I have mentioned several times over the last few weeks that Kelly Jo and I are working on a project in the barn. I am extremely happy to say that this phase of our barn rejuvenation is finished. Yay!
One of my long term goals is for the bus barn to be more airtight. It would be great if it can be at least partially heated in the future. It will stay above freezing for a while with freezing temperatures outside, but after several extremely cold days, it will get unbearably cold in the barn.
A warm barn would be nice. I am a long way from that now, but I have been making baby steps from day one. The good metal roof in 2015 was the first step.
The second step was insulating and covering most of the west wall with sawmill lumber in 2016.
We had lots of help on that project. Bro. Jared Burris did the framing and Steve, Karen, Dad and Mom all worked hard assisting us on that wall. Dad and Mom are not able to help now and Steve and Karen are in Kansas working in the ministry.
That leaves only KJo to help me, but with help like her, I can do almost anything!🙌
We are waiting on an insulated overhead door on the front opening. That will go a long way toward keeping out the cold. We ordered one in early April and it is supposed to be installed soon.
The last few weeks we tackled the east wall of the bus barn. It was mostly insulated, but we insulated the spots that were lacking and covered over 58' of that wall between ten and twelve feet high.
My father-in-law took me to a sawmill in the middle of nowhere and I purchased about 1000 board feet of rough lumber for the current price of a few sheets of plywood.
It was raining cats and dogs when we picked it up. I know because I almost stepped in a poodle.
The posts in our barn are eight feet apart, give or take a few inches.😊 We cleared one section at a time, put up the necessary framing, cut and installed the wood and then shuffled "stuff" around so that the next section was clear.
Now, that is a load of lumber!
Every section on the east wall has some insulation that was there when we purchased the barn.
After a bit of setup and preparation, I did the low part of the first section in about an hour. It was very simple and I was able to work nice and slow without straining much at all.
The top of that section was next.
The green six foot ladder is six feet. That gives you perspective as to the height of the wall.
Then the second section.
The third section.
My head is about twelve feet high in the picture below.
The fifth section had two hundred chairs hanging on it so they had to be removed first.
The last two sections probably had more wood, metal and other materials that had to be moved than any of the other sections. We moved the "stuff", readied the framing and began.
We had temporarily skipped the fourth section, but it was not neglected forever. We moved the shelves, tore down a built-in rack, covered the window, framed and prepared and did something I had never done before.
We have metal leftover from the barn roof and the house roof and we thought it was time to put some of it to use. Dad came that day and coached me on cutting it and installing it and I think it looks great!
A panoramic shot.
Do you remember what the trailer looked like a couple of weeks ago?
And after the work was completed.
It is so nice to have that finished. Hallelujah! I really was not sure that I had the physical strength and stamina to handle all of that heavy sawmill lumber. I needed to work my body and lungs, but this was a bit extreme. Kelly Jo and I took it slow and easy and piece by piece it is completed.
We used framing lumber and metal we had salvaged from other projects, nails we had already purchased and rough sawmill lumber that cost the equivalent of four or five pieces of plywood and covered nearly 700 square feet of wall. Not too shabby
We still have about ten feet of east wall in the tool crib and both tall end walls to insulate and cover. That is a project for the future. Down the road from that, I would love to put metal on the bottom of the rafters as a ceiling and then insulate the attic.
Then the barn would be ready to heat when needed!
We have metal storage cabinets coming to place along the newly covered wall. They will tidy up the barn quite a bit. All of that is a job for another day. I am looking forward to getting back on the road so I can rest.😁
Thank you for joining us on Mile Markers today.
Davy
