Our first structure - The Barn
We decided that the first structure we should build would be our barn. Storage for our tools which we need for all of our construction projects needed to come first. It was a really smart decision. We already had placed a 31 foot camper on the property so while it isn’t ideal living conditions and we want a house, we thought other structures were more important. We hope you like the pictures of the build of the barn. You can see videos on our YOUTUBE channel – Freedom Ranch AZ. There you can see how we planned the build and we show how we built the whole structure.
The barn was designed to be as fireproof as possible. It was also designed to withstand 70-80 mile an hour wind gusts because living in the high desert we do have two very windy seasons a year and strong winds are normal.
The floor is poured concrete and the walls are true 2 X 4′ inch rough cut boards, 16 inch on center. The rough cut wood gives it more structural integrity. It measures 24 ft by 36 ft and is two stories. The gambrel roof gives us more square footage on the roof than a traditional roof and gives us more head room in the second story. We added a rain catchment system to t he roof which will capture approximately 500 gallons of rainwater per inch of rain.
The siding on the barn is cement board siding and the roof is metal. This affords the highest level of fireproofing we can do. This is important because the closest fire station is 27 miles away. We have named the barn “Delbert’s Woodshop” in memoriam of my father, who was a master wood worker. The barn houses most of his tools from his woodshop along with other tools we need for building our structures. The barn is what is known as stick built and I had two helpers to construct the barn.
It took six months to complete the build because I did not allow any work to be done if I was not on site. We wanted to be able to say that this was our build with our own labor. You will see in the videos for example my wife Tracy cutting out the gussets and fastening them to the trusses.
This is truly a work of love.