Lapkritis
Well-known member
Hello GJ members/readers,
I'm a relatively new member here and enjoy the knowledge base present. The variety of spaces and creativity is quite rich; already I've found inspiration for changes to my own space from reading. Quite addictive I find and need to make sure I pace myself so I don't go bankrupt on toys - thanks to those who share their work so I feel obliged to share my own. All feedback welcome as long as it's constructive!
My wife and I purchased an 1800's farm house in Vermont earlier this fall and being the gear head that I am, I was quite interested in the horse barn on property. My previous space was a 1 car garage under a 3 story townhouse. I was packed in tight as I've been collecting tools for years to wrench on all kinds of automotive/motorized projects. To be quite honest, I began renovation plans the moment I laid eyes on the structure.
What little I know about the barn - it has been renovated before. The last time horses were in the barn was approximately 1999. There is an ancient well with hand pump inside that passes through the floor beneath the stairs to the second floor. The floor is intact concrete slab of unknown age. Only the first floor walls are insulated. The sills for the walls rest on a cinder block foundation surrounding the slab.
The move-in condition of the barn was approaching desperate. The roof was shingle and had plainly failed. Rather than repair, the previous homeowner stapled on a tarp which as you may imagine had yielded in the New England climate. Before buying the house I had gone over the structure and knew the roof was an immediate need as you could see daylight from the interior of the second story in several places. Downstairs, the floor plan was divided into halves. The first half was a vacant parking spot with the staircase/well at the back wall and the second half was divided into 1/3 saddle room and 2/3 horse stable. The stable had a 2" raised plank floor over the concrete.
So first things first after closing, I planned to secure the structure and ensure no further deterioration would occur. We first removed vegetation which took only part of an afternoon. My brothers and I then went straight to work laying metal roofing on over the shingle. We chose this approach for a couple reasons - no need to take the shingles to the dump and quicker to install with the winter fast approaching. The material was from the local Home Depot which was actually a bit of a pain to deal with. They couldn’t keep stock levels up and I was only able to secure enough sheeting 3 weeks after initial purchase. From what I was told, metal roofing becomes a hot item in the fall … it must only be this color brown because they always had a hundred count stack of the green. But I digress… a few weekends later and we had the roof fully covered and I could begin to turn my attention indoors.
Another deadline I faced was removing the stable to make another parking space… the salt on the roads means old non-galvanized classic cars get parked during the winter months. Fortunately, the stable was barely held together using a channel design – there were only about a dozen screws to take it completely apart. The plank floor wasn’t fastened down but was just floating on 3 perpendicular boards over the concrete. It was just a matter of manpower to remove the boards (stored in crawlspace under the house) and to shovel out the 20+ yr old manure. Cell phone pics covering the stable work:
The walls to the rear of the stable were coated in manure. At this age it’s odorless but dried on like plaster.
I used a paint scraper to remove and then went over with a stainless brush.
There was some chew damage from the hoofed tenant that I repaired in place. Used a circular saw to cut out between studs and then screwed new wood back in place.
Dog helping out/creeping out:
Then on to removing the handing door on the main beam – no storage place chosen for this item yet. My goal is to preserve the materials that are removed should we someday have an unruly teen in the house and need to put the stable/holding cell back into the barn. Here’s a quick render of the target space use:
The construction was such that additional support posts had been added to support the stable wall. They were floating and not supporting the structure; I replaced with a tiger brand post and drew tension against the main beam.
A gallon of Kilz2 brightened things up quite a bit:
Screens were over the interior of the windows to prevent the horse from knocking out the single pane glass with his tail I imagine. Such protection made for an impressive accumulation of cob webs.
I plan a bit more carpentry work and perhaps replacing the windows next year with something that opens/closes before I consider it done. For now, it’s coated and suitable as a storage parking place. You can also see the rush job where I had mounted a pair of LED flood lights over the 911 parking space and stapled down half of the feed; I still need to add the switch on the opposite wall and terminate. Perhaps this weekend but not a high priority.
A bit more clean-up and the grumpy old German was ready to move in after a final fall bath:
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