Our massive building project, Part Two
Shortly after we had our trenches (for water and electric lines) backfilled to the depth needed for the underground electric wire, the electrician we'd hired to run a new electric line from the box on the front of our house--where service comes in, underground, from the utility pole out in the field--to my barn came. In one afternoon he and his crew of two other people installed an electric panel (aka breaker box) in my barn, then ran the electric wire through conduit laid in the trench DH and I had dug. DH watched carefully how the electrician pulled the wire through all that conduit (more than 100'), so that later, when his barn was built, we could DIY an underground electric line from the panel in my barn over to a panel he would install in his barn. It involved string, a plastic grocery bag, and a shop vac. (More on that in a future post about his barn/shop).
Then the electrician put a breaker into the panel in my barn, hooked in the new electric line, installed an outlet next to the panel, and voila! I now had electricity in my barn. That outlet was put to use later that week, when the builder we'd hired to do the setting of the poles, trusses and sheeting the roof of DH's barn/shop arrived and got to work.
A momentous occasion: 17 years after being built, my barn finally has electricity!
DH was super excited the day the builder arrived to mark the corners square and drill the holes for setting the posts. Being as we were hiring out only some of the construction, and doing the rest ourselves, DH was the one who had dealt with the local lumber company and had ordered all the lumber, steel sheeting, etc from them. They had made a large delivery the day before our builder was scheduled to begin. This would be the quick part: having someone else get the frame up. Once the bones of the building were done, it would be our turn to do the rest (except concrete) and we knew that would take quite a bit longer as we are a) older and b) have other daytime jobs we have to do.
Well, the first few holes went fairly well. The ground was really hard and dry (and clay, ugh the clay), but the builder was able to drill them out with a very large auger attached to his skid steer. The rest, though, needed to be well watered and soaked overnight because the clay was just too dang hard.
That happened to be an afternoon that I was babysitting Faline, and after making a run to the processor to pick up the batch of broilers I'd had processed that morning, I just brought her back to my house for the rest of the day. After the builder left early -- once he'd watered all those holes there wasn't anything else he could work on--DH took Faline over to check them out.
With the ground softened up, the rest of the hole-drilling went quickly the next day, and the builders were able to pour the cement piers that the poles would sit on. Or, at least, pour piers in all but three holes, as the lumber company had shorted us on bags of quik-crete. We didn't know it at the time, but this would be the first of many, many issues with the building materials delivered (or not delivered!) by the lumber company.
DH and the builder discussed this, and decided to delay installing the poles on the east side of the building so that it would be easier to drive equipment in when setting the trusses for the roof. So those were the three holes that didn't get piers poured, at least not until the next day when DH went to the lumber company as soon as they opened and brought back the missing bags of Quik-crete.
Once the piers were ready, up went the poles. It was really great to leave for work in the morning and have nothing to see but holes in the ground, and at the end of that day, be able to see the 'bones' of DH's shop. Three young guys (the building crew) in their mid-20s and early 30s were definitely much faster than DH and I could have been. DH knew then, it was the right decision to hire this part done. He'd agonized for months over paying labor to have someone else set poles before finally deciding to hire it done (which is why we didn't begin construction until September rather than April. . . )
And the day that trusses were set was another "boy am I glad we're not doing this ourselves" moment. So much faster and easier to pay a builder.
view from the inside, trusses set
Beginning to look like a barn!
That building crew had become like an extension of our family really quickly. The 'boss' had gone to high school with DS1 and remembered him well. He had also recently married the older sister (also a classmate of he and DS1) of DS2's BFF since kindergarten. That particular family (the BFF and older sister) are long-time friends of DH & I, and are very well thought of; there is very high integrity in that household.
Another member of the crew had gone to high school with DD1 & DD2, graduating in between them. I hadn't recognized him as a mid-20 year old, but I did remember his name from their school days, and he also came from a 'good' family.
They were great guys, and we were glad we'd ended up with them as our builders. We'd wanted someone small, and local, as DH's own father had been a builder who operated his own small construction business until his death in 1994. It was kind of a hand of God thing that we ended up with this particular group, as they had been one of only two that DH had talked to who was willing to do parts of the job instead of insisting on doing everything from site prep to final finishing.
At the end of their work day on Friday, each of the two weeks they were here, DH would take a few beers out and offer them each a drink. They'd all have just one, but only if they were absolutely done working, and we'd talk about my chickens (both the local guys also have chickens), deer hunting (bow season was coming up soon), gardening, and just general life outside of a small town tiny village. It was kind of bittersweet the day they finished up putting on the roof, soffits and fascia and DH wrote the check for their involvement in our project.
The hired out portion of the build, finished.
It was about that time that we stopped referring to our new building as DH's barn. For years we'd had The Barn, which was intended as my horse barn. In the few weeks that it had taken to erect DH's barn, it got too complicated saying Kris's barn or DH's barn to differentiate which building we were talking about. DH decided that his barn would no longer be referred to as a barn even though it is a pole barn. From then on, it became DH's shop. As in wood shop, machine shop, repair shop, deer processing shop, beer brewing shop. . . all the activities that would take place inside those four walls.
My barn, and DH's shop
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