BARN BUILD 2022
8/23/2022 - building supplies arrive
8/31- Construction starts, 9/9 it is finished and up! 6 actual days total
Ben Eicher, brother Josh, John and Jeremy. Four man crew. On some days his wife would stop by for lunch with the kids. On one such day, that tree swing was just too inviting and his daughter got to swing. Ben is a neighbor as well.
Double tap on pictures to view slide show.
9/9/2022 - Day 6, building shell is up and completed.
The barn is all closed up now. Finally got the big garage door installed.
We have now started on the inside. First, it was claening the floor in preperation for sealer, once that was accomplished and had a week to fully cure, we brought up the power tools from the house(radial arm and the 36 year old homemade table saw). We moved lumber back into the barn for protection from weather, setup lights and table and lawn chairs, and then started framing my office corner to start.
The big load of lumber will arrive on the 16th. we will have 9 days of Thanksgiving week to really kick this into gear for framing.
The framing has started! I have completed all of this so far myself, except I got help with the Loft floor joists, they were just too big to handle. The loft is 22X14 ft. and the storage area above my office is 10X24. These pics are date December 5th.
Finishing the inside of the barn/playhouse
( Note: click on pictures to open slide show. )
 
We are currently at the tedious part of the barn building, where I have to place the crossbeams up between the trusses in the non-shop areas. PIC 1: My office and storage room above on left of stairs. Pic2: Laundry/bath/ canning area below, and the open loft above it to the right of stairs. Pic 3: This looking into storage room, and pic4 is of the massive 5 foot door for the crane lift. ( yes, I will mount a swinging 750 lb. crane from the pole) Pic 4,5,6,7 are of the crossbeams going in on trusses.

The cross beams are loaded up on scaffold 6-8 at a time, then I push/pull my way into postion on the scaffold and start placing crossbeams into place. Now, I want you to understand that I am 16ft. in the air and trying to balance a 14 lb. auto hammer all while holding a 5 ft. 2X4 in place. Let me tell you, its exciting!

I have 2 more full rows of crossbeams to do and then I start on the 16 foot walls of J's studio. It needs to warm up a bit, before I can spray foam all around the edges of the cieling, sealing it up. This must be done before I can finish all the cross beams next to the walls. Once we get all the walls and crossbeams completed, it will be time for electrical and plumbing roughouts.

The second floor is only 7' 4" floor to ceiling, so if you look closely in PIC 6, I have built a 6 inch box between trusses to lift the ceiling fan up into it, thus creating enough overhead for the fan to fit into.

Construction continues into 2023

Second floor starts going up. Balcony to the loft. Its official, we have a mailbox and have recieved and sent mail. Jeannine and Keely putting up th 16 foot scaffold.
Keely and Blake came up a couple of weekends and help with the wall raising for the storage room. Then she cut crossbeam ends spacers and blocking while blake put up the mailbox and split some wood for us. ( Jeannine says I cannot do this anymore) We love having them down to help, if nothing else, just getting some time with them. When we put up the 16 foot seperation wall, we will have a lot of family down to help.
The giant wall is up!

the last wall to go up is the one that seperates Jeannine Studio from my garage. 16 foot tall, and 30 feet long. And the best part? I got it the right size the first time, unbelievable. We had family down, friends and neighbors stopped by for the 30 minutes event! Thats all it took to put it up and another 30 minutes of adjusting and tweaking to make it straight.
All framing has been completed! YEA!

Took much longer than I thought it would, but we did not want to put house up for sale until May.
Sealing up the place! ( with purple and yellow foam) LOL
Blake and Keely came down several weekends to help get the high stuff.
I had originally purchased a case of foam to start sealing all the seems, soffetts, and cracks that were part of building a barn, not a home.  It was whilte/yelloish in color. Well, we needed more and I found a deal for another case of foam and it was like 60 bucks cheaper and ordered it. LOL, its purple foam. All good.
The septic system gets installed along with Cistern.

Like 1 day before we start living in Tennessee! We came up the night before and the backhoe was already sitting there ready to go. Burrough Backhoe service crew were great!
Storage room door
This is a 5' wide door. Why such a big door? Well, imma going to mount a swinging crane arm to the post the door hinges on with an electric winch. That way, all heavy items can be brought up/down to storage room without carrying them up the stairs. It will be able to lift 500lbs.
Everything below was posted on 12/25/23.
WALLS AND CIELINGS

After the last wall went up, we started on walls and cielings. Wow, had no idea how hard it is standing on a 12 feet scaffold, nailing OSB board to trusses. With help from family, we created  a lift system on the end of scaffold to lift OSB into position on walls and then nailed it up. After cieling went up, we started on Insulation. R15 Safe and sound rockwool minimum, some walls more, and R 40 blown Fiber in cieling.







At the end of August the majority of all electrical was completed and we got "service" turned on, and switched from the RV pole to the barn power. Far fewer extension cords everywhere! We also started ordering tub and shower and all appliances getting ready.
Back in September I started taking Fridays off, because I realized if I didn't, we would nto make our Thanksgiving deadline. I also took off a fee more days as large tasks presented themselves.
John, our electrician from Kilpatrick Homes was finishing up as well and we were back on schedule for final inspection. The week before thanksgiving we called for final, and we were "rejected". Setback. Wrong breakers installed, wiring on HVAC mini-splits incorrect and in wrong position and no permit for HVAC, What? New law this spring apparently. So we started running around finding answers to everything. The week of Thanksgiving, I moved Condensers and hooked up the rest the equipment correctly this time and KEG got the breakers replaced over the next 3 weeks. 

So, here is where we are at today, Christmas morning.
We passed the final inspection on December 21st, 2023!
We are now placing the final coating of sealer on concrete floors and figuring out how we want to tackle unloading of the POD. We still have to do; carpet to go in the loft, sinks and dishwasher all hooked up both in bath and NAK, and cistern needs finished with drain lines, and tons of little items to do after that. Looks like a 2/1/24 finish date we are looking at. Not bad for a 15 month self build on the side. Only 2 months behind schedule.
Move the storage shed to back yard (12' X 20')

Got the little barn moved to the back of the barn, it is now Jeannine's potting shed for all her outdoor equipment and tools. Its hooked up to power from barn and also has solar lighting system. 
Some pictures of inside our new barn playhouse.
Some  pictures of outside of the barn. Its spring time!
Apple tree blooming, Creek Chub playing in stream (6-8" long),  our bridge, rock wall in front of old house, Jeannine's rasied beds of veggies and lfowers in front of barn, Twisted maple by well house ( where we got our farm name from), Iris growing on hiollside behind the barn, our back porch with where outside kitchen will go under window, ( you can see the rough out plumbing for sink) new fire ring area with all the leftover wood to burn,
Our wonderful waterfall in front yard.

Now its 2024!

The Cistern is finished

Due to weather, it was May before we got this in. 100 feet of drain out to front of barn. Drain area for back of house and overflow. 1 inch of rain produces 623 gallons of water into the 1000 gallon tank. And of course, we are in a drought! We have been having to fill it from well all summer.

Window casings are done in Studio and my office- September 2024

Have started sealing the exapansion cracks in cement, got my office and almost all of studio done - September 2024