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Rebuilding Metal Barn After Valley Fire

I’m so excited to announce we are done building our new barn!  Our old barn burned to the ground in the Valley Fire, nothing was left, the whole thing went up in smoke.  We ended up rebuilding the barn in a different location, the old barn was behind the corral and the new barn is on the side of the corral.  We went with an all-metal barn hoping it’ll be more fire-resistant.  We didn’t build this new barn ourselves, we bought the barn installed from our neighbor Kevin, who owns North Coast Barns.  The barn took about one week to build.

Here’s Our New Barn

All the California poppies make the barn look yellowish, but the barn is actually a light stone color (light tan) and has a green roof.  The door came painted white, and I think it’ll end up staying white because we plan on having the barn doors open most of the time.  We will probably put up a gate to keep animals out.

Rebuilding Barn After Valley Fire

Here’s Our Old Barn

I took this picture 15+ years ago after we had just painted the barn.  I planned on turning this picture into a quilt wall hanging but I haven’t gotten around to making it yet.

Old Barn

Here’s the last picture we have of the old barn.  I took this picture less than two hours before we ran for our lives from the fire.  The smoke in the sky was making everything look orange.

Valley Fire Our Barn at 4:07 pm

New Barn Rebuilding Progress

Here are some progress pictures.

We started off by bringing two transfer truckloads of base rock, to raise the ground where the new barn is now.  My husband used his tractors to level the base rock.

Base Rock for Barn

The builders came out and marked where the footings go, and then someone came out and dug the footings.  Here’s what the barn looked like after the first day.  I was very impressed!  This is with a crew of just three men.  You can see Llola the Llama off to the right, he’s always curious.

Barn Raising Day One

After they finished framing, the cement truck came out and the builders cemented the footings.

Barn Raising Cement Footings

Here’s what the footings look like.

Barn Footings

Then they started putting up the walls.  As you can see we didn’t exactly get the base rock level.

New Barn Walls

The builders then put the front and back walls up.

New Metal Barn

They put the roof and trim on last.  Here’s the finished barn.  We had more base rock delivered and filled in some of the gaps.  Since I took this picture, my husband and kids have finished spreading all the base rock.  We also now have water out at the barn, which is so exciting!

North Coast Barns Middletown

Here’s what the inside of the barn looks like.  This is the right side of the barn where hay will be stored.  I’m really excited about not having a hayloft.  Putting up hay is going to be so much easier now!

New Metal Barn Valley Fire

Here’s what the left side of the barn looks like.  We have it open so our mini donkey and llama can get out of the weather.  We plan on fencing in part of it… eventually.  First, we have to replace all the fencing around the barn.

North Coast Barns New Barn

I think Llola likes the new barn!  I know I sure do!

Llola the Llama


I’m participating in the 2016 A to Z Challenge.  This is my first year!  Today’s post is my “R” day post.

Disclosure:  This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Buksan ang Binance Account

Monday 15th of May 2023

I don't think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.

Monika & Sam

Sunday 11th of September 2016

The new barn is 'pawsome!' Well done. And can I just say my mom is swooning after looking at the California poppies. Lola definitely seems to approve. Your fur-iend, Sam 🐾

Pet Parade 160 - Rascal and Rocco

Friday 9th of September 2016

[…] Lola approves of the rebuild after the devastating fire. Check out what she’s been snoopervising at HangryFork.com […]

Trisha Faye

Thursday 21st of April 2016

The new barn is beautiful, especially with the golden poppies in the foreground.

Shelly

Thursday 21st of April 2016

Thanks, Trisha! The fire put our wildflowers on steroids. I have never seen this many wildflowers!

Gayl Wright

Thursday 21st of April 2016

Wow, the fire must have been really scary! So glad your new barn is finished. It's great you have that lovely picture of the old one. It would be beautiful as a quilt wall hanging! Hope you get around to making it. :) Thanks for visiting so many of my blog posts!

Shelly

Thursday 21st of April 2016

Gayl, I honestly thought my son and I would die trying to escape the Valley Fire, both sides of our road and the highway into town were on fire, fire was raining from the sky, I kept hearing explosions, and I was so scared because our three daughters were driving home and I thought they were driving into the fire. My husband (the kids dad) was working out of state. 9/12/2015 was the scariest day of my life!

Around the same time I was going to turn the old barn picture into a wall quilt, I did make a wall quilt from a picture of my neighbor's house and gave it to her. It really turned out nice!

Thanks for visiting Gayl!

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