# Taking down a piece of the past LOTS OF PICS



## grayshell38

I don't know if this is really on topic, but over the next few months I will be helping clean up and take down a gothic arch barn, which will then be used to build a house and barn. This is just a test post to see if anyone is interested in watching as we progress through it. If so then I will be happy to post photos and updates, if not, then oh well. Here are some of the photos of before we did anything to the barn and then a couple of after we just tore out rotten flooring and cleaned the first floor. 50 years ago this was an amazing, state of the art show barn. It won many of our local awards for dairy barns. This barn is 120ft long and feels like you're in an airplane hanger. It really is awsome! Or maybe I'm just one little freak that likes old barns.....:?: hehehe!


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## eventerdrew

wow. What a great old barn. I'm excited to see what it will turn into!

thanks for sharing. I love love love old barns like this


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## RoosterDo

really neat, I would love to watch the progress.


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## ShannonSevenfold

I would love to watch the progress, too. That is a really awesome old barn! You're not alone.. hehe


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## ThatNinjaHorse

thats awesome! 
you've got a big job ahead of you!


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## NorthernMama

What a beautiful barn! I've done a lot of these tear-downs and rebuilds. The livingroom floor in the house I grew up in was hardwood flooring from a dance hall for example. This is a huge project -- good luck and sending you patience and band-aids!


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## grayshell38

Thanks everyone! We are still in the 'clean up' phase now, but things are moving smoothly. I took more photos yesterday and I'll have them up in a bit if my computer decieds to be nice!


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## Heybird

Very cool!!!! I'm interested in seeing the process :shock::wink:


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## grayshell38

Sorry for disappearing there for a bit, my internet was not being happy in the storms we've had out here this weekend. Here are picks from early sat. morning as we mainly cleaned the outside to keep the county from complaining. We have almost cleaned out the inside as well. All that is left is to empty the gutters and get rid of the old hay and straw. There is one set back though. The south wall is completly rotten through at one of the support beams and we will have to shore it up quickly before gravity and maybe snow decide to take the barn down first! As you can see in a few of the photos the roof is beginning to cave in at that point. This is very bad, and we will have our fingers crossed over winter that it stays standing. If you notice alot of stones around the barn, those are from the foundation of the old barn that stood there before this one. It burnt down in the late 40's or so at which point this (then) state-of-the-art dairy barn was built. Enjoy some of these pictures, as the inside looks much nicer already!


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## grayshell38

For anyone who's wondering, the small room with the little mulberry tree growing in the middle of it is the milk house.


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## grayshell38

and MORE! Some are before and after shots of the cleaning so pay attention. Sorry for the random scenery photos in there, I just thought they were pretty. Also, we have a bunch of little critters that come through and visit us while we work and if you don't bother them they will just sit and watch for a long time, like our little chipmunk friend...


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## grayshell38

We climbed up onto the support beams at the top of the hay mow and took some photos out the window. Don't look down! ^.^


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## grayshell38

Okay! Phew!!! LOTS of photos now! We will be continuing to clean up for winter, and do some repairs to (hopefully) last untill spring when MAJOR chaos breaks loose and the barn deconstruction actually begins. Sorry for the wait untill then, we had planned to get it down before winter, but my father's job needs him back sooner than we thought and the weather has closed in fast this year. (is it really already fall??) So I will post updates every once in a while untill the actual deconstruction happens. Thanks for keeping up so far!! Oh and at the same time we will be taking down this barn in spring we will also be taking down a smaller barn up the road too, so there will be many pics to come!!


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## ShannonSevenfold

Wow! That barn is amazing! I just love looking at old barns. I'm just a weirdy like that. haha. That barn is honestly a lot more fancy and "state of the art" than the barn we milk in at my work. LOL. And I love the tree growing in the milk house. hehe


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## 1dog3cats17rodents

Wow, I love watching the transformation of old barns to new. The barn I borad at was a dairy barn originally


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## FGRanch

What a stunning old barn. I don't think I'd have the heart to take it down, I would have to win the lottery and pay someone to reconstruct it to keep in standing strong. 

Look forward to the pictures even though I might shed some tears when it starts to come down.


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## lsucajun8

I have a knack for old barns also...even though this barn is old and falling down there is still something very beautiful about it.


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## RusticWildFire

Wow! What a beautiful barn. I am excited to see the pictures as you progress, but am a bit sad to have to wait lol. Cold weather closed in fast here too, so I understand where you are coming from.


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## bubblegum

cant wait to see more posts on the old barn, a barn over here is just corrogated metal. so its great to see a real old barn getting a make over


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## NorthernMama

Great pics! I love the pics from the hay mow. Awesome. You actually got across the height of that! I find that hard to do with a camera. Beautiful cleaning up job. That's the part I always loved and hated -- loved because sometimes you'd find treasure and hated because sometimes it was just boring old dirt and garbage. Have you found any treasures?


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## heyycutter

i love it. old barns are amazing, i just love the history. i keep cutter in a 100 year old barn


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## Jordi

That barn is amazing! Our horse barn is 70 or so years old and is a converted dairy barn. Time has definitely taken its toll, and next year we plan to put on a new roof. The inside is structurally sound, though. It's such a great old barn!

I can't wait to see pictures as your project progresses!


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## Indyhorse

I love the pictures, and would love to continue to see the progress! It's half heartbreaking, though, to see it go down, but I'm glad it's going to be re-used. The barn on my property was built in 1872, I can't afford a full scale restoration but I'm doing everything I can to make sure it stays standing and usable for another 100 years. It's an old english 4 bay, not near as pretty as the gothic arch style.


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## grayshell38

Hey everyone!! I know it's been awhile since you've heard from me on this topic, but great news!! My dad is back from the oil fields for a couple of months and once it warms up again (we're getting close!  ) we will begin the deconstruction. We didn't manage to get the wall shored up before he left in the fall, but amazingly it has survived the winter! Luckly we didn't get too many super heavy snows that stuck so it has only sunk a bit more. I mentioned before the other barn we are taking down as well. This one is not quite as old and is a very differant style. I don't have current photos of any of the clean up we have done there yet, but I will soon I promise! Here are some of it when it was still dirty. I personally love this barn, it has a very cozy and warm feel to it, but my dad said he doesn't care for it. (oh well, it will just have to be MY barn then.:lol::twisted I will go about answering questions and such after this post, but just bear with me, it may take me a little bit. Thanks for all of the warm barn thoughts!! I am going to the town library tomorrow to see if I cant find an old photo of the big barn somewhere in the records. I will post more about it's history in a later post too, but long story short, in it's day it was one of the most exspensive barns to be built in the area. It was a show barn and if you could imagine it, it was completely white(even the ceiling) with light strips all down the aisles. I imagine it was quite the sight! NOW...Cookies for you for getting through this post! I would absolutly LOVE to see all of your barns too! I grew up in all these old farms and houses and I love the uniqueness of each one that you just don't get with houses or other buildings these days.It's like they have their own personalities!


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## Indyhorse

grayshell38 said:


> Hey everyone!! I know it's been awhile since you've heard from me on this topic, but great news!! My dad is back from the oil fields for a couple of months and once it warms up again (we're getting close!  ) we will begin the deconstruction. We didn't manage to get the wall shored up before he left in the fall, but amazingly it has survived the winter! Luckly we didn't get too many super heavy snows that stuck so it has only sunk a bit more. I mentioned before the other barn we are taking down as well. This one is not quite as old and is a very differant style. I don't have current photos of any of the clean up we have done there yet, but I will soon I promise! Here are some of it when it was still dirty. I personally love this barn, it has a very cozy and warm feel to it, but my dad said he doesn't care for it. (oh well, it will just have to be MY barn then.:lol::twisted I will go about answering questions and such after this post, but just bear with me, it may take me a little bit. Thanks for all of the warm barn thoughts!! I am going to the town library tomorrow to see if I cant find an old photo of the big barn somewhere in the records. I will post more about it's history in a later post too, but long story short, in it's day it was one of the most exspensive barns to be built in the area. It was a show barn and if you could imagine it, it was completely white(even the ceiling) with light strips all down the aisles. I imagine it was quite the sight! NOW...Cookies for you for getting through this post! I would absolutly LOVE to see all of your barns too! I grew up in all these old farms and houses and I love the uniqueness of each one that you just don't get with houses or other buildings these days.It's like they have their own personalities!


THAT barn is almost identical to mine in style, except mine is the length of about three of those put together. It's in about the same shape as well, maybe a little worse than that. Love it!


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## MissH

FehrGroundRanch said:


> What a stunning old barn. I don't think I'd have the heart to take it down, I would have to win the lottery and pay someone to reconstruct it to keep in standing strong.
> 
> Look forward to the pictures even though I might shed some tears when it starts to come down.


I totally agree. There's something absolutely beautiful about the Gothic construction of the arches. *Sigh* To have millions! :wink:


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## grayshell38

So, sorry for no updates sooner, but I have been swamped! We have been cleaning out the arch barn and are almost completely done cleaning that. We have been focusing mostly on the brown barn lately as we need to get that down and off the property (says the property owner:wink So as of today we are down to almost a bare frame besides the roof and the doors and the back wall though I don't have photos from today that show the front all off. My dad has decided to keep the hay loft floor and the roof beams to use in his house and maybe(if it doesn't sell soon) part of the timber frame. It also turns out that we have a following of people watching the progress of the barn deconstruction and that we were featured in a newsletter that made it all the way to Iowa! A man stopped in one morning and talked to my dad and told him how there was a group of barn lovers that have been watching the progress. It was flattering and I am happy to hear that there are so many other people that love old barns like my father and I do. It is especially important to my father as he has been inside alot of the local barns when he was a kid through a teenager helping with cows or planting or doing hay, and remembers them all when they were "younger" themselves. We have been selling the siding off of the brown barn as it is all rough sawn wood and very pretty. A man bought 40sq ft of it to refront the front of his antique store. A lady wants some of it to make cabinets, and we have a man coming from Iowa soon to get as much as he can for I don't remember. I would feel more sad about these barns coming down, but I like the fact that almost all of this is going to be reused and appreciated even if it is in another form.  
Anyway, I'll stop rambling and get to the photos FINALLY(right? :wink::lol: )


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## grayshell38

It might take me a bit to get these all up but I hope you all enjoy! I love reading you all's comments.


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## grayshell38

If you can't tell, these last ones are mostly of me running around in the rafters. Look ma, no hands!
I have tons of photos, but I'm not sure which ones to put up, so I may add others later that aren't necessarily in order. I will put up more pics of the arch barn too in a bit.


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## grayshell38

Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten! As kind of a last hurrah for the barns before they are taken down completely, we are having a lighting for each of them where we will clean them up nice and get them lit up for maybe the last time. As I said before, we have a bit of a following and we will probably end up inviting people out to come and see the barns for the last time. There are a couple of art students from the local college that have been itching to come out and get photos, and they have insisted on coming.LOL. So, I will definitely post pictures as I get them from now on since the brunt of the work is done. Again, I would love to see pictures of your barns, or even if there is a cool barn somewhere in your area that you can get pics of, that would be cool too! 

In these photos we brought in the Oliver and manure spreader to clean out the gutters and the hay piles. We spread the hay out in the field(I have video if anyone wants to see) My dad also has a collection of antique farm machinery that he finds any excuse to use, so he was all for pulling out the oliver and his favorite manure spreader.


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## grayshell38

And it was a nice day the other day so here are some pics from the top of the silos.


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## equineeventer3390

This is the first time i've seen this thread but that is so awesome!!! Do ya'll own the property? or just taking down the barns?


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## Dreamer1215

_Wow! You are making me relive some old childhood memories here. Great old barns there...We don't see the likes of them down here, that's for sure. Shame to see them come down through lol. Enjoying your pics! _

_Where are you located?_


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## grayshell38

Thanks for the comments guys! We are taking these barns down because they would otherwise be torn down and put into a hole. (They used to be burned, but the county passed new burning laws, so that is out). We own the barns, but not the land. Property taxes are crazy where I am so everyone with unused property that has buildings on it has been tearing the buildings down to save on taxes. It's really sad because we are losing old barns and houses like crazy because of it.  When taxes weren't so high people just left the buildings because it was easier or what not, but it's just not feasible now. And Dreamer, We are located just at the wisconsin/Illinois border in mchenry county. Glad to know that a lot of people find this as interesting as me.  I have new pics from today, but probably will upload them tomorrow. I'm really tired.


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## hillarymorganstovall

AWE... I hate that it has to go!!! I would have loved to somehow like restore it or watever, though it looks too far gone!!!! What do you mean yall are TAKING it down instead of TEARING it down... And, not to be nosy but I was wondering how can you own the barn and not the land?

Definitely will follow the thread....


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## hillarymorganstovall

nevermind!!!! I just figured out that yall like salvage it.... It all makes sense now!!! hehehe so forget about the other post!!!! SORRY


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