So just what the heck has Ed been doing lately?

Earlier this year some city slicker from Ed's insurance company decided that Ed's barn was simply too much of an eye sore in its current state and threatened not to renew Ed's policy if he didn't make it prettier. If you forget that this is rural Indiana and that there are many an old barn in the area, or if you are simply concerned about structural integrity, you might be able to make such an argument; however, the reality is that some jerk just didn't like the way the barn looked. Well, the end result isn't going to quite be what the guy was going for. Sure, Ed will pretty up the barn, but he'll also be taking his business elsewhere. Unfortunately, this is a big job so Ed is spending a lot of time on something other than cars...

Rundown of tasks to perform:

Relocate a small bat (the winged rodent kind)
Replace Long ~20' sliding door with a wall & windows
Install 2nd floor windows (one at each end of the barn)
Install skylights
Install garage doors on the side of the barn
Shore up the second floor with steel & new wood beams
Replace the stairs going up to the 2nd floor
Insulate the entire barn
Install steel siding
Turn 2nd floor into a workout room
~~Install a fire pole~~ (Mike tried)
~~Install automotive lift~~ (Ed continues to ponder)

Pictures:


Here's a shot of the front of the barn. Daytonastein was built behind the window on the left side of the picture.	Here is a new beam (doubled up LVLs!) that Ed added for some support.	Here's a shot of a window Ed added to the end of the barn.

EJ says, "Will ya put down the camera and nail it down already? I can't hold this forever."	Here's a shot looking down the old stairs.	Here's a side shot of the stairs. Steep huh?

Here's the front of the barn with a little insulation added.	Here's the corner. Note the two new garage doors on the side. Mike originally observed that Maggie was very short. Ed corrected him pointing out that she actually stands about 6' tall and that the barn is just really big. :-)	Here's the other side of the barn and again Ed's daughter Maggie.

Ed has begun adding some siding to the barn.	And then Ed decided that the barn could really use a people door.	Siding installed on the front of the barn

Waiting for corner trim pieces	Now it's time to build some stairs. How? With a framing square with a stair jig of course.	Marking up the stringers.

The floor end. Note that you must subtract the height of the tread from the rise or the first step will be too tall.	Here is the top step with the markings for the edge that goes against the header...	Here are all three stringers cut. The marked up one was cut first, then used to mark the other two stringes. Thus they all come out nearly identical.

Here are the stringers installed and the stair treads glued and screwed in place. Ed plans on installing OSB toe kicks on the rising edge. He will probably also screw and glue a piece of OSB to the underside of the stringers...	And here we have the rug rats trying the new stairs out.	Hmmm rugrats on the stairs. That means they can reach the 2nd floor and jump off. Uh oh.

To prevent the rugrats from testing the laws of gravity, Ed built a wall on the side of the stairwell... 2x4s 16" on center. The wall is sheathed with 1/2" OSB. That should be pretty resistent to the kids ramming their way through... :)	Here's a shot of the back side of the wall looking down the stairs.	Ed ripped out the existing shelves, insulated the wall, hung up 1/2" OSB panels, and then built some new shelves for storage.

The barn greets its first guest.	Another shot of the Voyager in the barn.	The truck fits too...

But just barely. This is the front of the truck up under the stairs.	Not only do you have to work under the hood, but also under the stairs. :)	This is the back up the truck near the garage door.