There is a well-known saying; “Many a fine barn has built a fine house. But a fine house has never built a fine barn.”
The barn was the farmer’s livelihood, if he had a barn he could then make money to build a fine house. But if he built the fine house first he didn’t have money to build a barn. So, Hubby wanted to restore the barn first.
“Really? Why?” I ask. “You’re not a farmer!” I was totally surprised that he thought that the barn should be the first building to be restored. My thought would be the house.
“If we restore the barn first, I can store all the tools and equipment in the barn while we are working on the house.” He answered. Somehow, he is always so right on.
Hubby knows his limit. He knew he could not restore that huge barn himself. To do the repairs he needed tools and equipment that he was not willing to purchase. In the long run, it would be cheaper and safer to have someone else do the work. We started researching how to restore a barn and we found the Hartville Barn Boys, a father and son company that specializes in restoring barns. The father’s name was John, so I would refer to him as Barn John.
They came during the winter months and worked in the cold. They amazed me, with the magic they performed. It took them around three months to complete and they were done the first of March, 2003.
The barn sandstone foundation was fine, but all the wood that was making contact on the stone foundation was rotting. They lifted the whole barn, took out all the rotting wood and replaced it with new wood. They used a laser to level the building.
Jacking up various parts of the barn, they then cut off the bottom of the rotting supporting beams. They made a cement base at each, then lowered the jack stabilizing the barn.
They replaced all the missing wood siding before they put up the red steel siding. That made for a nice finished look inside the barn. They replaced all the windows and huge barn doors.
The slate roof also needed great repair. Hubby wanted to keep the slate roof because he wanted the old look. I was not sure. Granted it was unique, but to fix it and keep it up would be costly. After I saw the finished project, I think he made the right choise. They replaced 600 gray-green slate.
The “Bennett” name and date “1904” was originally written with black slate, on the front of the barn roof. Hubby decided not to keep the name, just the date on the roof. The Hartville Barn Boys also repaired the slate roof.
It was the talk of the neighborhood as they saw an old, dull, dilapidated barn, gradually transforming into a beautiful, colorful and useful barn.
I must admit I love the restored barn, but I also admire the picture of the old, dilapidated barn. That is why we kept the interior of the barn looking old. So, when you walk inside the barn, you will feel like you are stepping back in time.
