porch. Getting closer.

Here's some pics of the fireplace in the master. My buddy picked up the log siding on a sale and I sanded it down and put it up. The pine around the firebox came from the original barn framing and was planed down...