Sunday, May 6, 2012

The new barn

This is the new barn; it's 24x36, and I think it's 12' tall.  The previous owner built a second story into it, from what it looks like they took another smaller metal building and kinda grafted it on to it.  The view is actually pretty good from up there.  I think it'll be fine for storing lightweight stuff. 
It looks pretty good in that picture.  Here's what it started out as: 




 3 gallons of red paint, 2 gallons of white paint, 1 new steel security door and lockset, 1 replacement deadbolt lockset, some trim and a bunch of elbow grease to clear out the junk. 

 The inside was pretty trashed.  Took a day to clear out all of the stuff and toss it into a pile, and then another day to repaint the outside and replace the locks and broken door. 




The electrical service box was missing its cover and all of the circuit breakers, but they hadn't cut the supply wires.  A quick trip to the hardware store got me another identical panel; so I used the parts from the new panel to complete the old one, and I'm all set to get the electricity turned back on. 

They did steal all of the copper wiring to the outlets and lights, so I'll have to rewire it, call it another day of labor, but all in all, not bad.  The roof doesn't leak, the concrete floor is good, and with a good coat of paint on the inside, it'll be just fine.  I'm sure the chicks and poults and piglets will enjoy heat lamps and other modern luxuries. 

It has a hookup for a phone as well as electricity, so when the power goes on I'll install a security camera system that I can monitor from the house via the internet. 

Rural areas near urban always get hit hard with petty theft and vandalism.  I think that the city kids think that somehow it doesn't matter what they do when they're "in the country".  I don't understand it.  No matter -- the damage in this case was all cosmetic; the building is sound and secured now. 

Drat.  I missed some graffitti.  I'll get it tomorrow. 

4 comments:

Kev Alviti said...

Nice barn. I'm getting some drawings done now so I can get planning for mine. Mine will be alot more plane The upstairs will only be inside, but I like your viewing platform!

wooky said...

Its looking great. I wanted to relate whats going on in our area. I live in a rural area close to an urban area. All the vandalism and graffite is coming from kids that live in the rural area. The mother of the kids that are doing the damage was raised in this area. She has been able to keep them out of serious trouble by paying off and fixing the damage that is being done. Since everyone knows everybody they dont want to "offend" neighbors by sending their kids to jail. I am new to the area so after we had a few things vandalized I put up a sign at the road saying that if your reading the sign my cameras are taking your picture and I will send you to jail no matter who your parents are. This was targeted more tword the parents then the kids. It seems to have worked. The last thing the kids did in the area was paint two cars with slurs that was in eyesight of their house. A jeep and a BMW. The owners had never had any issues with the family. The kids just did it to be mean. The kids mother came up with $800 to clean the cars and the kids got off with whatever punishment their parents gave them. Minor punishment im guessing. So keep your eyes peeled on the locals too.

becky3086 said...

The barn looks great! You did a lot of work there, all that painting and all that junk inside but it definitely looks worth it.

Kelly Johnson said...

Did the rv come with it? Paint that thing and you got a mobile tool shed or chicken house. Mount you a generator in it and you got power anywhere on the main farm. Heck if it half water tight put it on the main farm and make a farm hand rental. Save some cost of labor. LOL