Thursday, December 16, 2021

Barn Second Phase

When I last reported on our barn we had successfully completed the conversion of the right side to one large bay with two openings so that we could use the far right opening as a garage.  See the car in there?

Our barn whisperer said he would return in the fall to take on the second phase which included replacing the rotted sill on the left side and building doors for the garage part. Checking in with him several times by email he said he'd be here.  When the house painting was completed at the end of October we did get another email from the barn whisperer saying he was behind schedule but still planned to come. Then silence - no response to future emails.

Last Thursday Dan was helping put lights up on the Christmas tree erected on the town green and mentioned to the neighbor he was helping our barn project. Tony came over to see the barn, gave us a proposal and started work on Saturday afternoon. Before we okay'd the proposal Dan once more contacted the barn whisperer. His response: if Tony wants to do it, that's fine. Tony has been here every day since.

This means that Dan has been working every day since, too. Tony is our age and needs Dan to do some of the heavy lifting, etc. First thing they did was remove the clapboard and walls to reveal the sill.

You can see below it's rotted.





They had to remove it entirely and jack up that side of barn to support it.





Below you can see the original sill was created by hand using an adze.



Yesterday, Wednesday, the sill was entirely replaced. Now on to closing up that side and building the doors.



One discovery Dan made was that the barn was painted green at some point in its life. We may return it to that color.