Utility Room

Before we can get to working on the upstairs of the barn, there is still infrastructure down below to be done. The greatness of this project is that it allows us to clean up all aspects of the barn, like the wiring. 

The first stall to the left as you walk in the barn is going to be our utility room. Grandpa used this room to house oats for the horses. It was also the only access to the loft, by the ladder on the west wall. A couple years back, we plumbed water and sewer up under the foundation and landed them in this room. When it is said and done, this is the only room downstairs that will be insulated and heated. It is here that the water heater and water softener will be housed, and where the plumbing and wiring will take off. 

This summer we tore down all the interior walls that surrounded this room and poured a good concrete floor. 

After coming up with a game plan for the entire room, we mounted some plywood that will serve as the outside wall against the horse stanchion.

To give it a little support on the back side, we mounted some horizontal 2" x 6"s. All of this is used lumber, of course. 

However, we did have to buy some new OSB plywood and foam board for the inside. 

The 2" foam board went up nice and will serve as the only weather barrier on this wall. 

Over it, we mounted the OSB. This will be the finished look inside the utility room, though we will paint it all once the rest of the room is put together. 

Probably the hardest part of this project was planning all the details to come, like the plumbing. We left two floor joists open, where the drain lines will come into this heated room. The plan is to enclose these joists all the way to the other side of the barn loft. 

Now that the north wall was all secured up, we could return to the wiring. The barn lights and outlets needed cleaned up. 

First step was to mount a new breaker box. The main line comes from the house up the hill. We have three big jobs to be fueled by this box, the main barn, the loft, and the corral utilities. 

We ran a feed line to the barn light switch, which served as a junction box for the rest of the barn. Reusing the old wire, of course. 

It's fun to start fresh with clean wiring in the breaker box. 

Let's ranch.

This is a great place to be going into winter. We needed to get the wire put back together in order to heat the water tanks in the corral. In order to do that, we needed to get this new wall built which required a concrete floor first. Now we can play around upstairs with a knowledge of where the plumbing is going to go and with power in place. I sure hope living in this barn is going to be as fun as working on it. Hopefully we'll find out someday. Until then, there's more work to be done. Onward.