Groundbreaking

This is the start of my first blog. The subject is my historic barn project. I will document the construction of a breathtakingly beautiful (if you like barns as I do) turn-of the-century style barn.

Today was the groundbreaking. In retrospect, I should have started this back in December when we started design and were looking for a general contractor. Perhaps many of the best stories have already occurred. We'll see. I suspect something interesting will happen.

The exterior of the barn is designed to fit in with the many wonderful barns in the Carnation, Washington area. The inside will be host to my rather modern woodworking shop.

It is relatively small (28' x 40') and relatively tall (30'). It is very secure (to protect my tools) and very efficient (to protect my wallet). Here is the basic design:
Along with the barn, a second construction project will also be completed simultaneously. This project will add about 500 sf of office space to our existing garage for our businesses. And, it will add a covered area for our tractor and implements. So you will also see photos and comments from that project from time to time.

But, as I mentioned, today was groundbreaking. And so here is a photo of the results of the first day's construction.
The conclusion today by us is that there is some concern as to if the dirt has been removed deep enough to reach "bearing" soil. This is the term given to the icky gray clay-like soil that is relatively free from organic matter and relatively uncompress able. You have to dig to this layer to put your foundation on, or the foundation may crack and move with the water table and decaying matter. When we build our house, very close to this spot, it was much deeper. So this will be the question for the contractor tomorrow AM when construction resumes.