The Old Barn Renovation

We’ve been undertaking a full renovation of our 19th Century barn over the past 24 months and we are tantalizingly close to being done.

We don’t have the exact date but we think it was built around 1890. When we first had engineers out to look at it the overwhelming response was ‘knock it down and build new’. We couldn’t believe it! Sure, it was going to be work, but there was no way this beautiful structure wasn’t salvageable.

Historic barns form a critical part of NY heritage, and this barn forms a critical part of this farm's history. With many iterations over the past 140 years you can still see the various uses of the farm throughout the barn; it's original use for livestock on the ground floor which corresponds with the stonewalls and enclosures that line our land, and its later use as a hay and then tree farm on the main floor - it's all there in the structure.

Sure, not every historic barn can be saved or brought back into productive use - but we were hell bent on preserving the history of this one. The complex system of beams, braces, posts and rafters create this big, open space that feels cathedral like.

Our goal was to repair, stabilize and rehabilitate the structure both for continued agricultural use and to get some new functionality, including creating our tiny home and a useable entertaining space - all without destroying the qualities that make the barn, the barn.

The barn has two floors; the basement built into the slope of the meadow with the foundation/ footings and utilities, and the main floor which is double height with a mezzanine. On that main floor, the previous owner had framed out a small apartment [used as an occasional hunting cabin] into the north west corner, which, with work, we always intended to have as our primary residence.

We set about finding a team that could help us get this barn stable. First up, we had drawings done up for the basement and foundations, which would require a vast concrete retaining wall on the meadow side, new footings and posts throughout and a total rebuild of the south west corner wall.

We poured new footings the length and breadth of the barn, alongside the existing ones. Many of the beams down there were whole tree trunks [which we kept for later use, obviously!] and plenty were barely attached to each other, let alone the ground. So, we set to work placing a new post on each new footing and knocking out the corresponding old post, where needed, on repeat, for a month. This barn was being rebuilt around itself, with us inside.

This was late summer last year and of course the weather didn’t cooperate… we had a month of deep holes down in the basement then the need to protect drying concrete footings from frost (for which the sheep had to give up a little hay!).

When we finally had a few days in a row forecast of ‘warm’ weather, we poured the concrete retaining wall. What a difference! Never mind feeling like we were getting structurally sound, visually, you could see it - the daylight poking through the ceiling and corners was gone!

So, come December, we moved our attention on to the main floor. This was where it got interesting.

With the foundation set, and more secure than this barn had been for a long while, we then had to get rid of the dreaded lean. Essentially, walls needed straightening and tying back into the new structural system all while supporting the vast roof.

This was to be as much of an art as a science. The barn was to be lifted slightly and the guys built a sort of endoskeleton (that’s what I’m calling it!) in place - with new beams, steel and turnbuckles running the width of the barn.

The idea was to slowly and carefully tighten each turnbuckle to move half an inch or so at a time, tweak, check, check again, move another, pull another half inch… and so on, to see how the barn and beams shifted and add additional structural integrity where needed as they went. All while ensuring everything tied securely into the new footings and retaining wall.

This laborious process took about four or five weeks before we finally locked everything in place. Collar ties were added the length of the barn, new wood frames were built around original walls to strengthen existing structures and the guys rebuilt or I should say rearranged the huge barn door frame.

Any damaged or deteriorated features were repaired, or strengthened, rather than replaced wherever possible. If replacement was needed we matched materials where possible. For example the original barn door is one of our favorite features, that, in the shifting of the barn frame moved about 6 inches. Furthermore, one of the main vertical 12 ft beams had some rot. Luckily, we had kept the old original beams and tree trunks from the basement work. They were a perfect match.

As we reached the end of the structural work, we turned our attention to the apartment to get it up to code for us to live in and get us through upstate NY winters. New windows, doors, a new entrance on the deck, new water heater and updated utilities, and many licks of paint later and this old barn is providing our family with a warm and cosy living space.

Finally, but most importantly, we gave the barn a new roof! The days of water buckets strategically placed around the seating areas are finally behind us! There's always more to be done [always!] but the barn is stable, water tight and structurally sound. It is providing us with a home, a feed store for the sheep, space for our farm equipment and we absolutely love the entertaining space we've created in the open barn space - bar, lounge and welcome desk included!

It has been a labor of love so far, but one of the things we love most about this renovation, is that you can actually see it.

It's not refurbished into a modern barn, not re-floored or clad unnecessarily, nor it's imperfections hidden. You can see the many iterations of what this barn has been, and been through, over the centuries. You can see the work that different owners undertook to keep it functioning and useful. Our own work is now there, visible in the color of the new wood that is ready itself to fade over time, and in the additional beams and steel, joining our former custodians in the upkeep of this historic structure in what we hope is centuries more to come.