FINALLY!

Spring has sprung. Finally!

So, we're kicking the barn build into high gear now. Finally!

It has taken a long time to get to this point. From starting this whole project in October of last year until now, a lot has happened that has slowed this barn project down.

But now we're going. Finally!

Above is a rough sketch of the east facing side of the barn, the side that faces my brother's house and property. If you didn't already know, he is building on the lot next to ours and we are sharing this barn.

This other view, the north view, is the side that faces our house. The barn itself will sit about 300 feet or so behind our house, back in the woods a bit.

We originally decided to go with a metal barn. After a long, drawn out process with a company in Miami (never try to buy anything from a company in Miami, by the way) we had to end the contract "forcibly."

We then found a great cement board siding material that looked just like cedar shake. Price became an issue with that material, so we fell back on the good old Texas clay brick from Acme Brick Co. The brick is made just up the road in Denton, Texas so it's a fairly cheap material to use. Compared to siding and other materials, it's actually many thousands of dollars less.

So brick it is. A choice has been made. Finally!

The top picture is a modular brick we almost chose. Modular brick goes for as much as $450 per thousand, which is expensive. Acme needed to get rid of this particular brick and we were able to negotiate the price down to $214, which is very cheap - cheap for any brick really. The problem came with labor. Brick labor is priced per thousand no matter how big or small the brick, so a smaller modular brick is more expensive to install.

We ended up with this orange-ish red king size brick at $250. The labor on it saves us a lot of money since it takes about 6,000 less brick to finish the building. I had a very difficult time finding pictures of brick barns online, so I can't for sure how it will look. I did hear stories from many a person saying that brick barns look great. Cross your fingers.

And finally, the forms have been laid. We are waiting for the plumbers to come lay pipe before the concrete is pured. It has been raining and raining so it has been difficult to get to this point, but we're here. Finally!

You can see our house in the background, which gives an idea of how far (or close) the barn will be. I'll post a picture of the floor plan soon. It will mostly be barn/ shop space, but we are roughing in a small living quarters in the corner of the building for future-whatever...maybe a mother-in-law suite, maybe a dungeon for misbehaving children...or better yet, maybe a dungeon for misbehaving mother-in-laws.

FINALLY!