Project Planning

Question: I know I want to build (or remodel) bubt I don't know where to start. Can you give me some direction about where to begin?

We have many clients and potential clients approach us with and idea in mind of what they want in their new home and/or remodel but aren't sure how to move forward with their idea. We recommend begining with conceptual designs (sketchs) and spending time looking at other homes or projects you like and don't like. You will learn as much or more about what you want in your home from the things you don't like as the things you do. This is a good time to meet with your builder and ask him for recommendations about where to go to look at design ideas and what works well and what doesn't. He should have access to design centers, recent projects you can look at, tickets to home shows, and suppliers who will provide samples for you. It may seem a little early in the process to be looking at material samples but knowing what type of materials you like and want now will help you focus in on the perfect design for you and your home. It will also help eliminate costly changes later on in the process.

Your builder will also be able to help you get a feel for what a given project may cost and ways to maximize its value.

After you have a conceptual plan put together you can begin to move forward with the final design process. Your builder should also be able to provide you with the professional design services you need. We will discuss the design process further in our next posting.

Please feel free to ask questions...

The barn is finished.. several months ago

We haven't been very good about keeping our barn blog updated. We completed the barn restoration several months ago and have posted photographs of teh entire project on our Facebok page. Check out Harper & Company on facebook.

Thanks

Replacing Rotten Logs

Several of the logs in the original barn had rotted away over the years. You can see in the picture below that two logs had completely rotted away along the back of the barn.

We cut out the old logs and had to jack up the corners of the barn to slip in new logs. We cut the lap joints on each log to match existing joints on the old logs that were still intact. Some of the old logs were different sizes and lengths making the joint fitting for each log a unique joint but I think it maintains the integrity of the original structure. We will treat each of the new logs to help "age" them so they have a similar appearance to the original logs.

New foundation

We have been busy working on building a new foundation for the barn. The original barn was built directly on the soil with on four corner stones for the foundation. We have preserved the original corner stones and built the new foundation around them.

We had to temporarily support the front and back from above using some of the logs as "beams" so we could excavate and build the foundation from below without any obstructions.

The masons will come in and build a block foundation wall under the original logs to support the barn. In order to keep the barn upright and well supported we have had to build the new foundation underneath the front and back of the barn first and then (after the barn is supported on the front and back by the new foundation) we will excavate east and west side footings and build the new foundation there.

Most of the exterior walls were not salvagable in their current condititon so we deconstructed them saving the original lumber that was still good and will rebuild them after the footings are in reusing as much of the original materials as possilbe.

This is a photo of one of the crew working on the roof. We are removing the existing wooden shake roof and will replace it with a new cedar shake roof.

This is one of the temporary walls we build to support the roof lines while we pour new footings and rebuild the exterior walls.

Shoring up the structure

The roof structure over the main barn was sagging and the walls were about to collapse so we came in and added temporary bracing and used cable pullers and chains to winch the walls back into position.

With the walls shored up and the roof braced we began working on removing the last elements the need to be replaced and started excavating for the new footings.

Alpine Barn Restoration Progess: Deconstruction

We began by removing the old doors and other non structural elements we wanted to preserve and then began removing the modern elements that won't be included in the restored barn.