Eyspy's Barn

[UtahBeehiver]

Eyspy,

Cool story about the timbers, gives me faith in people again. I am sure your timber frame barn will get attention from Gulf, his out building is similar. I get to the Southern Hemi every few years so this build may be on my check out list. There's a builder in Townsville, NQ I have wanted to visit as well as others.

[eyspy]

Thanks Litekeeper, will do that 4 sure/ Cheers mate

[Liteceeper]

Hi Eyspy

Welcome, thanks for the great story with the timber and barn. I will follow your build with interest.
I'm in Adelaide (Semaphore) I use to visit Moonta a bit for work, built and maintained the lighthouse (tower) at Warburto Point, probably shines in your eyes at night
If you get to town give us a PM and will try to help out were I can.

[eyspy]

This better 😊

[eyspy]

This barn I have built 6 months ago is to be the home of our first wood fired cooking dome. Could have called it a pizza oven, but will be used for way more than pizza 🍕🍗🍢🍔🌮🌶.

The barn itself was constructed entirely out of re cycled materials obtained for almost FREE. (I love rustic and I love free even better)

First up, we live on the Copper Coast, near Moonta Bay in South Australia on a few acres of land in a 100 plus year old homestead surrounded by farm land, with distant views to the ocean. We love it here.

We love our camp oven cooking and open fires and had a spot in the yard where each winter we would chill out with our 5 kids around an open fire, but swirling winds, rain and cold backs gave me the idea of building a rustic barn over our heads for more comfortable outdoor enjoyment.
I let me fingers do the walking and flipped through the yellow pages for recycled timber suppliers and was quickly saddened when I realised the timber was going to cost thousands and thousands of $$$$

As luck would have it the very next day in my best scrounging efforts I seen an add by a local farmer on a Facebook buy and sell site , selling timber from a 100 year old horse stable. I put my rocket scates on and was there quick as a flash!
The timber was exactly what I was after, 8 m long 125x125 jarrah posts, 200x 80 Oregon beams 100x50 Oregon rafters and a whole stack of assorted timbers in varying sizes. Everything had the character of 100 years living, and was just what the doctor ordered.
The farmer Sussed me out and wanted to know my plans for it, so I told him of my vision to build a barn and fire pit area for our large family. He listened intently and when I was finished he reached out and shook my hand and said "You are just the person I am after, you can have the lot for FREE"
I think he just wanted to see it put to good use and not someone re selling for a profit. Needless to say I was stoked!! 🤗

He was the most generous person I have ever met, not just with the the free timber, but he also gave me some farm workers to help pull it down. In the end there was so much timber and old rusty iron that he loaded it onto his semi trailer low loader and delivered 40 kms away for FREE!! They broke the mould when he was born. I ended up buying a stack of beer for all his workers.

Anyway, that's the story of our barn and where the timber came from. It took me a couple of weeks to get the posts dug in, frame up and clad with the old iron. The pictures speak for themselves. Where you see the sign, " danger blasting" I am going to put a window in so we have more light and can enjoy ocean sunsets.
To the left where the stack of bricks is where our 'Pizza Oven" is going to be. The rest of the barn will take shape and evolve over the years as my scrounging efforts at farm clearing sales gathers more rustic artefacts from a bygone era to decorate the walls Etc...

At the moment we just use the Webber in there and the gas bbq, the flue on the fir pit needs altering as well (needs to be more of a cone and lower to the fire as its not drawing to great)

The bricks are just for the pizza oven base (got 350 bricks locally for $60) , I will dig some footings then just build up to the size required, as I progress I will fill in the centre with old stones and bricks I have laying around the property. The idea is it will get rid of some un wanted rubble and when it's up to the right height I will be able to lay a slab of concrete right on top, which is where I will then use 'fire bricks' for the oven itself.
Don't ask for sizes or dimensions yet as I haven't got that far.

I will post progression pictures as I proceed with the build, but the promise to my family is to have it all up and running before winter arrives, which give me roughly 3 to 4 months to get my butt into gear 😭

Will post photos separately as I just realised I took them upside down and as this is my first time using this iPad I don't know how to rotate so will go out and take again 😁