Thursday, June 25, 2009

Barn Building 101

Listen up class! I'm gonna teach you the best way to build the best barn and have fun doing it, plain 'n simple.

First....you find the most absolutely fantastic folks in the barn building business, namely Earl (love ya, Earl) and Laura "The Barn Diva" Johnson. They own Pine River Construction in Capitan, NM and are the New Mexico reps for MD Barns and last year's recipient of the "Top Gun Award" from MD. Whoo Hoo! That means they seriously kick some barn butt down there.

You sit down with Earl and tell 'em what you want and he nods. Then you sit down with Laura and her computer. The mighty computer that designs barns lickity split and makes sense, real sense out of what you think you want.

You look at the finished design, check the cost and say, "...uh, back to the drawing board. That was the budget for the house!" I have to admit, I do get a little a head of myself when I plan "the perfect this" or "the ideal that". The 1600 miles between me, with the ideas, and Laura with the finished drawings was never, ever, a handicap. Laura handled it all in stride and had more ideas when I ran out of my own. You see, our barn was tiny and Laura has designed race track barns, lots of them, so she doesn't bat an eye at design changes.

Dozens and dozens of emails later and a couple of hours on the phone and VIOLA -- the barn is ordered! Now we wait for it to be built in California and delivered to New Mexico to be assembled on site. Waay cool! Almost a year of me deciding what I wanted and what I could afford....built and shipped....and assembled in just 2 (TWO) work days.

Here ya go! (Pay attention, there may be a quiz later.)

The barn arrives, ala IKEA style.....hmm...."some assembly required". Noooo problem.



First, lay it out like a house of cards. Here's the walls, there's the doors.



Allow siesta time for Supervisor "Birdy". She's put up with lowly 2-legged intelligence since dawn.



Some more assembly and you have a back door, a big horse stall, carriage and hay storage.






Just before the end of the first day start to assemble the cutest damn miniature horse stalls in the world!





Add a roof and plenty of cross ventilation....



Assure a wide aisle way so horses and carriages can move safely and freely about the barn.



Add crusher fines to the floor so you can try your hand at laying "pavers" in the aisle and on the front porch some day soon. Have a roomy saddling/harnessing area and a place for friends to sit and chat and wash the dust down.








Earl's most important task came at the end of the second day. He entered our half-completed house. He stood in the kitchen and faced east. He carefully tore the plastic covering from my new kitchen window, the one above the sink. The window I would be looking through many, many times every day. He aimed his camera carefully and took one final picture.



Priceless!

3 comments:

Sue Friday, June 26, 2009 3:23:00 AM  

Love it!!!
Oh, you're going to be so happy there. So, when is the big move?

the7msn Friday, June 26, 2009 4:30:00 AM  

Exquisite! Can't wait to see it occupied.

Earl and Laura Friday, June 26, 2009 6:11:00 PM  

Thank you so much! We can't wait for you guys to get here so we can hang out at your barn. We are really anxious to see those awesome mini-stalls occupied by your babies!
The Barn Diva and Big Earl
Big Hugs!

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