The Saga of the New Barn

Building a bloody barn can't be this bloody difficult! The concept was really simple. Build a barn, rectangular with four walls, a 10' ceiling and a roof. This would house a workshop and a furniture gallery that would double as a small apartment. Situate it somewhere away from the oak trees but close enough to the house so that I don't have to catch a bus to work every morning. Design it so that it will look like the existing barn, same roof pitch with a low shed running along one side. Place some windows along the other side so I could have some natural light while creating sawdust. A nice view would be optional - I mean, it's not advisable to work at a table saw with a 10" saw blade revolving at 6,000 rpm while admiring the pretty view outside! But I digress. Construct the barn from metal, wood, Lego bricks -- it really doesn't matter as long as it stands up in a strong wind and keeps the rain out. And then clad the structure with the old wood siding salvaged from the existing barn and Presto! a modern, purpose-built space that looks like an old barn. Oh, and let's keep in mind that this needs to be constructed on a budget. I'm not planning on working in something that mimics the Taj Mahal. Are we ok so far? Yes, I agree that there are many details omitted but is the overall vision clear to you? I am very interested in your thoughts because so far I seem to be the only person who 'gets' it.

So here is the story. Given this vision, our architect had two tries at a design, the first submission being a two-storey structure set among the oak trees that wouldn't have been out of place in the swankiest area of Houston; and the second being a more modest but somewhat impractical design that improvised on a very detailed floor plan that I had submitted. Now my mother always wanted me to be an architect and I could feel her spirit pushing me forward with those immortal words of hers ringing in my ears, "Eee our Andy, I wish you'd stuck in at school and made something of yourself. You could have been an architect you know." Thus inspired, I drew up exactly what I wanted. After doing a measured survey on how much siding the old barn would yield, I created four sets of scaled elevations to go with the floor plan. So far so good. My partner and I went to the site where we picked and staked a location that would feature a nice driveway between two large pecan trees. This was seen as great progress and we were both very pleased with our efforts.

The second hurdle was two-fold. Firstly, our chosen location was on a slope that would have featured forming four to five feet of fill (that's called an alliteration for those of you without a literary bent). Not only would this add to the cost but according to our tree guy, there was a danger that the weight of the fill would damage the pecan tree root system. We couldn't easily move the building away from the trees as we had a power line easement behind the building. So back to the drawing board I went.

In the meantime, one of the prospective contractors told us last week as he presented his proposal for the barn construction, that he wasn't going to install the old siding or even prepare the building to take the siding. What? He didn't seem to think it was that important. Says who? So, in the time it took him to utter that fateful sentence he went from being our favorite-contractor-most-likely-to-do-the-work, to dead last. This started to give me the impression that either I wasn't communicating properly or people were just not listening and as I felt my frustration rising ..............

I took my partner onto the site to look at a prospective new location, this one being at the top of the hill where we could still have a driveway coming between the trees and a lovely view to the west of us. The only change was a re-orientation of the building so that the view from the road would be a barn wall of old pine siding. We both liked the idea of this location and the orientation, so armed with a 100' tape, a couple of pegs and my land surveying skills (which I have to say are quite considerable even without a theodolite or GPS), we staked out the new location. It was a grand effort and a fitting end to a good week.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours enthusiastically laying out the revised floor plan and elevations together with the new location so that we could send it out to our prospective contractors. I thought we were looking good until I showed them to my partner. "Shouldn't the windows be facing the road?", was all she said.....................!

I never believed that such a simple project would take so much time and lead to so much frustration. So for the moment I am done with barns and workshops; barndominiums and galleries; pottery rooms and finishing rooms; wood storage areas and driveways. I am also done with planning the deconstruction of old barns. It can stay there until it falls down. Which would be a shame, because there is a lot of good wood that could be re-purposed and given a new life.

Building a bloody barn can't be this bloody difficult!      


             



          

An Essential Piece of Tooling

So I got my shiny green tractor, although it is a little off putting to have certain unnamed female observers refer to it as 'cute'. Bottom line is that this essential piece of tooling enabled us to do more in three days than we have done in a month. With the help of a couple of laborers we cleared the barn of rubbish and hay, pulled out all of the fences at the back of the big barn, cleared the unsightly burn pile as well as picking up most of the other junk around the site. It wasn't quite so easy getting used to the front loader and the first day was an exercise in frustration as I moved a pile of hay from point A to Point B and back to Point A again while managing to actually pick-up three handfuls in the bucket! (And this might be overly exaggerated as I have a strong suspicion that the wind may have helped some). Meanwhile my partner (on her cute little John Deere riding mower) has trimmed all of the grass around the house. So the property is starting to look a lot better.  Our first before and after pictures are of the barn. Removing the hay will now allow us to 'deconstruct' the structure to salvage the barn wood siding.

Before - Junk piled on top of three to four feet of compacted hay

I have previously wrote about the strong community we have joined and this was further strengthened through our introduction this week to our neighbors across the road at Miracle Farms. This is essentially a boarding school for at-risk children with the goal of building confidence and work ethics in teenagers from 7th grade up by teaching them horse riding and roping skills. We met the director and a number of his staff members and got a tour of the property which stretches over 320 acres of the most beautiful countryside. It was a surprise to learn that they have a well-equipped wood shop and a need for some help in that area. Hmmmm!! Do you think I could help there?
I hope you will take the opportunity to look at their program on their Web site at http://www.childrenatheartministries.org/Page.aspx?pid=366&srcid=586. This is a neat program.

Any program that supports and helps children, especially those that are at risk of falling through the cracks of our society, is worthy of support and I don't care who runs or sponsors the organization. So we are very happy to having this facility on our doorstep and look forward to exploring ways in which we can support the organization.           

After - We hope to be able to re-use these old floor boards in the house

A Break With Grace

Our last week at the homestead was fairly hectic as we met with the two contractors that we'll be getting bids from and finalized the floor plan on the house. We are currently taking a break here in the UK we are enjoying some lovely weather. We stayed at a small B&B in North Yorkshire and enjoyed the company of my two Very Best Friends (is that ok lads?) one of whom was celebrating his Ruby Wedding anniversary with his lovely wife. Who I might add deserves a medal for putting up with him for forty odd years! But I take pride in having introduced the two of them at some party back in the 60's and we could all see it was love at first sight. It was a great party.  From North Yorkshire up to Whickham where we were reunited with our precious grand-daughter, Grace. She is heaven personified. Happy, playful and so full of expression it is hard not to know what this girl wants.

So here is the latest news on the homestead. After much agonizing we (and please note the emphasis on the 'we' here) have decided that we need a tractor. Hold on ladies before you start, this is not just another expensive "man-toy". This is an essential piece of tooling that will enable us maintain the property in an orderly and efficient way. We'll need it with a front-loader, a bush hog and a trailer. Perhaps fork-lifts at some stage. And if you are really nice to me I might let some of you play with drive it. You got to be really nice though! So the big task for me next week is to find a medium size tractor.

And while we're talking about "we" decisions, I also persuaded my partner to go with the fireplace in the master bedroom, a significant addition that will allow us to truly make the front of the house look as it was. Plus it will be nice and romantic to have a fire going on those cold January days and nights. So if you arrive unannounced and see smoke coming from the chimney at the front of the house this does not mean we've elected a new Pope. You might want to come back tomorrow.

Independence Day

Like Yorkshire sheep farmers, progress is defined as some big steps and some li'l uns. After a good initial clean-up, a week of rain prevented the laborers from doing any more work so my partner and I set to with pitchforks and wheelbarrow to start clearing out the remains of the hay from the big barn. We worked hard but took advantage of the unusual low temperatures that prevailed last week. Things seemed to be going so well -- but then I lost my glasses, got a blister on my finger and was stung by a wasp! Feeling a little sorry for myself I felt myself missing the city, the whine of traffic on the Interstate, the perpetual cacaphony of sirens and helicopters and well, World Cup soccer on TV. But after seeing the results of our hard work - a clear patch of wood on the barn floor - it was all worthwhile. We slept in the house for a night, in what will eventually become the master bedroom, and felt surprisingly rested despite the air mattress. I say it's good Feng Shui. It gave us a great feel for the space and the good news is that my partner has agreed that a fireplace in the master bedroom would be nice. This will help return the house to its historic look which can be seen from this old picture of the original Schwartz family outside of the homestead.

Our best friends came up from Houston for a day and we delighted in showing them around, toasting our good fortune with a glass of champagne. They gave us some great suggestions to improve the floor plan and we now feel very comfortable that we have a workable plan. We got some ballpark estimates from local contractors and have chosen two who we would like to work with. And so we'll get our architect to make some minor tweaks and move ahead to solicit bids. The goal is to get the contractor selected by the end of July or early August and have the first phase - the barn and apartment - completed by November. I hope this will not give cause for us to be reminded of Robert Burns' mouse and its fateful home............   
The best laid schemes o'mice an' men   
Gang aft agley
An lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
For promis'd joy!

But positive thoughts are all around us and none more so than those we are experiencing from the local community. This was really brought home to us when we went to the Independence Day celebrations in the one-street town of Independence with our new friends and neighbors. Man, this is really small town America. This is America at its very best - a parade, a community party and of course the obligatory fireworks display that always bring a lump to my throat. (Yeh, well, I'm just a big softy when it comes to these things!). And what a parade it was. We had vintage cars, vintage tractors, fire trucks, floats and yes, even local politicians vying for the public's vote. I'll be nice and refrain from comment on that one. And whenever I was unable to cadge an import beer from our neighbor's generous cooler, Bud was $1 a can. But what made it so special was the sense of community. We met new neighbors and new friends including one lovely 92 year-old English lady from Taunton, Somerset, who lives in near-by Brenham. Without any reservation this was the best 4th of July parade we have ever experienced. We left the homestead  looking a little better today, with freshly cut grass and a lot of the junk gone. Can't wait to get back.