A Look Back to the Farm

This project is from 1980s in Oregon County, MO  - near the Arkansas border. My in-laws moved to family-owned land and hoped to rehab and remodel a turn of the century home with a gable roof into something resembling this drawing that served as their ideal.

They did a good job of restoring and rebuilding the foundation and refinishing floors in the structure which had been used as a hay barn until they began the project.

The old roof was taken down on a Friday morning. It was July and hot as hell. I drove down with wife and young son on a Friday afternoon and laid out the walls and trusses we had designed and ordered several months earlier. The next day another carpenter and a whole bunch of farm hands came around and we got to work. Outside of a pop up thundershower things went pretty smoothly and the new roof was felted in by Sunday afternoon. I came back to St. Louis and ended up in bed for a couple of days - I drank too much well water and it did not agree with me in such large quantities.

This home became a great place to visit as we added a couple of more kids to the crew and we were able to give them (and ourselves) a taste of country living over the years.

The image above is from the early afternoon on the Saturday of the 'barn raising'

The image above would have been from early the following week

Above is a view of the board and batten siding before the deck was built

And here is the house as we were able to enjoy it for many years: