the Barn Room transformation

This post is a long one, really long...... months in the making, so you might want to grab a glass bottle of wine or a cup pot of coffee depending on the time of day you are reading this! 
I last showed you the status of the barn room which is to be our great/tv room here and here.   There is a lot of progress to report. 
In looking back over my other renovation posts I realized that they were lacking one very crucial element to give you the full renovation "experience"........ SOUND! 
So, please try to imagine ALL of these sounds ALL going on at once ALL day EVERY day Monday through Friday starting at 6:50 AM to 3 pm produced by 3-4 carpenters, 2 masons,  and the occasional 2 electricians and 2 AC/Heating guys for months on end!!!!
The renovation symphony:
CIRCULAR SAWS, DRILLS, HAMMERS, TABLE SAWS, YELLING, BOARDS BEING DROPPED, BELT SANDER, EXPLETIVES, NAIL GUNS, CHOP SAWS,  BLARING ROCK MUSIC, HAMMER DRILL, STONE SAWS, STAGING BEING PUT TOGETHER THEN DRAGGED OVER THE FLOORS,  SINGING, MORE EXPLETIVES,  MORE NAIL GUNS, MORE CIRCULAR SAWS, MORE HAMMERS, etc.... oh, and LOTS OF LAUGHING!!!
Can you hear it?!
 Welcome to our world...

The fireplace construction begins.  That's daylight above the fireplace and it was winter in New Hampshire, so each and every night the hole would have to be closed up with boards and insulated pads, and a small heater was placed inside the fireplace to keep the mortar from freezing.

A normal workday!  The two masons working on the fireplace and two of the four carpenters working on the wood beam wraps that will cover the engineered beams that we had to put in for structural support.  The shiny boards on the right cover up the doorway and steps to the kitchen.

Fireplace in progress.

The "beams" being constructed.

The beams going up.

The new beams up, and the original barn door before being moved to its permanent location as wall art on the adjacent wall.

Directly above the barn room is the master closet which is connected to the master bath and bedroom.  For noise abatement a layer of insulation and a thick, rubber-like sound-proofing material was added to the ceiling before the installation of the finish ceiling boards.

The (white-washed) ceiling boards going up.

The final choice for the fireplace opening arch.  I wanted a subtle arch that was similar to the original arch on the living room fireplace.

The fireplace will have a natural stucco finish.

The painted ship-lap wall boards arrived.  All boards used on the project have been painted (and stained) off-site, enabling the trades to carry on their work and we didn't have to deal with the fumes. (to be more specific, the barn room wall board have been primed and the first coat has been painted off-site, after the nailed installation in the barn room the holes will be filled and the final coat of paint will be applied in the room.)

The wall boards are painted with Benjamin Moore's Sea Haze- a medium gray with green undertones.

When I was choosing a wall color for this room (all the other rooms in the barn have stained boards) I tried really hard not to look at names (I'm easily swayed sometimes;), I knew this color was the right choice after reading the name "Sea Haze" as it is the next color down on the color wheel from "Gray Owl" which is the color of the walls in the kitchen which adjoins the barn room! 

Perfect!

The first wall boards being installed!  This was a very big day getting to cover up the green insulation that we had looked at for months.  (The two shiny strips next to the boards going in are the heating/ac ducting to the loft.)

 I love how all the different woods look together:  walls, ceiling, beams.

This is the original iron railing system that the barn door was attached to.  The bottom two show what they look like after Dan used a wire brush to get off all the rust and then oiled them.

You haven't forgotten the SOUNDS have you?!!

Board being installed that will hold the railing for the barn door which is being moved to this location.

The above board being primed and painted to match the walls.  The small doorway to the left is the half bath.  The large doorway with the glass transom goes up to the kitchen.  The doorway on the right will have the iron gates and goes to the barn mud room which takes your down to the garage.  Got that?!!





How many men does it take to move an antique barn door... answer:  7- one is behind the door!  The door weighs approximately 700 pounds.

Of course, nothing is ever easy, so the door had to be moved once again, about 6 feet off the wall, so that one of the carpenters could climb a ladder and chamfer a board that was making the installation impossible.   Installation almost complete.  While the door does roll on the rail, it will remain stationary.

The fireplace getting taller.

This photo shows the transition of the chimney flue from inside the barn to the exterior chimney where it will then follow the exterior wall of the barn.  The chimney has insulation (an extra measure not often used) preventing the structure from freezing and cracking during our extremely cold winters.

As I've mentioned in a previous post-  the hearthstone is a large piece of granite that was removed from the foundation during Phase I of the renovation.  The old beam that we are using for the mantel also came from the original barn structure.  I designed it to wrap around the fireplace instead of being straight across.  My carpenter did a wonderful job in getting this old, twisted beam to be level.  Mitering the corners of a twisted beam and making it level as it wraps the chimney was a daunting task, but he did it!    In this photo we are working on the angle of the chimney.  For scale, the carpenter standing on the mantel (he's actually standing on the fireplace concrete block construction behind the mantel) is 6' 1"!  A pair of sconces, yet to be found, will flank the chimney (I'm hoping to find them in Brimfield in May!)

Test boards placed to the correct angle to let me visualize it over one weekend to ensure it was right.  You can ask Dan about the BIG honking round speaker hole.......;)

Doorway leads to the half bath (the only bathroom on the first floor.)  The walls and ceiling in the half bath are wrapped in the stained barn wood.  (for those of you who inquired about the stain formula, I've added it to "my paint colors" on the sidebar.)  See the small sliding door leaning against the large barn door?? (note the hardware on top)  Several of its boards had been "borrowed" to make some repairs on the large barn door.  It just kept getting moved around the project, until one day while out antiquing Dan saw a similar door and came up with the great idea to use it as the half bath door!  Before this we were going to use an old door from the farmhouse, which now just seems so wrong- as this idea is perfect!

Old door being  modified to fit the half bath door opening.

The old door installed in the half bath.  This one does roll to close!

The frame work for the chimney going up.

Here you can see how the mantel beam wraps around the chimney.

The exterior chimney is being constructed at the same time...  note the french door on the right side of the photo for reference.

Getting close to the top!  These are the master closet windows on the second floor of the barn!

The second coat of stucco going on!!!  There will be three coats total and it dries to a light beige-gray color. Also note the trim has been installed around the french doors.




Did I mention the dust?!! 
The plywood that closed the kitchen off from the barn room has been removed to work on the stairs, and a plastic divide (a "why-bother" as I refer to it;) has been put up.  This is the view from the kitchen into the barn room.

A close up of the above view. Are you still hearing all the SOUNDS?!

Barn to kitchen stairs.

I told you it was a long one!!!   If you're still here, you can take your earplugs out now!...... thanks for reading, and thanks for visiting our world!