Moving along & Buttoning things up!

When I last posted about our carriage barn our contractors were just starting to frame out for the windows here. They also had to add new studs since the old ones weren’t sixteen inches on center and carpenter ants and water had taken a toll on two sides of the building. Then it was a simple matter of sheathing so they could start to button this place up for winter.

Our contractors waited until all the other windows had been framed out before they would cut and frame for the half round window as their small way of torturing me. I’ll admit I became a bit of a pest about framing out for that window but I just wanted to see! Just look how that half window is the crowning touch on the upper wall!

Inside looking out, look at that view looking out among the forest, it’s like our own personal tree house! And the half round window fits perfectly up among the eave. It sits right on the main beam and goes right up to the rafters, it pays to measure!

Back side of the carriage barn and our contractor Rich who thought he was running the job site but lets be realistic as to who was running this job…lol, yes we butted heads a few times. You see that concrete slope along the bottom edge that was to direct the water away from the barn. They encased the sills under there as well. This barrier stops all water from leaking into the downstairs part of the barn. They placed drainage everywhere behind the barn since the mountain slopes down towards our barn. You see that opening behind Richs' back....

That would be this opening where a pair of French doors are going. This was where the original barn doors were located and leads out to this....

An old logging road that goes up into the forest, this whole back area used to be open pasture land and you can see from the size of the trees they aren’t all that old. It has stonewalls on either side but as you can see there on the right part of the stonewall has been shoved about by the shifting of the mountain. Look how straight that left wall is, amazing they could do that over 200 years ago.

The other end of our barn facing out onto our backyard and as you can see our contractors have really made a mess of our yard, it goes clear around the house! The bottom half is where mister mans' workshop is located.

Looking out on the end shown above. The annex is located on the left over where the window is leaning against the wall.

Look at the view from that end looking out onto our backyard and forest. We're really very blessed to be surrounded by so much natural beauty.

The window above also faces out to our old barn area in the backyard, here you can see the entire foundation that the barn used to sit upon. Unfortunately the animal barn was struck by lightening at the turn of the 20^th century and burned to the ground. We plan on having that area cleaned up and graded for gardens.

After they sheathed that end and as you can see mister man is building another granite stonewall for his shop. That hanging wood frame is the frame for a window. This end had a lot of carpenter ant damage, similar to termites but the stone will stop those ants since they won't climb and can't penetrate stone.

Our carriage barn all sheathed and ready for the windows, two sets of barn doors need to be built for the lower front of the barn and then clapboard and it’ll be set for winter. I can’t wait to show you in my next post how the windows look!