Eastern Bloc

The SIPs are up and Tyvekked on the southern and western sides of the barn and are going up on the eastern side. You can really start to visualize what the barn is going to look like finished. It's going to look great.

The SIPs go up. You can see the arm of the Pettibone hard at work

Pettibone Junction

The view is going to be spectacular

2x4s Galore

The interior wall framing continues while the exterior walls (SIPs) go up. It looks as though the rain is done for the week, so hopefully the mud will subside enough for wheelchair access.

You can see the SIP progress along the left wall as well as interior framing in the center

The wall between the sitting room/bathroom and stairs/great room is installed

The ladder may stop a bit short, but it adds great character

A House Begins to Take Shape

A fully SIPed wall, from the outside

A fully SIPed wall, from the inside




The entryway takes shape

The pantry and front closet are fully framed

The pantry, with fridge and freezer cubbies

The kitchen



A new tar pit is discovered

Pantry Raid

The SIPs continue to go up and they have begun to frame the pantry/refrigerator/front closet area. Thursday will be a day off and the SIP guys will get another day to work before the weekend.

Mike hard at work framing out the pantry.

Gable end of south side gets SIPed up. You can see the future round window location.

Another look at southern wall.

The SIPs Have Landed!

Well, the SIPs have arrived and are going up, although the weather is fighting us tooth and nail. We had 4 inches of snow this weekend and it is expected to be wet and rainy all through Thanksgiving and the upcoming weekend. We will all breathe a sigh of relief once the SIPs are all on and the envelope is closed. Then we can dry out.

The drywall-edged foam panels are glued in place with more foam, eliminating future drafts

Future site of the kitchen as well as double french doors (with transom window) to the deck



More kitchen and the future home of the pantry and front closet



The front door, which will be 40" wide with two 12" sidelights and a transom overhead



Collar ties will hold the roof together while a chase just below it will provide a central location for upstairs ductwork and electricity

Two Weeks: Abridged

The last two weeks have not been full of spectacular changes, but that doesn't make what has been done any less important. Bill & Co have been spending the time stabilizing the foundation and timber frame while we have been running the gauntlet of bureaucracy. On the plus side, we now have our zoning permit and the septic system worked out and we were able to observe a township meeting. Democracy in motion is quite long-winded. The SIPs are scheduled to arrive tomorrow (Wednesday) and the spectacular changes will begin again. Here are the latest developments in captions.

Rotten wood is replaced with concrete block and gaps are concreted closed

The sealer goes on to the timbers and brings out their innate redness

A cross of timbers adds stability where one set of barn doors once was

A view down the gullet of the beast

A total of nine rotten timbers were replaced by the excess timbers salvaged from the barn

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.