My Shop/House Build

[JMartens]

I thought I would share my renovation of a barn into a house. I have to credit this board a lot with making it a reality. I learned so much here while planning this. My wife and I have been working on the deal since Memorial day and closed on the barn and property in December.

Here's a pic a few days after we bought it:



It was a completely full of hay when we bought. He is a pic of them digging out the interior to get it ready for rock and concrete. You can see the tractor in the far bay as they were still moving hay out as well.



Here's an interior shot.



The barn is in great shape. When I put a digital level on the posts, I found one on each side that was 1.0 degree out and all of the others were between 0 and .4 degrees. There are two posts that look like they got hit by a tractor or falling bales that do need to be squared up but they are in the shop portion.

Had a good day today as we laid out all of the interior walls. Meeting the wife to do a walk through and once she okays it, we will start digging trenches for plumbing and electric on Thursday.

The building is 76 x 100. 76 x 60 will be house and 76 x 40 will be shop. The banker calls it an oversized ranch house.

I will try to keep updated on pics. Once again thanks to all of the other posters for all the ideas and out of the box thinking. Should be a fun build.

 

[WarrenJ]

Interesting project. Will keep looking for updates.

 

[oldmxracer]

I will be watching, like outside of the box things !!!!

Looks like You are going to have fun !

 

[FTWingRiders]

Should be a fun build.

Should a lot of fun!! I'll be watching this one. Subscribed.

 

[JMartens]

They started working on the pond today. The pond will be L shaped and surround two sides of the building. Here's a pic of my son at the base of where the dam will be (he's 5 foot tall and I am standing at the corner of the building). When done, the pond should be right at an acre and 12 foot deep at a minimum.

 

[Catadj78]

Awesome build! Stocking the pond?

 

[ADSR]

sub'd

 

[NUTTSGT]

I will try to keep updated on pics. Once again thanks to all of the other posters for all the ideas and out of the box thinking. Should be a fun build.

I think GJ mebers will agree, you better keep this updated with plenty of pictures.



I'm also going to move it to the Gallery Section.

 

[JMartens]

Plan to take a bunch of pictures to make a scrapbook. I'm a GC so hope to be able to use it as demo of work my crew can do.

Plan on stocking with Bass, Blue Gill and channel catfish. Haven't found a Missouri hatchery that does a ready to fish stocking as I'd love to be able to fish it the first year.

Had planned on a pool as our old has had a pool, but we are going to put that money towards a little nicer pond and use it for swimming. The wife as agreed on a zip line over the long side. It will be plenty deep to drop into.

If anyone know of good sites for how to put structure in the pond before filling for good fish habitat, feel free to send me the links.

Super happy with the progress in right at a month. We'll mark lines for plumbing trenches tomorrow and then a little digging and base rock will be coming in. Might be ready for concrete in a week or two and then hope for some nice weather.

 

[JimL]

Neat idea!

 

[Joe13]

Sub'ed! Love the pond idea. Nothing like a acre swimming pool!

 

[Deererainman2]

30x40 Gambrel roof built with poplar, pine & hemlock sawmill lumber.

 

[ADSR]

Sub'ed! Love the pond idea. Nothing like a acre swimming pool!

does sound cool!

Question tho... how do you keep stuff from growing in it tho?

 

[JMartens]

Here's a pic of the floor plan:

 

[Riley]

Try this for all things pond....

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm

Great project! Have fun with it!

 

[JMartens]

With the research I have done on healthy ponds, the things were are trying to do are:

Control the watershed--should not be a problem as our land is the top of the hill and we have banked the edges of the property so that every drop that falls on our land gets directed to the pond, except the septic field. The land feeding the pond is well established grass grazing fields so erosion shouldn't be a problem. There will be no livestock on the land. The septic field goes around the pond fill.

We are building it with plenty of depth and steeper sides. From what I have found steeper sides limit growth when water levels drop. There will be one shallow entry with sand if we can figure out a way to keep it from sliding into the pond. We are also working with the well company to upsize the pump so that we can keep the pond level consistent during drier times. Not big enough to fill the pond, but enough to keep water levels consistent.

We are planning on a fountain or aerator to keep the water healthy.

All of the top soil has been scraped out and no grass is being flooded. No roots or tree trunks are being left in the pond area.

My research shows that bass thrive with clear water as they hunt by sight so we are trying to keep them happy. If that happens it should be more than clean enough to swim in.

Might have missed something, but this is the plan. Depth should be good as large portion of the pond will be 12-16 feet.

If anyone has other info for healthy pond building, please let me know. Definitely not my area of expertise.

 

[JMartens]

For 10 degrees today we got quite a bit more done. The turned the corner on stripping the pond area and had we not run out of fuel, would have got it all stripped today. Here are a couple of pics from the NE corner (far corner of the dam) looking back at the barn:





Here's a pic standing on what will the east bank looking towards the corner of the pond where it will wrap around the barn.



Friday we are digging trenches for plumbing, electric and water and hopefully bringing in the base rock.

 

[Riley]

Certainly sounds like you are on the right track.

Wish I could offer some specifics but I really don't have any experience, besides swimming in them as a kid, in structure development of ponds etc.

Pretty sure the forum has a "creating habitat" subsection that can probably answer any questions that come up.

On edit: Thinking about it some more, perhaps things like an island or two, some variation along the "shore line" to mimic a natural stream or pond, perhaps a few deeper and shallower pockets to allow fish to get deep when its warm or cold out? Vegetation, reeds etc? I'd think anything you can do to simulate a fish's natural environment would improve their ability to thrive as well as provide your project a "always been there" look.

There is a great thread on here about a wonderful project that had a fair amount of info on ponds etc, though that was more a commercial effort than I think you are looking at on your project.

 

[Homebody]

Interesting indeed!
Gotta love zoning and building laws in some states. Never get away with that around here!

 

[Bryan_Cromwell]

Subed

 

[GDPossehl]

That's going to be one cool pond. The natural pool approach is a pretty neat idea, especially when it provides entertainment, food, and aesthetics.

http://www.organicpools.co.uk/NSP.htm

Have you looked at the articles on Houzz that showcase converted barns? They have some really cool imagery and highlight all the cool features and design layouts.

 

[JMartens]

Re: Missouri Barn Home Conversion

Cold weather and bad luck caught up to us and slowed us down. Fan blade on the high lift caught a loose bolt and flung it into the radiator breaking both the fan and radiator or the pond area would have been done.

Tried to switch to trenching and it took 20 minutes for the excavator to dig a 24 inch wide trench, 6 inches deep, and 15 feet long. Needless to say we are on hold until we get equipment fixed and some better weather.

Did get all of the base rock hauled in and spread on the driveway, parking area, and where the lean too is going.

 

[JMartens]

Had a good day today. Got the East wing concrete poured today. We went with a slate stamp for the master bed and bath floor. Acid stain to follow once the concrete cures.





Gonna do the west wing tomorrow and the great room on Wednesday.

 

[Ajustable]

This is going to be a great thread. Keep the pics coming.

 

[JMartens]

Had a great week. Got all of the concrete poured except for the main garage bay/indoor basketball court. We are leaving it rock for a while so we can bring materials in without worrying about dinging up the floor. It also lets us keep the barn doors for a while.

We also got the electric company out and their conduit is in. As soon as we pull our wire from the house to the transformer we will be ready for them to hook us up!!!

No pics as the glare killed the ones I took. Not a lot to see either, just 67 yards of concrete on the ground.

Will try to take some pics as the wife and I are going out tomorrow to start framing the area under the loft and hopefully get some of the floor joists for the loft run.

 

[JMartens]

Got some framing done today. Got the perimeter of the loft done and the majority of the loft floor done. Only floor joists not set are where the stairs get cut in.

Here's a pic from the main garage wall looking back.



Here's a pic from the corner of the great room looking back at the loft on the dining side.



Here's a pic square to the kitchen.



Back wall of the kitchen still needs to be set so its not as deep as the pic shows.

The loft cantilevers 3 foot over the supports giving me 20 x 40 upstairs.

 

[Riley]

Only 67 yds? Slacking a bit I guess?

Really, great project! Re-purposing buildings, let alone landscapes, is always a challenge. It looks as though your plan is coming together quite well.

Looking forward to your updates!!

 

[GDPossehl]

For a second there it looked like someone framed their truck into the barn. But then I realized the doors were shut. lol

 

[scrappy610]

Subd

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[rarebreed]

Awesome idea. How much property do you have?

 

[36truck]

Great project love the fact your turning a barn into a house & garage.

 

[JMartens]

Got 5 acres, 1.5 or so will be the pond. Had a good few hours on Sunday with my wife and son. We got all the framing done under the loft and the rest of the floor joists in place. Would have tried to get some pics but the weather was so overcast nothing would show up.

We left the main garage bay in rock so that we wouldn't have to worry about messing up new concrete and could take advantage of the barn doors while we did the bulk of the framing. Its so nice for the lumber yard to have a 20 foot door to drive materials into and layout for us. Nothing is piled up on each other.

Going out tomorrow with my crew and should get the whole east wing framed up. Will try to grab some more pics tomorrow.

 

[NUTTSGT]

How are you going to deal with the interior/exterior wall ? Where the concrete stops ?

What's going to keep the mice or other vermin from getting in the walls ?

 

[JMartens]

When we do the new metal on the outside the will be new skirt boards cut tighter to grade. Rock flower beds six feet all the way around. The bottom of the void will be filled with 2 inch rigid foam sealed in place with spray foam. The blown in fiberglass will then start from the foam and fill up. The goal was to insulate the exterior side of the slab and make a seamless insulation joint between the slab and bottom of the wall. Advertising says mice don't like rigid foam and fiberglass so hopefully they are right.

 

[JMartens]

Hard to believe that it has been over a month since I last updated. Time does indeed fly by. We stripped off the exterior metal, put up new girts on the outside and framed up the doors and windows. Capped it off with new OSB and house wrap. Here's a pic of each side before the wrap. Starting to look a little more house like. Windows were ordered and should be here next week.

This would be the front of the house. The large opening in the middle is the covered entry porch.



The back side of the house.



Ordering garage doors tomorrow.

Not much to show on the inside. All of the framing is done and we have started on finish work in the shop areas.

Did get the first budget blow as we decided to put on a new roof. Should be too bad as we hope to salvage a lot of the roof for ceilings.

 

[98XJ]

wow I like it

 

[JMartens]

Here's a couple of pics of the pond. We have probably one more day on it as the southeast side of the dam is still a little low.



The next two pics show the pond from the master bedroom.

 

[JMartens]

Here's a pic from the hillside to the east. It shows the new roof. The burnished slate changes color dramatically depending on the lighting. The pic also shows the "L" shape of the pond and how it wraps around the house.

 

[JMartens]

Here's some pics of the exterior. It's all wrapped with most of the windows and doors in.

 

[Styx]

Very cool build... got to watch this one for sure...