Texas Barndominium

Done!!!

2009-10-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

We are pretty much done. Some moving is going on tomorrow. Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago. To see more, you might just have to come visit!! I'll post some more detail photos soon.

More progress...

2009-09-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted last. I haven't been up there in awhile & Chip's not so good at the pictures. I will have tons of pics on Friday or Saturday! The painter has been diligently working on painting (there are many different colors). The plumber and electrician are starting this week with top-out (fixtures). Tile is complete with the exception of the kitchen countertops, which will be done this weekend. More barnwood has been hung. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but the pictures will show all!!!

Trim & Cabinets

2009-08-27T14:57:00.000-07:00

The trim is complete. The bead board is in the bathrooms and "closets." The rock wainscot is complete. Yesterday, Chip and I finished putting in the kitchen cabinets and making a half bath vanity. The painter has been working this week, and we should have color on the walls tomorrow.

Cedar Accents

2009-08-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

Master carpenter Chip put up some cedar in the upstairs hallway. There will be cedar at certain places around the house. We decided not to paint it. Doesn't it look great?

I will have more pictures tomorrow of trim, kitchen cabinets and more. Stay tuned.

That man is tall!

2009-08-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

This week the sheetrockers finished up. Jack enjoyed watching this tall man.

A shot of the "left" side with the stairs leading up to the loft. Below right is the kitchen. Scaffolding was used for the 20' foot living room!

The rock is also being worked on right now.

Insulation & Sheetrock

2009-08-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Plumbing was finished up at the end of last week. Insulation was put in on Tuesday and the sheet rockers started on Wednesday. They will take a few days. The rock is also being installed on the exterior of the barn this week and the beginning of next week. Next in line is trim, which is scheduled for possibly Thursday or Friday.

More pictures to come!

Mechanical

2009-08-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the stairs (much needed for a second story). There are identical stairs on the other side as well.

The plumbers are finishing up this week.

Electrical is in place. All light fixtures, plugs, switches, phone outlets and cable outlets are in their correct spots.

The air conditioning guys finished yesterday. The "columns" we built worked perfectly for the duct and all air will be conditioned fantastically (which is a must for Dad).

Second Story

2009-07-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

We have a second story! This view is looking up at the two bedrooms and one bathroom. The hallway in the middle will be the access from the stairs coming up from the right.

Below shows the loft view. The two columns and the pony wall on the right will be the a.c. chases. There will be a pony wall on the left to keep toys (and children) from falling. The stairs will start on the left and end between the chases.

This photo was taken on the second story in the loft. That's the framed out closet that can one day be a bathroom. We're close to being ready for mechanical. Exciting.

Mom and Dad are super busy choosing the rest of the light fixtures and plumbing fixtures. They're also working on paint colors and flooring for upstairs.

Interior Framing

2009-07-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

The framers are lifting one of the walls on the bedroom side. This side of the barndo will have two bedrooms and two bathrooms downstairs and two bedrooms with one bathroom up. You can see the bathroom walls in the middle.
This is the other side of the barndo. On the left is the master bedroom, bathroom and closet. There is a hallway through the middle to reach the side door. On the right is the kitchen, with a pantry and MUD room behind that. The second floor will be an open loft space.

Another step complete (sort of)

2009-07-20T06:56:00.000-07:00

National Barn completed the shell of the barn this weekend. Through starting late, taking a break for a family emergency and taking a lot longer than promised, they are done. Although, they will be coming back to move the cupolas to the correct locations. Right now, the center one is not centered and the other two are too far towards the center.

Below are some pictures of the very cool home.

This is the right side with the "fake" doors to make it look like a barn.

This is the left side which has one "fake" door and one real walk door.

This is a shot of the interior from about a week ago with the insulation and roof trusses.

The front of the barndo has the "Texas star" front doors and a porch. The plywood around the bottom of the home will be covered with rock. It will add a lot of cool color and interest.

This is a close-up of one of the cupolas.

The back of the barndo has three sets of french doors in a row that enter into the living and breakfast areas. The kitchen is also open to this area. The windows above them are also open to this area because this portion is two-story. You can also see the back porch.

The framers will begin this week on the interior framing and hopefully finish by Friday.

A little more progress...

2009-07-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Here's what the barndo looked like Wednesday night after the guys left. The bottom part is plywood and will have a rock covering it. The rest of the barn is cedar board and batten. The front porch has also been started.

Chip stained the floors a couple of weeks ago and sealed them yesterday. He figured since he had a few days of no barn work that he would go ahead and do it. Once the barn guys come back and finish, the framers can start immediately (I can dream).

July 1st

2009-07-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the progress as of this morning. The windows are in and the insulation is being hung. This afternoon we found out that there will be a slight delay in the barn building. The guys have to go back home (to Kentucky) for a few days while one of their wives has a baby. To be continued next Monday...

We have a pooper!

2009-06-29T17:34:00.001-07:00

Last week, Chip stained the concrete floors a redish-brown color. He's going to wait to seal it until after the barn company is finished.

This week we're making some real progress. The barn guys are here and they are building.

The bronze windows were delivered. The big ones are for above the patio doors. The living room is going to have a lot of light with these and the three patio doors.

We got a pooper!

The patio doors were also delivered. They are going in the back of the Barndo all in a row.

This is the front door that will be painted bronze.

This is the progress of the barn company through Saturday. One of the guys drove a very large and long nail into his leg. So the front patio and entry floor have some blood on them. Saturday afternoon was spent at the Brenham hospital cleaning the wound and getting a tetanus shot. They said they'll be done by this Friday, but I'm thinking more mid to late next week. I guess they are a lot more optimistic than me. :)

More pictures

2009-06-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures taken by Mom on Friday. This is the view of the Barndo from the other side of the main pond.

There is a creek that goes through the property that is rather hard to cross. There's a few acres on the other side of the creek. This pond on the other side is full of lily pads. Chip swears he's seen gator slides here.

This is a barn that was already on the property and sits next to the Barndo. There was a baby buzzard that was living in the barn. He scared the pants off of Mom & Dad one day when they entered the barn and the bird flew out directly over their heads.

Slab

2009-06-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, Chip put the electrical ground in before the slab was poured. We're going to have two floor plugs in the living room and a couple in the kitchen island.

On Friday, the National Barn guys delivered the wood for the framing of the barn. They brought it in on an 18-wheeler.

They threw (or maybe just dropped) the roof trusses off the truck. Those suckers are big.

Also on Friday they poured the slab.

National Barn says the barn will start being erected on Friday or Monday. Let's hope for Friday so they'll work through the weekend.

More pictures

2009-06-07T18:25:00.001-07:00

We finally got by the site on Saturday. Here's the new water well equipment that will eventually be surrounded by some kind of "house."

As I mentioned in my previous post, the plumber came and did his before-slab work. This is one of the sides with two baths.

This is the other side with the kitchen, mud room and half bath.

Then, today Mom and Dad came to Ellinger and we tore down one of the outbuildings at our country house. Our house was built in 1885, and we're guessing that this outbuilding was built about 100 years ago (or at least the wood is that old). Here it is before we started:

Here are some pictures during the tear-down (including the part where Chip hooked the building up to his car and pulled it down...so Chip).

We are going to take the old wood to the barndo, repaint it (probably red), power wash it to make some of the paint chip and hang it on the kitchen/living room wall. This is a "green" part of the project. Using reclaimed wood is very popular right now, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

Getting Closer to Slab Pour

2009-06-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

The next big event is the slab pour, so we're anxious for that to happen. At the beginning of this week, the plumber came and did his rough, which means he laid pipe for all the water and drainage lines. Now that he's finished, the slab guy can start. He will start next week, prepping for the pour, forming and placing fill, paper and steel in the slab. Because this is a "barn," the concrete will be poured around the posts that were set. Once we pour, things should start moving a little quicker!

Well & Posts!

2009-05-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

The water well has been dug & the equipment has been set.

But more importantly, the posts have been set. These posts are for the "barn" and the two patios. It will have a 8' deep patio in the back looking towards the pond. It will also have a 6' deep patio along the front of the home.

Next the plumber & electrician will come lay their stuff before the slab is formed and poured. We are going to have two floor plugs in the living room and outlets in the kitchen island. We also figured out the exact locations of the bathroom & kitchen fixtures so that the plumber knows where everything goes. The propane tank will be for the range only. Mom needs gas for all the yummy cooking she's going to do for all of us!

Waiting...

2009-05-17T09:55:00.001-07:00

National Barn called & they are setting the posts on Tuesday. We'll have a GOOD update then (and hopefully good pictures). The water well was dug and set last week. So the foundation guys will have water...important!

Site Leveled

2009-05-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

The excavation is complete. We leveled the building site a bit so that the slab will be less high in the back.

We also got electricity! This pole is directly uphill from the building site.

Pre-construction details

2009-05-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

We finalized everything with National Barn. We're on their schedule to get posts set. Yay! It's really about to happen.

We also heard from the electric company & they are coming tomorrow to set the new post and get electricity to the property. Yay again!

I've been working on the budget & revising it to reflect the bids we've gotten. We're looking pretty good (I think).

My mom and I continue to work on design details, so we'll be ready when the time comes. Some things we've been thinking about lately: location of floor plugs, island size & location, roof color and stain choice for cedar.

Before Pictures

2009-05-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the home site before we started:

Here is the lake on the property:

The Barndominium

2009-05-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

So we're building a barndominium. I guess technically it's not a barndominium because there won't be any "barn" to it. But we are taking a building that's supposed to be a barn and making it a home. My husband and I are building this "barndo" for my parents.

When we started researching this idea, I found that there is very little on the Internet about this. So I hope this can help somebody out there wanting to do something similar. And friends and family can keep up with the progress.

Over the last few months, besides finding the land to build on, we have been drawing up the plans. I prepared them on amateur architecture software by Punch Software called Home Design Suite. We also found a barn builder at National Barn. We have been working with them to customize the home. We are doing a cedar-sided building. The inspiration was the barn seen on National Barn's photo gallery.

We closed on the land on Monday. We set stakes for the approximate corners. We also met with the electric co-op to get an estimate and plan to get the pole set. Luckily, we already had a pole on the land. So the electric company will set another pole closer to the home site. Later, we will dig from the pole to the home to have underground service and avoid an ugly line across the property.

We're starting some excavation today to prepare for the slab.

A little about the barndo: The dimensions are 64' x 36' with a covered 6' deep porch on the front and covered 8' deep porch on the back. Downstairs will have 2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms on one side, a 2-story living area, kitchen & dining in the middle of the building and a master bedroom with bath and MUD room on the other side. Upstairs will have 2 bedrooms with a bathroom on one end and an open loft on the other.

More to come...