FORDification
Well-known member
For years my wife and I have been keeping our eyes open for a small acreage withing a few miles of town to allow us to spread out a little bit, since our current 3BR house in town has become too small for us and our five kids. Plus the one-car garage at our current house isn't working out for me and my automotive projects. Well, we finally found one! Our realtor called us on Thursday night to let us know about a place that was going to be listed soon and knew it was what we were looking for. She said it would be officially listed on Sunday night and got us a 9AM showing scheduled for Monday morning...we were the first showing scheduled. We'd actually heard about this place by word-of-mouth, and that there was actually a long line of potential buyers, with 4 more showings already scheduled within the next 24 hours.
After the tour, we discussed it and decided to make an offer. One of the stipulations on the offer was an immediate response, which we got an hour later...they accepted the offer!
The paperwork is currently going through and we're tentatively scheduled to take possession on Sept. 4 and will begin moving in shortly after.
I'd actually been kinda hoping to find a place with a finished workshop so that I could just move my stuff into it and go to work, but I was open to the more-likely scenario of having to either build new or rebuild an existing building. Here in Nebraska, just about every working farmplace has a big old two-story barn with a hayloft and I always thought it would be pretty cool to get one fixed up into a shop for me...and I guess that's the direction we're headed now. The one on our new place is pretty much a clean slate, essentially just the outer shell with nothing inside...no walls or loft, just the roof supports. Although dusty, it's pretty clean inside, it hasn't been actually used as an animal barn in quite a while.
I didn't take any measurements during the showing, but I have an appointment with the seller after work tonight to get together and get some measurements of the barn so I can start getting some quotes from contractors. It needs a new roof to replace the old wood shake shingles (but hopefully not the rafters!) and we'll probably go with white steel panels to match the exterior walls. The barn is sitting on concrete footings but has a dirt floor, so we'll need to get some measurements between the footings to arrange for some estimates on getting it filled with concrete. We're hoping to have the roof and concrete work done before snowfall...which normally happens mid-to-late October here.
I was actually thinking at first that I'd just tear this barn down and use the lumber to build something a little smaller, mostly shorter but with the same footprint, because it's just so freakin' BIG, but my wife is dead-set against that idea...she really likes this barn and thinks it gives the place some character. So I guess I'm going to do some investigating and see what I can do with this. Should be an interesting ride!
The pictures here were taken at the showing. Several of them are composites...photos I crudely stitched together into one using Photoshop, just to allow me the visual reference. I'll post more pics of the barn and farmplace very soon, but probably not until after we go through closing in about a month. Let me know what you think.
After the tour, we discussed it and decided to make an offer. One of the stipulations on the offer was an immediate response, which we got an hour later...they accepted the offer!
The paperwork is currently going through and we're tentatively scheduled to take possession on Sept. 4 and will begin moving in shortly after. I'd actually been kinda hoping to find a place with a finished workshop so that I could just move my stuff into it and go to work, but I was open to the more-likely scenario of having to either build new or rebuild an existing building. Here in Nebraska, just about every working farmplace has a big old two-story barn with a hayloft and I always thought it would be pretty cool to get one fixed up into a shop for me...and I guess that's the direction we're headed now. The one on our new place is pretty much a clean slate, essentially just the outer shell with nothing inside...no walls or loft, just the roof supports. Although dusty, it's pretty clean inside, it hasn't been actually used as an animal barn in quite a while.
I didn't take any measurements during the showing, but I have an appointment with the seller after work tonight to get together and get some measurements of the barn so I can start getting some quotes from contractors. It needs a new roof to replace the old wood shake shingles (but hopefully not the rafters!) and we'll probably go with white steel panels to match the exterior walls. The barn is sitting on concrete footings but has a dirt floor, so we'll need to get some measurements between the footings to arrange for some estimates on getting it filled with concrete. We're hoping to have the roof and concrete work done before snowfall...which normally happens mid-to-late October here.
I was actually thinking at first that I'd just tear this barn down and use the lumber to build something a little smaller, mostly shorter but with the same footprint, because it's just so freakin' BIG, but my wife is dead-set against that idea...she really likes this barn and thinks it gives the place some character. So I guess I'm going to do some investigating and see what I can do with this. Should be an interesting ride!
The pictures here were taken at the showing. Several of them are composites...photos I crudely stitched together into one using Photoshop, just to allow me the visual reference. I'll post more pics of the barn and farmplace very soon, but probably not until after we go through closing in about a month. Let me know what you think.
. For a working shop though, a nice new floor would be good.