Above 1200 Sq/FT 1898 Ohio Post and Beam Barn rebuild - 6784

[Dan in Pasadena]

Really enjoying seeing all the progress.

I noticed you've not mentioned any further issues with your health - the blood clots. None of our bees wax of course but since you posted about it earlier I thought I'd ask and hope the issue is or has been resolved to the doctor's satisfaction? If you still have the issue it doesn't seem to slow you down by the look of all the progress.
If I may ask, what do you do for a living that gives you (what seems to be) a LOT of time working on these barns? Are you a full time farmer but just haven't posted about the crops you grow, etc?

Is the house also of the same vintage as these 1898 barns?

 

[STINEY]

Really enjoying seeing all the progress.

I noticed you've not mentioned any further issues with your health - the blood clots. None of our bees wax of course but since you posted about it earlier I thought I'd ask and hope the issue is or has been resolved to the doctor's satisfaction? If you still have the issue it doesn't seem to slow you down by the look of all the progress.
If I may ask, what do you do for a living that gives you (what seems to be) a LOT of time working on these barns? Are you a full time farmer but just haven't posted about the crops you grow, etc?

Is the house also of the same vintage as these 1898 barns?

The pulmonologist and cardiologist Dr's finally exhausted their options to find a cause, and turned me loose as cured, for lack of a better word. I have been off blood thinners for about a year (my thread postings are sometimes a catchup and not real time) with no recurrance of clot symptoms. I have slowly gained back most of my stamina, not all but I am not complaining either, lol. I feel like a 3-toed sloth as far as progress goes, I only get a handful of hours a week to really accomplish anything. Maybe I was a productive crazed maniac in my pre-clot life?

I am a full-time accountant in private industy and have been for the last 30+ years, some in performance boat manufacturing and some in heavy equipment-agricultural retail/dealership. I grew up on a farm...grandpa would toss me in the guts of a combine to hold the bolts from the inside when repairing it. Back then we repaired EVERYTHING ourselves, so fixing and building stuff is second nature.



I often surprise customers who assume the accountant has no mechanical knowledge - I keep a high compression nitrous damaged piston on my desk to try to help with that misconception.

Yep, house is at least as old as the barns. I have records showing it existed as far back as 1860ish, but I have my doubts that it was entirely the same structure. Probably partially the same structure. See, the original square footprint, old soft brick no-footer foundation part of our house was there first as evidenced by the construction method. It seems that it was a story and a half house at that point too.



This is where it gets weird. At some point, probably around 1900ish, an OLDER smaller home was moved in and butted up to the YOUNGER existing house. And they put a more primitive field stone foundation under this part. Then they removed the roof structures from BOTH and put a more modern new rafter and roof on over the pair of houses (now one house).

At least that is what I have been able to figure out. I wish these old places could talk, after all it was likely here when the Civil War was raging and Steam Engines ruled the railroads.

If you want to see more house project fun, click the red link in my signature line about geothermal install and basement floor lowering. That was an undertaking of some magnitude.

Thanks for asking!

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Interesting post! Glad to hear you're considered "recovered". At least to not need blood thinners. I've become hypersensitive about it as I lost my beloved older sister 1 year ago to a pulmonary embolism. She was 77 but super fit. Walked her treadmill for an hoursdaily for decades. Then pinched a nerve packing to move and was unable to use it for 8 months. That caused the clots in her leg and it was treated for months with thinners until it broke loose. PLEASE stay vigilant!

A farm-raised, mechanically minded accountant. In the early 80's was a tv series, "Masquerade" whose premise was that some U.S. secret agency would draft unique individuals for one time only special operations. Just making up an example: a left handed safe cracker or some such, ha ha. You'd be perfect for an episode of that show!

The house IS interesting. Is there a local historical organization that might be able to help with old photos, old news papers? Seems like moving a whole house and abutting it onto another house would be newsworthy in a small town in those days. I remember from history that Ohio was on the western frontier in the Civil War era. Makes me wonder if timber wasn't readily available to add on to the house but I suppose people were just a lot more thrifty so just move one. Though moving would involve mules and some kind of wagon or rollers? Anyway, I am wandering far off topic (old dude tendency!).

The AFTER photos you've posted look SO much better than the before. You've likely saved these structures for another 150 years if not longer.

 

[Cris B]

Looking great!

 

[STINEY]

We are out in the country several miles from the closest town. There have been a few publications over the years compiled by local historians with lots of old pictures, and I have scrutinized them all very closely. No dice, though I did find a sketch of the house and barn where I grew up.

VintageAerial.com has a neat business. They have bought up all the stock of old inventory from defunct companies who flew over and photographed homesteads since the invention of the airplane. Now they have the images mostly sorted by flightpath, so its possible to look through and possibly find your place from many years ago. They have staff who with a conference call will help you navigate and close in on your place. Its pretty fun. We have even bought several of their framed prints (very nice quality).

Anyways, here is the oldest I could find. I put this around late 40's early 50's?

Another fun note - a good friend of mine - his dad is a doctor and actually made house calls at times. A regular stop was to this house, where he described it as going to visit Ma & Pa Kettle from the old tv series. I had never heard of that, so we bought the dvds of it, and well it explains a lot of what I am fixing.



And this is where I grew up. Not matured, just got larger. One day some people stopped by and left that card, we were not home but I sure would have liked to talk with them. When I reroofed the garage there (it was built from the old summer kitchen) during the tearoff stage I found a piece of flashing where a previous owner had signed his work. The flashing read "Pete Poiter" and had a date on it, which was 1940 something.