Framing a Home Inside a Barn

We planned on having polished concrete floors in our barndominium.  Before the walls were insulated and before a single board was brought into the building, we had to clean and prep the slab before staining.  It's easier to do this before the walls are up and more dirt is ground into the concrete.   

Grinding concrete:

Acetone stain applied just on the house side:

Densifier applied:

Honing the concrete:

Polishing the concrete:

And after it's final buffing:

It is shinier than I wanted, but maybe it will tone down once the walls are up.  The guy said I could dull to a matte finish with wax, but the whole point of doing stained concrete floors was to reduce maintenance.  Waxing is maintenance!

Published Mar. 19, 2017

Building Walls

We have framed walls at least.  In this barndominium, we are doing double wall construction separated by an air space.  This creates a super insulated and very energy efficient living space.  But it's also a little more work than just nailing the framing to the steel.  The walls are built like a regular framed house, but before lifting them, foil faced polyiso foam insulation is attached to the back, and all the joints are taped.  But once those difficult walls were finished, the next wall went up pretty fast.

Hubby's brother came out to help us this weekend, bless his heart.  Thanks to him, I didn't have to do a lot of heavy lifting.  We got most of the bedrooms framed but need a couple of pocket doors before we can continue with that part.  The kitchen, dining, and living area just has three walls, so that shouldn't take as long, even though they have a lot of windows and doors to frame.

Hubby's father was a builder and both boys worked for him when they were living at home.  I got the feeling they didn't have a choice in the matter.  Hubby enjoyed the work but his brother would have liked to be with his friends instead.  But he said he likes it more now, especially when it is something like this when you see what you've accomplished at the end of the day.  I like seeing this come together too.

We still don't have electricity, but we are one step closer.  Last week, the Oncor inspector came out and didn't approve two things.  Today, the guy who did the ditching came out to put gravel under the pull box, and tomorrow the electrician will come out to replace the conduit going to the meter.  Then we'll cross our fingers and hope they get out here quickly to install our lines and transformer.

Published Mar. 29, 2017

Slow Building Progress Without Electricity

It took Overhead Door almost two weeks to get out to replace both doors.  We've had a lot of wind since they were installed, but the new doors barely move and are much quieter too.

Since we couldn't do any building while waiting for them to replace the doors, we finished the ceiling joists over the bedroom section, and then moved stuff out here from two storage units.  These were the units with our tools, and while we haven't found everything yet, at least we have enough to work with for now.

However, having all that stuff here made it hard to work and hard to find anything.  So Hubby built a ramp out of three ceiling joists and floor decking.  Then we bought a 12 volt winch so we could pull things up the ramp on a dolly.  It worked well a couple of times during his testing, but the next morning when it came time for me to put all the boxes in the attic, it wouldn't work.  After a long, hard day of pulling the dolly up by hand with a rope, I was beat.  But I had most of the boxes up there.  When Hubby got home from his real job, he worked on the hoist and it worked like a charm after that.

The lease on our duplex was up April 15.  Rather than sign a new lease, and to save time and money driving an hour each way from every day, we decided to move out here and live in the trailer full time.  The Oncor representative said we should have electricity by April 18, or April 20 at the latest.  We thought we could live off the generator a few days.

Have I mentioned how long we have been waiting for electricity, and keep getting promises and excuses from this guy?  Needless to say, we did not have power by April 18.  Maybe by April 20, but I'm losing hope.

Meanwhile, we hoisted to the attic the remaining boxes and few pieces of furniture we had taken to the duplex.

Giving the Wall a Big Lift

A lot of barndominiums frame the residential side without a roof other than the metal building, leaving the upper part a storage loft, and that is originally how we built ours. We built the barndominium with the idea that the upper part over the residential side could be finished out someday, or that the kitchen and living room space could be completely removed by a future owner who wanted to turn it back into barn and keep the rest as an office or guest room.

We have been using the upper loft as storage, but when garage doors are open on each end, even a slight wind can topple a stack of boxes up there and a few things too close to the edge have blown down to the floor below. So when Hubby rented the lift to put up his tower and antennas on Saturday, he decided to use it the next day to build an upper wall between the residential and work sides. Hopefully, it will also keep mud daubers and barn swallows out too.

For this, he brought the lift into the barn. Not a lot of spare room, but it fit.

He also installed two LED bay lights over the work bay. If you'll notice the bright light over the garage door in the above photo, you see that the bay light has been mounted on the wall over the door. But when the door is open, it blocks all the light. But until now, we couldn't get it any higher.

During a break, the resident inspector checked out the machine.

Framed and sided with foam board insulation.

Earlier, Hubby built a closet in the loft, now attic. For now, this will be for Christmas decorations and things we don't want covered in dust, but don't have anywhere to put them yet. I managed to grab this photo before he put the end piece on.

Published Mar. 15, 2018

The Big, Heavy Walls are Up

Still no power, so things are moving exceedingly slow.  We can use one piece of equipment at a time on our generator, but not the table saw.  As Hubby put it, the table saw will knock it down and stomp all the life out of it.  So we continue building slowly.

Last Saturday, his brother came out to help again, and they got the long wall up.  It is a six inch wall with one big header and a smaller one, so it was really heavy.  I helped lift a little but mainly I held it steady while they did all the hard work.  Later, when they put up all the ceiling joists, I held things and took the air hammer from one to the other.

Courtesy of Lonnie

Next we were ready to build the walls in front of the roll up doors.  The walls are set two feet inside the doors so they can be closed to protect the glass from weather and vandalism.  On Sunday, we were beat, but Hubby and I managed to build and stand one window wall where the kitchen will be.  We also began blocking the ceiling joists that he and his brother put up Saturday.

According to our Oncor rep, we should have power by Tuesday.  Finally.

Published Apr. 4, 2017

Electricity Update and Window Walls

No power by Tuesday.  Big surprise - NOT!

Some of our new neighbors had been encouraging us to call the Oncor rep who used to have this territory.  Because Hubby is also a salesman,  he knows what a hassle it is to try to learn a new territory while customers from the old territory still want you to help them.  So he didn't want to do that to this guy, Jason.

However, on Wednesday, I had reached my limit.  Tuesday had been hot and humid, so of course Tuesday night was hot and humid, which meant the air conditioner ran more and the generator ran out of gas around 5:30a.m, right after Hubby left for work.  So my choices were to get dressed, find a flashlight, and go refill it, or sweat for another hour until there was enough light to see it.  Since the trailer is inside the barn where there is no breeze at all and with a propane heater and refrigerator, it gets warm and stuffy fast.  So I got up.

A few hours later I started calling the neighbors to see who had Jason's number.  Then I looked up the check to see when we paid Oncor to start this whole process.  Novemeber 28, 2016.  Twenty one weeks and two days.  Ridiculous.  When I finally talked to Jason, he was very concerned that it has been so long and promised to look into it.  When I talked to him the next day, he said the order had been turned in on April 21, four days after the last guy said we would have power.  Jason said it could take up to ten days once the order was turned in, but he had sent a request up the ladder to expedite because we are living here without power.  He said worst case, we should have power by May 5, but maybe sooner.  So on we go.

North wall, almost finished framing.  Then need bracing.

Windows and doors should be in next week.  The driveway should be finished next week, and the septic, which was supposed to be installed April 29, should be installed next week.