There ain't NO SUCH THING as a wee dram too much fellows...I just got sidetracked by that **** FACEBOOK thingie...
Isn't there a TBNET app for that?
Anyway...progress, tho slow, has been continuous...and we are now at the housebuilding stage...and it looks like I will have to be the General Contractor...
The builders in my part of Texas have lost their minds...maybe all the rebuilding from the last years brushfires has made them indolent, but I sought bids from ten of them...and you would not believe what some of these folks think a pole barn should cost...
My estimate for the materials cost to build just the shell of a 1600 square foot tin on a wood frame barn ran about $20k including the slab...the lowest bid I got for turn-key construction was $60K...one twit figured I would jump at the chance to acquire his services for a mere $91,000....
...that ain't gonna cut it...when I first moved to Texas I worked as a pole barn builder, and I figured a shell should go for about $35k...so it was time to dust off the old skills...
I drew up a set of plans, did the materials take-offs and got down to finding the supplies...
...it took some time to source all the bits and pieces...businesses I dealt with 30 years ago had long closed their doors...one of them, in fact, "Conroe Creosote" is now a Super Fund Site...but things came together....
...after a bit of hunting I found a local steel supplier in Navasota, who rolls and folds the steel in their own small plant, a McCoys lumber yard in Bryan College Station cut me a contractors discount on all the lumber and fittings, with only a $12 delivery charge no less, and I found a small family operated concrete plant in the beautiful cosmopolitan town of Iola, literally just up the road from the Ranch who is only charging $75 a yard for mud...
I got this stuff handled....
So, now an entire pole barn is laying scattered around the pad at TOGR....some assembly required...stay tuned for updates at the job presses on...like a mouse eating an elephant, I am going to tackle this one bite at a time...
T