Barn Building

There's nothing quite like a family barn building project to build strong ties both to your land and loved ones. When you take on the task of a building a barn, you make a commitment unlike any other. You will forever think of not as the barn, but as our barn. Modern conveniences make barn building something you can think about taking on yourself, with some help from your family and friends ...

Amanda wrote:

We are hoping to build our own barn but aren't sure if it makes more sense to buy a barn kit. or have it built by professionals. My husband is very handy, and we have wood on the property that we can mill, but we also have 2 kids under the age of 2 and another on the way, so we don't have as much time as we used to. Any ideas?? Thanks!

There's no set answer here, Amanda ... just that you and your husband have to be fully committed to each other and to getting the project done, come what may. You didn't mention how large the barn might be ... and that's a big factor to consider. A small barn building project is well within the scope of a good handyman. Things get a bit more hairy when elevations rise and the timbers get so large that you need a crane. In cases like that, you might have a barn building company do the heavy-duty work of building the frame, while you handle closing in the barn, along with the finish work.

Sweat equity can't be discounted. Down the road, the time you and your husband spend working on your barn will be like money in your pocket. With all those little ones around, you'll want to make sure that they're kept far away from the construction site while work progresses. And I know how tough it can be to keep them away when they want to visit Dad. My kids were a bit older than yours when I built my backyard barn and I still cringe when I look at the photo that's up here on my site ... yes, the kids aren't wearing any shoes. Thank heavens that they didn't find any nails the way I did when I was a kid. I can say from experience that a nail in a bare foot is excruciatingly painful.

With regard to milling the wood, well again, there's a good bit of money to be saved if you have the time and equipment and can wait for the wood to age. But it can cause headaches, too. Good chance you'll be better off checking around with some post and beam builders in your neck of the woods to see if they might be open to using your wood in your barn. This would be an extra special touch, given the time. And you'll sleep better having them worry about complicated joinery and the like.