Once we decided on building and after signing the contract with Hallmark Homes, we had many decisions to make! When we signed in November, we anticipated an April 1st start of the project. We had many decisions to make in a short period of time. The biggest being…. Where are we going to live? What are we doing with all of the contents of our home? Many of you will think we are totally crazy for making the choices we made and that is okay. I think we’re a whole lotta crazy too!
Brian and I talked with each other and all of the kids,…and agreed to disagree on topics, but not as much as you may think. For us and the rest of the world, there was so much uncertainty around the pandemic. We had no idea if the schools would stay on a hybrid/virtual schedule and if Brian would go back into the office. We tried to make the best plans with our kids in mind and go from there.
Our original plan was to build a pole barn on our property behind what we call our barn. When I refer to the barn, it really isn’t what you might imagine. We don’t house any animals in the barn, other than Brian, the children and dogs now. Just kidding,…or am I? The barn was originally our 2 1/2 car detached garage. From the very first day of move in 17 years ago and I saw a dead mouse on the floor, I said I would not use the garage and we decided to use it as Brian’s workshop, and storage instead. I know a dead mouse shouldn’t have led me to that extreme conclusion. But, it’s worked out nicely over the years and the barn has grown in size to include an annex and a carport. Eleven years ago, we added an upstairs to the structure and put two large rooms up there. One side is for Harv’s model railroad and childhood toys and the other was a place for me to scrapbook, when I had time for that sort of hobby, and a bar.
Okay, so back to the pole barn! We decided to build a pole barn to store the contents of our home. The entire endeavor was accomplished with the help of Brian’s parents. We use the majority of the pole barn, but also have space for my sister-in-law, Julie to have a space so she can get out of her current storage unit. She’s a teacher and has many things to store, as you might imagine. It’s difficult to build a pole barn in the middle of winter. We started prep work in December with several loads of gravel and had Christy and Tim Marks, with Tractor Time with Tim, over to help flatten and level the gravel. Tim and Christy have helped us out several times and we wouldn’t have been able to do this prep work without his expertise and tools.
