rachels.haven's Journal

rachels.haven

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I'll do something soon. I'm afraid we'd have to have a permit even to pull it down with a tractor. Our neighbor would probably love to report any violations, so just in case. It's also about a 40x100 building, which would be a large feat with just a tractor. As soon as I get the estimates from the barn people and we get a date on the calendar I will get scheduled with a demo crew (and they will pull permits and deal with the legal junk). We got some coops, a 8x10 shed (bucks) and a 8x20 shed (does) to get everyone moved into. After I do that the machine shed will be open and I could probably get out of that if it started to fall or even pull stands outside every time, which would be better. I have options. I'll start working on it very soon now since things are starting to fall. I was waiting to put up pens around the sheds until the fence guy came back so the shed pens wouldn't get in the way, but I'm starting to wonder if we got massed again. Supposedly they're coming at the end of the week. I'd like that. I'm feeling a little down on humanity in that regard.
 

rachels.haven

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No, the building's not covered and we'll look at the idea of saving wood as it comes down. A lot of the wood is mushy because it's been exposed to a high humidity environment for a long time, but we could always take a sample. Maybe some of the thicker stuff? I'm putting up keep out signs tomorrow morning, and tonight DH and I decided to "evacuate" our stuff from the building so no one gets hit on the head by random falling concrete-probably this weekend if not sooner.
Even though insurance won't cover it and the wood may be rotted we still moved from an extremely expensive house to a...still expensive house but much less so (same market that helped us helped the seller here...except it helped us more, as the market kept rising). Our other house is under contract for substantially more than we bought it for. We'll still have to get the attention of a demo crew, but we believe we will be able to afford it either through extras from the house sale or income (or as soon as the house sells, money not being put into the other mortgage). It will be okay. Despite wanting it to work, we factored this in as a possible outcome when we bought the place-then at the request of the home inspector we used we brought in a structural engineer who's specialty and passion was old barns. The barn was always iffy. Moral of the story is, if you have an old chicken barn, don't hill up rocks and dirt behind it, give it a good foundation, reinforce with rebar when necessary, don't take out the cupola/fan system, don't take out the ventilation doors, don't replace the ventilation windows with wimpy storm windows, keep a "Sufficient" roof on the place (opposite of "insufficient", as the structural engineer called it), keep in mind that without stock in it barns freeze, and anything else I'm forgetting.
After the barn is down and the site is leveled we get to choose between fencing it and leaving the property as is, or building a barn there that is "good enough" for our purposes. Both will add to our quality of life and value to the house. We will probably go with the last one because we NEED a barn. Also, the most responsible course of action involving where we live is to stay here until the house is paid off and we have built up a good amount savings again like before we moved to mass-so maybe two years. We'll see if I last that long. I've already had several "I can't take it any longer, I'm leaving" ...moments.

It could be a lot worse for me. My hay guy has for the most part legally won the right to hay his own property in Groton, but now someone on the conservation commission is harassing him by calling animal control, the building department et c for non illegal farmy things. He wants to move, but he can't even think about it right now for multiple reasons. Stupid Groton. So he's going put up a privacy fence to protect himself from retaliating city officials that are mad because he went above them and got the legal right to use the land he bought, paid for, and pays taxes on. :confused: and lumber is still quite high (so I'll pay that (only!) $1/bale increase for hay. I doubt it will help much, but I can't complain(plus everyone else is price gauging right now and he has the decency not to)). Maybe my hay price increase will pay for 3 fence posts.
 

rachels.haven

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*I would like to add, that we don't actually plan on paying off the house early, just saving so we CAN pay the house off and have decent savings. We learned that this last time. When you don't like where you are, you don't want to pay ahead on the mortgage. Liquid assets are more helpful for the act of moving.
 

farmerjan

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Especially with the low mortgage rates, let someone else's money work for you for very little cost. I wanted to start paying extra on mine to get it paid off... but realized that it makes more sense to put extra money into the place and not "borrow" to do the work.... so will try to save what I can as well as do things here that need doing...

Sorry that there is no insurance recourse on the old chicken house. And yes to all the things you listed.... people were not very smart to close off and not ventilate the building so the moisture accumulated / rot and deterioration happened. But so many would not value a building like that... or consider the cost of replacing... so just use and abuse...Us homesteader/farmer/animal type people are getting to be fewer and farther between....
 

rachels.haven

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Sorry that there is no insurance recourse on the old chicken house. And yes to all the things you listed.... people were not very smart to close off and not ventilate the building so the moisture accumulated / rot and deterioration happened. But so many would not value a building like that... or consider the cost of replacing... so just use and abuse...Us homesteader/farmer/animal type people are getting to be fewer and farther between....
Could be worse. I think if they thought it was a usable farm outbuilding they'd charge us an arm and a leg. Someone down the road had a nicer one with no mound behind it (or paint) and it hadn't gotten the anti ventilation overhaul SO they turned it into a horse barn. It's not pretty but is nice to see. I can't say I didn't have slight "I wish" thoughts looking at it driving by. They DEFINITELY understood the need for ventilation. The cupola looks dinky and a little dumb, but I'm sure it does it's job. Overhauling them is definitely possible, but ours has lost too much ground.
 
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