Barn build (Non-Valk & long)

[Hook#3287]

Lost my good friend & riding buddy, Chris Olsen, yesterday  

He was visiting friends in FL and passed out at dinner.  They got him to the hospital and Tues morning he moved on.

Gonna miss him, he always livened up the party and ran his Harley good.  He was with me when I took the picture of my Valk that made it to "Miss June" in the VRCC 2016 calendar.

He had just retired a couple years ago and was spending time fixing up his house he had ignored for awhile.

Anyways, I took the day off to reflect (that and it's poring buckets out) and thought I'd share the latest project I  built in my home town with the board.  It's great to just travel 2 miles to the job site.

My customers are friend's of mine that I've done several projects for in the past.  They just bought this old B&B house that originally had a barn behind it that the PO's let go to seed and tore down.

Luckily, it was less than 2 years ago and therefore "Grandfathered", so we didn't have to go before the zoning or conservation boards.  Some of them people just can't wait to say NOPE!

Wayne & Lori, my friends, wanted a barn/garage to replace it, so we made a deal.

It was/is a great project.  It's so much better when your customer knows what they want, understands what it takes to get it and has the patience to wait for quality.

The first thing was to remove the field stone foundation of the original barn.  It was 30' x 40' about 5' - 6' deep.  It was a challenge at times, but I got it done with the help of a friend and my Bobcat & Mini.  You can see it piled up in back and also used to build the walls around the raised planters Wayne got me to build.

Had my concrete guy pour the footings & walls, filled the inside with over 300 yards of sand and back filled.

Framed the walls, raised the trusses and put down the second floor sub floor .  Installed the 1x10 ship lapped siding over 2x4 perlins.  Sheathed & shingled the roof.  Poured the floor. Built a 16x20 work-out room. Built some stairs.

Put in some nice Andersen windows, couple of metal doors and had Ranor do the garage doors.

All in all, it came out nice.  Even my building inspector gave me a compliment.  That felt good.

Pics are here if your interested.

http://email.photobucket.com/wf/click?upn=71gpQnDR9yiZ1TWxBLkRohcENxEjn7-2FsWdQ8VaLpzwtiZQDmTOtpgexxXFwHMie4-2FcsJdWkvEGnX2fT9YbbTTKBMGg9D6l0vQR-2B1Uc3cbrtYSNFLbINFS-2BLZa7bsOWvz1LSoUAAqFKgCpMCKsz48BA-3D-3D_hO8hAJ397b9U1Wbl7kM7m-2BvFjvypDK6qxwll-2B0BKtCjOEpqTngo13rJFA5ZpFR-2FBJsmZP5jlE4ILI7VTetrEt-2Fl9JGB-2FkYM8CmM0DD2uJviKOBvdy7ngIMt94-2BH5iA2PJ-2B4w363QZyjcfhzrytCl2nuiVr-2BZeFlkJFaMqrrAtbfvZzhrxBvpCfANsxCi29Vqhpg8zjZJvgU-2FwPPsraArA1i5ql41v-2BaH68KEPOWGG-2FzA1Mmqsq79qIKquhhmp1SZ

[..]

 

[The emperor has no clothes]

Sorry about your riding buddy Bill. You do some nice work.  The original barn had stone laid down 5-6 feet deep ? I assume it was old and done by hand or with horses. That seems like a lot of work. I guess one had to be pretty tough back then.

[Hook#3287]

Sorry about your riding buddy Bill. You do some nice work.  The original barn had stone laid down 5-6 feet deep ? I assume it was old and done by hand or with horses. That seems like a lot of work. I guess one had to be pretty tough back then.

Hey Rob, thanks and thanks.

Yeah, it's amazing to see what the farmers and builders did back before machines.  A lot of the boulders I removed had cut marks on them.

I've heard that around 1899-1900, 97% of New England was clear cut.  It sucks when I have pull a big old oak stump with an excavator, must of really sucked w/o one.

Don't know if you've ever been out here, but the stone walls running every which way, out in the middle of what is now forest, is mind boggling, when you realize people did it with horse and ox.

When the west opened up, a lot of farmers tired of growing rocks, because every year mother earth would push more up, burned their houses and barns for the nails and moved.

Can't say as I blame them.

Very tough people.

[Karen]

Mr. Hook, that is absolutely lovely! Thanks for sharing. You do very beautiful precise work. I'm sorry about your friend, he's at peace now. 

[Hook#3287]

Mr. Hook, that is absolutely lovely! Thanks for sharing. You do very beautiful precise work. I'm sorry about your friend, he's at peace now. 

Thank you Karen

[Valkorado]

Sorry to hear about your friend's passing, he rides smooth twisties on perfect sunny days now.  Great work on the barn, lots of skill and talent there.   

[Hooter]

Sorry for the loss Hook. My condolences to everyone. I hear of this happening too often. Just nicely retired and out of the blue and people pass away. Never really get a chance to do not much of anything after working all your life, really stinks.  Again, sorry.

[NewValker]

Sorry to hear about your buddy Bill, too young.
Nice work on the re-build. Believe that's the one you showed me in the center? Came out great.
You are a true craftsman.
Craig

[Hook#3287]

Thanks for the kind words and compliments everyone.

Yeah, Craig, Main St., Brimfield.