Open Roof, Insert Tsunami

Well, the roof came off and the rain came down.

In buckets.

And it's not supposed to stop until Saturday night.

The plastic on top of the new subfloor couldn't hold back the water and it came pouring through into the shop below.

The previously finished drywall shop ceiling absorbed water until it couldn't and then flopped to the floor.

On the plus side, once the rain stops and the drywall is mucked out, we'll have easy access to the underside of the new subfloor for plumbing, electric and ductwork.

The power washer guy came in the rain, since we couldn't flood the shop below more than the rain already was, and we tried a test patch of sealer on the timbers. While it's still wet in the photo, and darker than it will dry, it at least gives you an idea of what the timbers will look like.

Great Time for a Thunderstorm

The old metal roofing is removed, exposing the older shake roof. Once that is all removed, the last two sides of sheathing will be removed, with power washing to begin Wednesday. The weatherman is calling for 2 inches of rain today.

A Barn Undressed

The sheathing begins to come down.

Mario cuts through the sheathing with a saws-all and knocks it off of the frame with a sledgehammer.

Two sides of the barn are opened.

A view from below.

Next stop, power washing the frame.

Subfloor Galore

The subfloor installation was completed on Friday and we now have a solid, uninterrupted floor that runs the entire length of the barn.

The next step is to tear the old sheathing off and reveal the skeleton of the barn.

The snake count still rests at three.

Bonjour Subfloor

The micro-laminate I-beams are installed to give us a nice flat floor.



Even though not all of the old timbers are straight, the "micro-lam" helps fill in the gaps. And they say it's stronger than steel.

We picked up our stove at the Blue Star factory yesterday. While the place looked a little sketchy, we got a great deal on a 2006 leftover.




Here is the stove. It is 36 in. wide and has four normal gas burners as well as a charbroiler in the middle, under the protective middle piece. Blue Star, while not as well-known as Viking, Wolf or Thermador, they are widely thought of as the best stove for the price. Here is a pretty nifty article on them.

Week #2 Begins

Yesterday, Monday, the guys finished installing a 4x4 support truss along the two long sides of the barn. This will provide added strength and stability to the future floor system. And hopefully make it flat.

As the current timbers are too far apart to make for a stable floor, they will be adding some micro-laminate wood I-beams to further support the subfloor. These "micro-lam" beams are about 32 ft. long and can span the entire breadth of the barn.

October is here and the leaves have begun to change color.
Click the picture for a larger version.

Stood Up On Tuesday

Well, Gary from Ground Source Contractors didn't show up yesterday at 4:15 as scheduled as he called our house to confirm after we were already at the farm. I guess we didn't need to reschedule the dog getting spayed after all. We have rescheduled with him for Thursday at 4:15, when we can hopefully skip the whole calling to confirm process.

Today, Jake from Jake Kocher's Water Pumps & Tanks will be coming at 10 a.m. (edit: now 11:30am) to give us an estimate for geothermal and, at a random time this afternoon, a mystery geothermal installer that was nicely recommended by "Bill from Bernville" (A guy that was in love with oil heat and might install our radiant panels) will arrive. We really want to determine whether geothermal is realistic and talking with these three guys should make us better able to reach a decision.


As for the barn, yesterday they managed to pull up all of the good floorboards, which will be transported to Bailey's by their transport farmer (a farmer that also transports wood) at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. So it should have happened about half an hour ago. The bat poop covered shop ceiling was also removed and boy did it stink!

You can see the timbers under the floor, which are amazingly 32 ft. in length.

First Day of Work

The guys got off to a quick start on Monday around eight in the morning and, by the end the day, had the entire inside cleared out save the skeleton of the shop and the plank flooring. They took down the extra timbers, the granary, the bay dividers, a large portion of the shop and some sections of flooring and set all of the good wood very neatly on the deck. All in all, it was a very good day's work.

Taking down the extra timbers

Opening up the bay dividers and granary



Getting down to the bones of the shop...
the bat guano above will be tackled on Tuesday in protective suits



The neatly stacked wood and timbers



The floor starts to come up. You can see the insulation and drywall ceiling of the lower barn.

A Moment Of Silence

Let's take a moment to honor all the animals that died during the almost 200 years that the barn has existed. From rats and cats to bats and... err, gnats?

A Hardwood Phoenix

Bill took two pieces of the mystery wood floor, one from the turn of the century quartersawn replacement floor in the would-be kitchen area (left) and one from the older, original floor areas (below), to Bailey's and had them planed down so that we could see what they were made of.

It turns out that the quartersawn stuff is oak, and really wide oak at that, while the older stuff is either virgin white pine or some type of fir.

Even though it's not chestnut like the timbers as we had once thought, it's still great, wide stuff that you can't find anywhere except maybe on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

The plan is now to do random 5", 6" and 8" width tongue and groove flooring throughout the barn, with the pine comprising the 1st floor and the oak as far as it goes on the loft. The old floors are about 2 in. thick, so we will be able to get two layers of 3/4" thick flooring out of each plank.

Oak on the left and pine on the right

Our First Delay

Today is Go Day! At least it was supposed to be. Bill e-mailed us last night to tell us that they would not be starting until Monday the 24th. We were, however, told to expect the arrival of a dumpster this week. We wait with baited breath.

Bill will be coming over again on Friday with window samples from Andersen, Lincoln and Pella. This means that we really need to sit down and pick the color for the window cladding. Unfortunately, to get that right, we also really need to figure out the colors for the siding, trim and roof. For the siding, we are going with a vertical fiber cement panel from James Hardie in Countrylane Red, and are looking at dark brown, black or sage green window cladding. - we're still pretty much up in the air on that one. Bill will also be bringing some scaffolding, ladders and other fun stuff to go with the skid loader that currently sits outside the barn.

On Tuesday at 4:15 p.m., Gary Eschenburg, owner of Ground Source Contractors, will be coming out to have a look at the barn and give us an estimate for a geothermal heat pump. Gary has been installing them for the last 20 years and, since we have heard both positive and negative things about geothermal systems, we wanted to go with one of the best companies in the area. If that doesn't work out, we are considering a wood gasification boiler. Either way, we are going with radiant floor heat - most likely RauPanel, which seems to be the best product on the market.

In other news, the SIPs are ordered and should arrive sometime around October 12, which means all of the barn stripping and demolition will need to be done by then, as well as the joist system and subfloor installation. In addition, we found a company in Kempton, Pa called Bailey Wood Products that would be willing to remill the current barn floor into tongue and groove flooring for the new floor, and hopefully at a price substantially less than The Woods Company, a specialty antique flooring company we have looked at before.

Go Day Set

Wednesday, September 19th is the day this great adventure is set to begin. Bill the Builder (not to be confused with Bob) is coming with his crew to tear down the drywall/false ceiling shop area and take up the floorboards to begin the process of cobbling together the new joist system that will provide us with level floors. The A/C ductwork and plumbing will also run through the space under floors. We're off to an auction... 4 days to go!

Mostly Clean Barn

Computer room/Bathrooms

TV room
(It's actually cleaner than this now.)

Scott's room

Kattrina and Brian's room
(Note that S's room and K&B's room are currently a single space)

The ship has sailed away

A mess, I confess...

Computer room/Bathrooms

TV room

Scott's room

Kattrina and Brian's room

Our global warming insurance policy.
And future site of pellet stove.

We had our work cut out for us sorting and cleaning out the barn. It needs to be completely empty before renovation begins on 17 September.

Belly of the Beast

The cedar shakes, though awesome, will not make it through the renovation process intact. Did I mention it was VERY dusty?


The timbers are 200 year old American Chestnut. The red painted planks are also Chestnut and were part of the original siding.

Concrete Cave

Inside Tony's new shop (under the deck)

What's that, Lassie? Timmy's trapped in the what?

Oh, the well. That's right.
It's a deep one too. 500 feet.

Gypsy moth invasion.

Exterior Plans

The Western Face

The Northern Face

The Eastern Face

The Southern Face (ignore triangle window)