|
Thanks for all the help. It�s on our small farm in Northern Illinois. There�s actually several buildings of various sizes on the property. Some day I�d like to put up a small pole barn or steel building to serve as a garage, but until then, I need someplace to do my wrenching. The rest of the structures on the farm are either too far from the driveway, or don�t have concrete floors. We do have a large barn, but it is way to big to be used for a garage. I suppose I could wall off a certain portion to use as a garage, but the place still needs to be cleaned out, and could use some repairs. Not to mention, it has a loft, so the ceilings are pretty low throughout most of it. OK for a car, not so good for working on the old Farmall. Plus, I figure that a concrete grainary is more fire-proof that an old wooden barn. I agree about saving the old structures. It�s a shame when I drive around the local area and see barns in various stages of disrepair. It�s just like anything else. It doesn�t take too much maintenance to keep an old barn intact. But once you start to let it go, it�s tough to get it back. Also what I have found�if a shed doesn�t have a concrete floor, then it�s going to be a wreck. I don�t know if it�s a matter of all the moisture that comes up through the ground, or what, but our farm, and all of the buildings, are around 80 something years old. The structures with concrete floors are in good shape, more or less. We have two sheds with dirt floors though, and they seem ready to come down! As far as the grainary itself, it was put up by a former owner of the farm in the early 30�s. The roof actually looks worse than it is, I think. It doesn�t leak, and doesn�t have any rotten wood that I could see from the underside. In the future, I may put some sort of structure in the cribs on either side of the center section, to expand the working area. Maybe a workshop on one side, and storage on the other. For now though, just using the center section should work. I�m not too worried about the walls closing in. I have other places to store parts and other misc junk, I just need enclosed space that I can actually work on things. Although I imagine it is going to be a pain because I can only fit one project at a time in there, but I guess that will just involve some careful planning. I plan on keeping the elevator for now, I�d rather not start tearing things out of the place. I figure one set of shelves, one set of large drawers for the big tools (skillsaw, sawzall, etc) one workbench with grinder and vice, and a rolling toolbox with smaller tools (wrenches, sockets, etc), an air compressor, and I should be in good shape. Add in a stereo, a couple of old signs on the wall, and my propane torpedo heater, and it should be a nice place to work. Of course that one solitary light bulb is going to have to be replaced with 3 or four halogens.
|
.JPG)