Different Barn Hay Fever

[Scott H in Wheaton]

I saw Hay You's thread titled "Barn Hay Fever" and I'm working on a similar style barn. Didn't want to hijack his thread so I'll post pics and info here instead.

We bought this little farmette in 2006. Just under 2 acres in northwest Illinois. EDIT: we don't own the cropland, just the buildings and trees


Here's the north face of the barn


And a close-up of the doors. That's me standing about 30 ft in the air. The doors open downwards and follow the roofline. Inside is a pulley and cable with a concrete counterweight to assist in pulling the door up and closed. The concrete has '1938' cast into the side.

 

[wornoutoldman]

That's pretty sweet. Are you gonna grow anything? Want to keep the agricultural property tax of course.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Here's the underside of the roof. My wife says it reminds her of Jonah and the whale, with the rafters looking like whale rib bones.


Originally it only had 3 inside ladders to get to the loft. Some call it a hay mow, or a hay mound, I like to call it a hay loft. I built a set of stairs to make it easy to get up and down.


And of course it needed a roof. Tear off 2 layers asphalt shingles, then a layer of wood shakes, re-deck the whole thing with 4x8 OSB, then re-shingled with GAF Timberline architectural style in Weathered Wood color.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

That's pretty sweet. Are you gonna grow anything? Want to keep the agricultural property tax of course.

With only an acre and a half I don't think we'd qualify. All the nice greenery in the first pic is the neighbors cropland.

 

[mdkingsley]

Cool that you are saving another old barn. Keep up the good work and welcome

 

[basspro]

Looks awesome, I love old barns!

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Little by little I will be taking down the old wood siding and replacing with similar sized boards. Previously the siding was like a board-and-batten, but instead of a wood batten they used metal strips. Some people call it corner reinforcement. But it doesn't hold paint well and the nails are popping out all over. So the new boards have a shiplap routed along the edge and overlap the board next to it.




I rebuilt the sliding door that was missing from the east side. Added a man-door in the middle of it.

 

[colt zantop]

killer project! keep those pics coming!!!

 

[HAY YOU]

I like it, looks to be in nice shape. What are you going to use it for? Keep the pics coming.
Dave

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

We bought the place so my sister would have a place to live and a place to surround herself with all the critters she rescues. My wife and I live about 100 miles away, so I don't get the chance to do as much work as I'd like to. Around the second winter we were there I flew my sister to Florida to be with her daughter-in-law during the birth of their first child. Gave me the chance to stay at the farm for two weeks and get some projects done. While she was gone I cleaned all the junk out of the barn and built a tack room, a feed room, and 3 stalls.

The Junk


The Feed Room


The Feed Room Pocket Door


The Tack area "Before"


Tack Room recycled door


Both rooms have DriCore panels for flooring as the old concrete floor tends to sweat a lot. You can see part of the stalls in the background. Inside its kinda shaped like an "H" with an aisle down one side, then the passageway that has the feed room on one side and the tack room directly across from it, then the other aisle that has the 3 stalls along the outside.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Some stall pictures:









And a progress picture on the west wall

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

I like it, looks to be in nice shape. What are you going to use it for? Keep the pics coming.
Dave

First year I parked a couple Mustangs in there. Now the Mustangs are in the two car garage. Second year we had two horses, then 3 horses, then 3 horses and two ponies, plus 3 goats...and about 20-30 'barn cats'.

We are starting to slow things down. Sister's health is bothering her. Probably gonna sell the place next year.
No more horses
No more goats
down to only 9 cats
down to 2 dogs from a high of 5
Also have a chicken coop on the property and had up to 50 chickens of all varieties, but sold that entire flock. This year she only has a dozen.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

The two 'ponies' that live in the garage now, the first year I kept them in the barn before we had the horses.

1966 Mustang GT in original Silver Frost color


1995 GT convertible with Cobra appointments (only 42k miles)

 

[shopnut]

Hey Scott - you may be interested in the book I just pointed HAY YOU to over in his barn thread. Good luck with yours - it's looking good!

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2992471#post2992471

 

[Tarnished]

Scott H, Great old barn! So glad to see that you also appreciate the old craftsmanship of them. Loosing too many around me, glad to see another save.
Yours looks to be in great shape, was the siding so bad that you had to remove, couldn't just replace the batten boards and repaint? What type of siding are you using for replacement? Around here we use a lot of "carsiding" as replacement tongue and grove siding. Kind of what your new siding looks like, but can't tell from pics.
If you like the old barn's, please check out Just Barns Forum. Perhaps you could share your barn with folks there.
Thanks for a peek, hoping to see more as I also share your passion for barns.
John

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Yours looks to be in great shape, was the siding so bad that you had to remove, couldn't just replace the batten boards and repaint? What type of siding are you using for replacement?

John,
I'm using 1x10 pine, 16 ft long.
I'm using a router and/or a table saw with a dado blade to make a 3/8" cut 3/8" deep along both edges.
When I overlap the boards I get 1/8" gap on the outside, 1/4" overlap, 1/8" gap on the inside.
No need to add a batten.
Its made the new walls very draft proof.
Also easier to paint with a roller as they are completely flat.

 

[CNGsaves]

Great work you're doing to save the big barn. I'd be interested also in the particular vertical boards and battans you are using. Please post up some close-up pics of the new boards and splices versus the old.

My family has smaller version of wooden barn but V-style roof. Dad has just let it fall apart the last 25 years since I moved away. Since the time I painted it in high school, it's only been painted twice in 30 years. Sad as it went from barn red to white (yuuuk) to quasi red (more yuuuk like orange) and tin roof painted brown (offensive compared to barn red, white trim, and shiny aluminum corrugated roof it used to be in it's heyday). Obviously will need restored some day when my dad passes.

Hope you have lots of cats or traps as I had a car stored in barn and mice/rats chewed a bunch of wires under the hood. I'd hate to see those pesky varmits damage your nice 'Stangs.

Thanks for sharing, and keep the pics coming!!

 

[Diesel_Tech_1989]

Good to see appreciation for quality American craftsmanship. My best to you and yours regarding your sisters health. Definitely like the work on the barn. More barn pics please.