Solar Panels

The summer of 2010

Solar panels were added to the south side of the roof.  This completes the restoration and additions to the barn.  Now we can just enjoy it!

                                                                                                  

Below is the invert-er for the solar panels.  The energy goes through the invert-er and is then sent out to the main line to the utility company. It is a maintenance free system. 

     

Spring of 2009 

Deck is added to the South side of the barn 

The deck runs almost the full length of the barn.  Steps and a walkway were added to provide access from the house.  Steps going to the basement level, now provides access from three levels. 

 

New roof

 

New Roof

It's not known when the roof was replaced last but it needs a new one

Old shingles were removed and it was found to no big surprise that a lot of roof boards, needed to be replaced.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The roof was started in November so the weather provided some challenges.

As you see the roof boards were not replaced with walnut wood, like the original ones.

                                                                             

Finally it's a nice warm day and the shingles can be put on.                                          

 

It Is Standing On It's Own!

Yea!!!!!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The barn is straightened and mason work is   finished. There is still more work that will be done but the "Bender boys" will be leaving soon.

Gee, it looks nice!

What A Find!

A horse lost it's shoe

One day Kyle said "here I have something for you" and handed me a well worn and rusty horseshoe. They found several of these in the walls of the barn as they tore them down. He gave me one and they put the rest of them back in the walls as they rebuilt them. This shoe had to have come from a horse that was used at the time the barn was built (1850's). It will hang in a place of honor in the barn.

After the walls were rebuilt, drain tiles were placed around three sides of the barn. The white pipe in the picture is the tile.

   Stones were placed over the tile to add to the drainage. The barn sits near a large spring not far from Liberty Creek, which runs through the center of the farm.

There was lots of outside work but there was just as much going on inside. A new floor that covers the entire upper level of the barn was put in and many support beams had to be replaced. Some of the new support beams came from a dairy barn (built in 1916) that was on the property and was taken down before the house was built. Walnut was a common wood used in that barn but then walnut likes to grow here so why not!

Denny is putting in the new windows, they make the windows themselves, back at their shop.

WHAT IS THAT GUY DOING?

He is working on the inside of one of the windows at the peak of the barn (don't think those will get washed very often).

A close fit!!! The dirt floor on the lower level had to be dug out and replaced with gravel. They made the one lower level doorways just large enough to get the "Bobcat" through.

Mortar And Stones

Oh, so much mortar and stones

A close up view of the hoist that had to be built to move the stones and mortar. The materials are placed in the red pan and then hoisted up to the work area. Not fancy but it helped to get the job done. 

Work continues on the upper level of the barn. Here is the hoist again.

Almost done with the south wall.

Just about to finish the rebuilding of the stone wall. The white tent is being used to store the dry mortar.

The last stones are being put in (a view from inside the barn) place. Yeah!!

Rebuilding Continues

It is looking a little more stable!

Iron beams were inserted into the wall to re-enforce the wall and upper level floor.

Here is the large doorway on the lower level. All of the bracing is still in place as the walls are being rebuilt.

The lower portion of the South wall is rebuilt. Two door ways were built into this level. One doorway is, small and the other one large enough to get the bobcat through.....more on that later.

Break time on a beautiful fall day!

Time To Rebuild

Most of South wall has been removed

This is a critical time, because so much of the wall is missing. Hope it stays up right!!

The rebuilding started with making a wooden form so a cement foundation could be poured.

Here you see the foundation has been poured.......just watching the cement dry, pretty exciting !!!!

The first stone goes in place as the south wall is being reconstructed.

Wall Is Coming Down

Taking down the wall stone by stone

The supports are in place and now part of the wall will be knocked down.  Because of the large crack and bulge on the south wall much of the wall had to be removed.

The walls at the top part of the barn are about one foot thick. The middle portion of the walls are a foot and a half and at the bottom two feet thick.

WOW!

Stabilization Of The Barn

Entire barn is wrapped in cables

The cables were used to straighten and pull together the barn.

Cable around the entire structure helped to stabilize it especially while the south wall was taken down and rebuilt.

Wooden bracing on the outside helped to stabilize the barn and the scaffolding went up.

The foot of one of the outside braces.

The old and the new window frames.

The bright colored mortar is the results of tuck pointing. The old loose mortar was removed and replaced with new mortar, on the inside and outside of the building.

 Setting up equipment

The process of unloading and setting up equipment begins

Oh! No they are setting up camp, tent and all. Actually the tent is for the big and I do mean big bags of mortar mix.











A semi-truck parked on the edge of the road and down the driveway came this little machine carrying bags of mortar mix. This may not look like much of a machine but it is carrying 3000 lbs of mortar mix per bag!!

This is only a few of the bags of mortar mix. The total amount delivered was about 50,000 lbs of dry mortar mix and almost all of it was used. I wonder if they are going to use any stones in this project? Guess we'll wait and see.

Bender Builders, Inc.

                                                   The builders arrive                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

On a bright October morning they came down the hill like a train. Four trucks and trailers. They were loaded with every thing from a cement mixer to a microwave oven.....yes.

Bender Builders, Inc., we soon called them Denny and the boys, seven of them when they were all working on this project. Denny is the owner and his son Kyle is the stone mason. This is the second of the big trucks and a trailer load of things.

A trailer load of scaffolding and the mortar mixer (boy did that mixer really get used)! More about that later.

The bobcat that could do anything or I should say many things. You'll see it in action later on.

The work begins

First comes the digging

The first thing that had to be done was remove the dirt ramp to the barn. A great deal of care had to be taken to prevent a rock that was being dug out from falling the wrong way and hitting the barn. If this happened it could cause stones in the barn to be pushed out and the side of the barn might have given way. Eric is a real artist with that machine and no damage was done to the barn.....Whew!
                                                 

                                                                             
                                                                   

The lower level is being exposed and quite a few stones have fallen out underneath the big door.

There are big one and little ones but there are lots of rocks!!