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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Here’s what the footings look like.

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

The builders then put the front and back walls up.

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!

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!

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.

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

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

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