April 3 - 2015 Update

We are exactly 1 month into our renovations and a great deal has happened. The barn basement is nearly complete. The concrete fortifications have been poured, extra support beams are installed and the gravel floor is partially in place. That gravel will be covered by a thick plastic membrane (to keep moisture on the outside - for the most part - some will still seep in through the walls) and that membrane will be covered with sand to hold everything in place. Someday we might opt to pour a concrete floor down there as well but, for now, it will remain a dirt floor basement. Once the snow is gone and the ground thoroughly melted Matt and his crew will dig a drain that will allow water to naturally drain from the basement. My friend, Patrick Cantienni, is a grape grower and wine maker and I'm going to ask him to come over and see if the basement might be suitable as a wine cellar. Matt feels that, with all the insulation in place and a heated space above it, that the temperature in the basement will likely stay pretty consistent throughout the year. That sounds like good wine storing conditions. We'll see. Here are some pictures of the latest work being done:

This is the rear (north-east) corner of the barn basement. The white PCV pipe you see draining into the old sump pump will be where it drains naturally (by gravity) when finished. The wooden structures on either side are the forms for the concrete buttresses that reinforce the basement walls.

This is an extra support beam that was installed in the center of the basement. A concrete footing was poured and then the framework of the wall goes up to the extra beam above it. This is at the foot of the stairs that go up to the main level of the barn. In the background you can see the wooden form of another support buttress.

This is the rear (east) wall and the south wall. We left the original windows. The actual windows will be replaced with newer, more energy efficient, ones but they'll look exactly the same. This corner has had extra electrical wiring installed to allow for a kiln or other studio equipment. The windows look out over our garden area so it'll be a nice place to work.

I'm standing in the doorway on the west side of the barn (the house is behind me). You can see the outline of the where the garage door is going to be - the light blue insulation across the top shows the width of the door. It is basically the full width of the tallest part of the lower floor. You can also see the extra beams that were installed across the ceiling.

This is the north west side of the barn. You can see the holes that have been drilled in the Styrofoam insulation. Even more insulation will be blown through those holes. Matt has told us that this barn will actually be easier to heat than our house because he's able to insulate it so well.

Here is the sluice that the guys fashioned to more efficiently transport the gravel to the basement. They shovel it in here and the guys in the basement spread it evenly around the floor.

This is what remains of the mountain of gravel that was dumped on our parking pad. And this was the second load. The first one has already been shoveled into and dispersed around the barn basement.