This week we were excited to see our new garage doors installed on the barn.
They are a little browner than we expected, but we were told that they will fade a smidge (is that the same as a just noticeable difference or jnd? Not sure…), so we are happy with the color we chose.
From the inside, you can see that the middle garage door will go straight up, giving John lots of headroom in his work space.
They also (finally) cleaned up the garbage from in front of our house.
It’s nice to take a photo of the house exterior and not have a mound of trash in the image…
We’ve also been spending lots of time at the local paint store. We’ve decided on the house colors, but finding the right color stain has been more challenging.
As we left the store today, I told the employee who has made us quart after quart of stain that I guessed he was hoping to never see us again. He smiled and replied, “I didn’t say that. You didn’t hear me say that.” My response was, “not out loud.” But it is really important to get the stain right because (drumroll, please) the cabinets arrived and were partially installed this week! And there are a lot of them, so the stain needs to be right from the beginning. But more on that later. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!! Hugs, Libby
Before leaving on yet another trip (which will be highlighted in my next post), John and I went by the farm to see the power path and other progress last Saturday.
The path that Travis cut for the power poles looks great and even if that isn’t the way we ultimately get our power, it will be a fun and easy path to get to the far east side of our property.
The barn is really coming along! The windows and doors (except for the big garage doors) are all in and the walls of the apartment are up. I think the living room will be a really nice size and I love the view off the private barn porch.
I also really like how the colors of the barn complement the colors of the house. I freaked a little, worrying that the barn is too close to the house, but John assures me that it will be very convenient for him as he works in his man cave, errr, I mean, barn.
Other progress included the drywall being installed on the ceilings and some of the walls. I didn’t stay in the house very much while they worked (seriously, these people should wear face masks with all that drywall dust), but I did see that the cement board is also installed around all of the shower/tub areas of the house as well.
It will be exciting to get back from this trip (which will cover John’s birthday and Valentine’s Day) and see the progress and other goodies that are getting delivered (I’m lookin’ at you, cast iron tub!). Until then, thanks for stopping by!
In addition to building our home, we are building a detached 3 car garage/barn. As a Midwesterner, it took me a while to get used to not having an attached garage, but then I realized that almost everyone we know in Texas has a detached garage. Oh right, they don’t get snowed in down here…
Trenching for beams (footers) has begun for the barn.
Knowing that most often our cars will be parked outside (as they have been for the year we have lived here), we were able to make different decisions about the garage. The main choice was to make it a woodworking space for John, something he has never really had. Considering how many things he has built over the almost 24 years we’ve been together (decks, docks, shelving units, tables, benches, beds, and most recently owl nest boxes), it’s time. The barn will, of course, have electricity, but will also have running water for a utility sink and more.
The other feature of the barn is a small apartment for those guests who prefer more privacy or who want to stay for an extended period of time. We love having company, and we’ve already had guests stay for a week in our little rental house. That’s great, but I couldn’t take the week off because I had just used vacation days for our recent move, and we realized it would have been desirable to have a more separate space for those using our home as a home base while exploring central Texas.
The apartment will be very efficient- 2 bedrooms and a full bathroom (with a tub for families with little ones), a kitchenette, and living room – all in 600 square feet. From inside the garage, the apartment will also afford attic storage so we can put seasonal and other long term storage above the apartment.
Front porch for the apartment with a freshly poured foundation
We also added a 10 foot deep porch off the apartment to extend the apartment and give folks a private space to hang out while outside (it faces away from the house).
View into the woods from the apartment
The foundation was poured on an unusually warm day, just ahead of a cold front. It was great having a sunny day to visit the foundation and see where the garage doors will be located. And yes, we are wearing shorts on December 9th…
3 Garage doors are carved out for John’s work space
One aspect that was challenging was where to place the barn in relation to the house. First, I wanted to pull up and see the house before seeing the barn. Second, I didn’t want it to dominate the view from the back, poolside porch. But I also wanted it close enough to the house so it wouldn’t be inconvenient to walk to it on a daily basis. We also didn’t want to wipe out any oak trees for the barn. Finally, the topography had to be considered – we are building our home on top of a dome or mound – meaning that the ground slopes down from the home site on almost every side. This meant that we couldn’t put the barn too far away from the house (unless we wanted a barn on stilts) and as it is the barn contractor had to bring in dirt to make the location we chose level for the barn foundation.
View of the barn from the great room
View of the house from the barn
The dirt they brought in has now been graded around the barn
As soon as the barn foundation has cured, the metal beams, called red iron steel, will be installed. The barn construction will be very different from the house as it is a metal building, and therefore will be completed much faster. I believe they pre-fabricate all the walls and basically wrap the beams like a present.
I like how the barn almost has an infinity look because of how the land slopes away from it.
What would be your “must haves” in a barn or garage? If you come visit, will you stay in the barn apartment or in one of the guest rooms in the house? Let me know in the comments below (if you don’t see the comments below, click on the post title to go to the full post). And don’t forget to subscribe if you’d like to see more of our progress – you will only receive notifications when we upload to the blog.
