Our Tennessee Barn (now house) Build

[Old Guy in Tenn]

We purchased 73 acres on the Powell river arm of Norris lake in NE Tennessee about 20 years ago. We had hoped to move there right away, but life got in the way. With a lot (not enough) of planning, and helpful input from here, we finally started building our barn in early July. I posted a picture on the pics-of-barns thread and was encouraged by Eddie Walker to start a thread of my own. I am giggly excited about the project so that was all it took. I will try to highlight the progress, and pass along some of the notable special events which occurred along the way. There is still a long way to go, but it is finally looking like we will make it.

My first posts here were requests for input on selecting a tractor that could help me rebuild and maintain well over a mile of dirt road between us and the pavement, as well as handling later farm chores. The overwhelming feedback was to hire the initial roadwork, and get a suitable farm tractor later. I followed that guidance and had the road reworked last fall. In addition to road building we had him remove all stumps and overgrowth from the 7ish acres where we planned to build. He then leveled a spot for the 28x48 gambrel roofed 2-story barn we had planned.

The barn was originally a place to move our "stuff" from our Michigan home so we could get the house ready to sell. In addition to the storage space it was to have some living area for us while we built our Tennessee house, and a garage/shop for me. The 1300+ sq ft 2nd floor seemed to satisfy the living and storage needs, and the first floor the garage/shop. Between the fall site prep and the summer build start we decided that more living area was needed. I bumped the barn to 32x52 - that was not enough. Then I added 16' wide shed-roofed wings to the plan, enclosing one to add 750 more square feet of living area. A month before we were to start, 21 feet on the east end of the 1st floor was added to the living area. It is now a nice sized house with a 30x32 garage.

After the footings were poured my wife stated that she wanted in-floor radiant heat on the 1st floor, so we had to go back in and dig deep enough crawl space everywhere for me to get under there later to add the heat hardware under the floor. That takes care of most of the big poor planning issues.

Pictures -
The road before rework last fall:


The build area looking from south to north. Barn is going up on the rise to the far north:


Lake inlet to the north. Banks are flooded in summer. Water here lowered for winter:

 

[mddorange]

Great pics but now need some pics of the barn turned house.

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

Went to Tennessee in April. Met with a concrete contractor to arrange for a monolithic slab, and with a mason to do the block work. Concrete guy guaranteed he would have work done by mid-June, so mason could get block work done in time for us to start building on the first of July. My crew (friends and family) and I all took vacation for the 1st 2 weeks of July, planning to at least get the walls up. Concrete guy knew we locked in vacations, but quit communicating in early June. Finally responded to a text about 18 hours before we left to tell me he could not get to it for another month. Did you just figure that out right now?

We arrived at our neighbors house and set up camp in our travel trailer, which was already set up in their yard, then went looking for concrete and framing contractors. In the next few days we found a hungry contractor who had gone out on his own early in 2016, and was experienced in both concrete work and framing. He and his crew were finishing a job a few miles away, so I could see their work. He came out the next day to lay out the footings. He could not do the monolithic slab as soon as we needed, so we shuffled the plans and plan to pour the slab in the spring.

We staked out the building and footings, then rented an excavator. Lost a few hours when my truck lost traction 80% of the way up the hill, and the excavator on the trailer gave its best effort to drag us over the cliff. The trailer axle and frame hung up on the cliff edge when the left tires went over, and we then had to winch the rig up the hill far enough to unload the excavator. All's well that ends well, but I still have not gotten the pucker out of the driver seat.

Dug the footings, set the rebar and poured concrete. Had 32 tons of stone spread on some bad spots in the road, got the mason rescheduled and headed for home.

Connecting excavator - oblivious to pending excitement.


Concrete in the ground !!


Traction improvement time

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

Contractor dug out bigger crawl spaces to accommodate later installation of in-floor heat. Mason got the blocks done. Lumber yard delivered the first load. We made another Tennessee trip and got started on the build.

Insulated crawl space




10' 2x6 studs here in garage.


2 - 22' x 18" lvl (now 3) at far right to support roof and floor. 4 - 22' x 11-7/8" lvl at far end to hold up other end of floor joists


3 different wall heights - far left gets joists for ledge against gable end. Middle is against loft hole, so full height. Right will get 2' tall trusses. All end up at same 2nd floor height.


32' open web trusses so no posts in garage.

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

Arrived again in Tennessee expecting to start building and raising roof trusses, using Gambrel roof truss plans from Barnplans.com. Got there and found only 3 sheets of 2nd floor Advantech installed. Crew discovered that the open web trusses were so inconsistent that they could not put down the subfloor. It took 2 people 2 days to plane down and shim the trusses to get 'em flat. Put down the Advantech and got to work building the jig for the trusses.

Finally got the jig perfect and laid out the first truss. Nice. Part of crew got busy cutting truss members and gussets, while others started building trusses. 20 gussets on each truss (only 10 on end trusses). Construction adhesive plus nails on 2" centers to hold gussets on trusses. 27 trusses. 23,000 galvanized 2" ring shank nails to hold gussets. Love the trusses.

Put a 4' wide walkway along east gable end at loft hole to stiffen the wall. It was easy and works great.


Laying out the trusses


Stood up the first one


Looking good !

 

[mddorange]

Great pics and information. Did you have previous experience in this type building?

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

Never built anything like this. Designed and built an attached 2-car garage on my first house, built a few sheds and several decks, was one of the crew building a large cabin in northern Michigan, and designed and built a large screened-in porch attached to another cabin. So, I have inadequate experience, but am pretty good at figuring things out and following directions, and am not afraid to give it a try. I read, and read, and study until I (think I) know every cut and every nail that will go into something. On this project I hired a framer to get the floors and walls up to my design, and made sure that he knew I really wanted him to tell me if I was asking for something that was not good. He did. I learned from him and (woo-hoo!) he learned from me. My Tennessee neighbor was a builder in a previous life, and has been working on the building when I am away (and when I am there). I would have redone a lot more without the gift of their skills and experience.

We knew what we wanted the building to do for us, and how we wanted it to look. All I had to do was figure out how to do it.

The Barnplans.com site and plan package has been great, answering many, many questions before I knew enough to ask them.

 

[two_bit_score]

Looks great!

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

We decided to have Thanksgiving in Tennessee, and invited our 3 children and their families to join us for Thanksgiving and as much of the week as they could manage. Talked with my builder neighbor and came up with a list of about a dozen things I hoped he could get done before we arrived. He committed to the first 9, but would try for more. I told my wife that he could only do the first 7. When we arrived we discovered he had only done the first 5, and the building was not ready for family. My son and I joined in with the neighbor and, in less than 2 days, got it in good shape for family. We completed the first floor sheathing, picked up and installed 2 windows and 2 doors, built a landing, installed about $1000 worth of insulation, and cleaned up a LOT of construction mess. We assembled and set up beds for 8, and got some heaters running. The holiday was a success. One granddaughter (5 yrs old) said it was her "most favoritest" place in the whole world.

We got the roof sheathed in October, then had to start cutting the holes for dormers. Cutting the first one was tough.


Figured out framing for dormer walls and ceilings


Nice view out that dormer window


Wanted trailer brought up the hill for Thanksgiving, and needed grading done around building. Trevor got it all done in a day. He needed the road a little wider to make a turn.


The dormers are all finally roughed in. 1st floor ready for Thanksgiving visitors. A good time was had by all.


Oldest daughter photoshopped a covered entry for us. I hope to make it real next week, so we can get metal on the roof. Also need to finish all Subfascia before metal.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is just awesome. Thanks for starting the thread and posting the pictures. From everything I can see, you have a very good crew who knows what they are doing!!! I'm really enjoying what you've done so far and looking forward to seeing more!!!!