The damage has been calculated and the guy we paid to tear down an old machine shed, has been compensated. He delivered about half a barn, after all the damage he did tearing it down, and so he was paid half ($1500) of what we had originally agreed ($3000).
Last week when he came by to have this final discussion, he still insisted that the five destroyed trusses, and all the bent metal roofing pieces could be repaired by us. When we pointed out the extensive damage, he then offered to SELL US more trusses he had in stock. No way you crazy old hoot you.
If he wasn't elderly and probably a bit loose in the synapses, we would've escorted him off our property with a boot or two. But, he was, so we didn't, and besides that part of the barn saga is over. We are moving on.
Unloading the last pile of roof pieces came on a hot day but I had the easy job of just moving the tractor around while Keith pushed pieces onto the tractor forks.
Then I would transport them to their assigned pile. The burn pile, the possibly can save pile and the this piece doesn't look too bad pile were the options. Here is a short clip of Keith pushing the bigger pieces off the trailer. He's on the tractor this time. I'm just the chick behind the cell phone.
Nevermind. I apparently don't know how to load videos yet. But if you click on that photo it gets REAL BIG. How cool is that?
Keith has since been going through each post, each 2 x 4, each truss, each piece of metal siding and recording how much usable material is left. The original machine shed before deconstruction measured 42 by 45 foot. We are hopeful what remains will be at least half that. The remaining half we will buy in new materials. But since new costs so much more than used, our barn will likely shrink in size.
We might use all the recycled materials to build the animal portion of the barn and add newer materials for the shop and storage portions. Or we'll use all the recycled materials for the barn walls and buy new for the roof. It's going to take a couple more days to develop a new plan.
The good news is, the county has given us our permit to build the barn and once we have nailed down the size and the exact site, we will call them so they can do their "pre-construction" inspection. Then there will be the "during- construction" inspection, the "post-construction" inspection and the occasional "we-were-just-in-the-neighborhood-and-dropped-by-to-annoy-you" inspection.
Bloody cheek of the man!!! Maybe that was intention all along - damage your goods so he could sell you his...?
ReplyDeletePerhaps with your half-a-barn you could do what KLeigh ad Dan did:
http://www.5acresandadream.com/2016/08/progress-on-little-barn-formerly-goat.html
http://www.5acresandadream.com/2016/07/shed-roof-by-halvsies.html
Yes. Cheeky. That fits. And thanks for the link to Leigh and Dan. They have been a great inspiration to Keith and I for years and I highly recommend their blog as you have.
ReplyDeleteOoh, goodness, that didn't turn out like you'd planned. Hopefully you can just move on and put the whole mess behind you.
ReplyDeletePeople are so disappointing, well not all, just the ones who plot to make a dollar at your expense.
Hugs,
~Jo
Oh we have put it behind us. We're good at that. It's avoiding the mess in the first place that we struggle with. At least this last year we have. We're due for good luck soon!
DeleteMoving on, sounds appropriate! ;) Just wondering if you can still build the bigger barn with the materials you have. Roof it, and cover 1 or 2 sides. Then use the stacked bales you'd put aside for feed in winter, as a temporary 3rd and 4th wall? That's if you can get a good price on bales.
ReplyDeleteI'd buy really cheap and nasty ones for the inside, which would face the animals (put it on your gardens in spring) and cover that side with chicken wire, to stop the animals pulling it out to eat. For larger animals, you might want to put a push board up, between posts.
I've found when we haven't got money to build a fully enclosed structure, we can plan on a couple of sides. Then as money and time permits, we add the rest later. Considering you buy bales for feed and bedding in winter, and possibly for your garden, you can stack your functions to economise. Your bales will still be kept under a roof - perhaps tarped on the exposed sides, and your animals will be kept warm in winter. You'd just have to plan to buy a few bales extra, to ensure you'd still have a wall, until spring.
The question is, how long does your building permit last? We've got 2 years in Australia to finish a construction, before we have to reapply for the permit again. If you can plan this over two years, you might still end up with the big barn. You just have to do it in stages.
That. Is. Brilliant.
DeleteOf course the push board would be essential as we have three steers and a horse but they are outside most of the time by choice, only in the barn (or last year, our makeshift shelters) in the worse weather conditions. We have a friend who is often looking to sell cheap his bad hay bales and we do use them on our gardens so using them for walls and recycling in spring would be very familiar to us. Our county is fairly flexible with permit times as long as we keep them informed. After all, Keith and I intend to be working on this place till TOD (time of death)anyway.
I was hoping you'd have a mate with bargain leftovers. The benefits of living in the countryside. ;)
DeleteOne of the strategies I employ when I'm skint on money, and still want to get a project done - is find a cheap resource people either want to give away or sell for nix. Next strategy, is to consider what I already have to spend money on, and see if I can merge aspects of that into the new project. That way I get better value for my $$$, such as it is.
We always had a plan A B and C, something always works out fine in the end, it's just frustrating getting to the end!
ReplyDeleteSo very true. Fortunately when I'm convinced all is lost my husband is basking in clouds with silver linings. And when he is ready to call it quits, I'm the one who says it will all work out. We balance each other that way, or we're equally unbalanced, it's hard to say.
DeleteHow disappointing, frustrating, maddening. I feel it all for you. Just curious when you say that you were given a building permit was there a permit fee required or was it really "given". In our area there is always a fee. Anyway I hope things turn out well for you.
ReplyDeleteThere is a fee, but when we turned in the building application they said they'd let us know what the fee was "later". What can I say? It's a small county.
DeleteWhen this whole project was first mentioned, I imagined the barn being lifted (intact) onto the back of some huge trailer and deposited in situ. How wrong I was.
ReplyDeleteThat was our original intention but the estimate to move it intact was a minimum of $7000 due to its large size. And we were not sure the county would allow it for all the power lines that would be affected. A new smaller building would cost us about $8000 so hiring someone to disassemble it for $3000 seemed reasonable.
DeleteHi Donna! :) I would have been PEEVED. Your attitude is good though, my gosh. Btw, I couldn't get the video working, could be my ineptitude...but it opens as though it's a photo.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rain for telling me about the video, or lack of video. I'll keep working on it. I did update this blog post and addressed my ineptitude.
DeleteI am glad you are going to be able to salvage at least some of the barn, but sorry you weren't able to get all of it. If it had worked out, it would have been perfect for you. On the other hand, having only part of a barn and being creative with those pieces will let you end up with something really unique and tweaked to fit your individual needs!
ReplyDeleteWhat gall of that guy to even think that you would have paid the full price for a damaged barn. And, than have the nerve to want to charge more for new pieces! Glad you were able to salvage some of the material and hope the cost doesn't eceed the $3000 figure, Donna.
ReplyDelete