In May 2002 the 32x40 two story gambrel Garage/Shop built by Sikes Ragan and his crew. Sikes is the founder of The Village of Cheshire....a Traditional Neighborhood Development designed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater Zyberk and company, the celebrated designers of Seaside, Florida. Cheshire is in the town of Black Mountain, ten minutes East of Asheville, NC where they offer a unique community lifestyle in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. For more details visit their web site at http://www.villageofcheshire.com/index.html or give them a call at their toll free number 1-866-735-4673 to schedule a visit

Sikes gives us a brief narrative on the building of the Village of Cheshire's Maintenance Barn.

After the site was cleared and graded the preparations for the slab took place. We set the forms, hung the steel and layed out the concrete wire according to the plans. Care was taken not to impact the site more than necessary.

One early, hot morning the concrete crew waited for the mixer trucks to deliver the 4000 PSI concrete to pour the monolithic slab as shown in the foundation/slab details of the plans.

Wood stud walls were constructed according to the plans and sheeted with 1/2" OSB. We could have built the trusses ourselves but a local truss company gave us such a teriffic deal on building and delivering the trusses, we decided to let them do it.

The design of the trusses allowed for the most usable upper loft storage space.

Rough sawn board and batten from local mills was used as siding. Operable loft doors were installed for easy access to the second floor for material deliveries.

Galvanized 5 V Crimp roofing was used to reflect the look of other barns within our region. The roof was capped with a Cupola and a whimsical weather vane made by a local iron worker.

Traditional carriage style doors were used instead of overhead sectional garage doors....also helps maintain the "barn look".

Looking down from the loft above you can see a built in work bench area.

Wall space allows for ample tool storage. We also built a beam for lifting heavy articles in and out of the trucks.

Looking up from below you can see the loft area....it provides great storage space.

Cheshire's maintenance crew and Founder. (From right to left - Eddie Collie- Crew Member, Sikes Ragan - Founder, Jerald Howell - Maintenance Director)