This month we're going to show off the really neat little 16x24 "Baby Barn" built by Mike and Wendy Goldstein from Monroe, NC. Mike's a manager at Monarch Knitting Machinery Corp, also in Monroe, and an avid triathlete! His wife, Wendy, is an account manager for a consulting firm.

They've also got a nice log home "retreat" on the banks of the Hiwassee River in the little, bitty town of Murphy, NC which is where they decided to build their new barn.

Mike did all of the "grunt" work. Clearing, grading and digging the post holes in preparation for his "Post & Beam" foundation. The plans show the barn on a slab but Mike always wanted to do a post and beam so that's what he did! He did admit that he kinda wished he'd built it on a slab but definitely loves it the way it is.

...and this is why we call it a Post & Beam foundation. Bunch of posts... bunch of beams... post and beam! Mike coated the already pressure treated 8x8 posts with a tar sealer before he set them to grade in concrete and topped them off with three laminated 4x12's made out of 1/2" plywood strips "sandwiched" between two 2x12's, glued and nailed. You can usually make them a lot truer and straighter than the dimensional 4x12's they sell at lumberyards! We were lucky enough to catch Mike in the middle of his balance beam routine... watch them shoe laces, Mary Lou!!

If you absolutely have to do Post & Beam, this is the way to do it! Heavy duty Simpson post caps and joist ties. 2x12 floor joists with two rows of staggered blocking. Here Mike checks his 16" OC joist layout before laying down the 3/4" AdvanTech T&G OSB subfloor.

Nice job installing the subfloor... construction adhesive and ring shank nails banged up nice and tight! Then he got busy assembling the trusses according to the plans right there on the floor and started stacking them up off to the side.

Wendy and Max help set the trusses aside as they come off the assembly jig.

We dropped the loft floor a foot in the 16x24 "Baby Barn" plans, as you'll see in photo #10, for a little more upstairs headroom. Here Mike balances one of the 16' trusses on his barn floor resting up on it's rafter tails, which raises the truss up about a foot to show the same interior height he'll have upstairs with the dropped floor. Pretty good space for a little, dinky barn!!

Having already determined the location of his doors and windows, Mike stands-up the wall framing. The diagonal 2x4's at the corners are to keep the wall framing aligned and plumb until everything is nailed together.

It's called "balloon" framing... building the walls higher than the second floor to gain more interior upstairs headroom... standard with the 16x24 "Baby Barn" plans. Mike has already laid out the Simpson Truss Ties on the side wall's top plates for when his friends come over on the weekend to raise the trusses!

Friday morning and Mike does a walk-through to make sure everything's ready. His buddies are coming up tonight to spend the weekend raising the roof trusses.

Well, it's Saturday morning and the weather's not the only thing that's a little foggy! Mike said they all stayed up late Friday night and polished off a gallon and a half of Cuervo Gold and copious cervezas, planning today's assault on the barn.

Mike said, "I had my doubts, but God bless their souls, they rose to the occasion and raised the roof the next day!!" The guilty partiers names, in no particular order, are David, Alex, OD, Hedges, Lamb and Kramer.

Well, it went pretty fast... there's actually nothing to it. Mike already had trusses built and the Simpson H3 truss ties mounted to the top plate every 24", so they just sat the trusses in the clips and tacked a board up under the trusses to space them properly until they could install the plywood roof sheeting.

Nicely done, Boys... trusses up!! Including the perlins on both gable ends for the eaves and fascia. All in a twirly days work!!

The shiny green metal roof went up without a hitch.

Next, the Tyvek wind and moisture barrier, siding, trim and paint.

Same shot of the finished 16x24 "Baby Barn". Mike didn't really need a barn door on his barn but decided that it would look more "barny" with one, so he made a... well, let's call it a "faux" barn door. Not actually functional but it sure looks good!! That, along with the classic lap siding he used makes for a really great looking lilttle barn!

So let's go inside and take a spin around the new workshop. Instead of gobbling up a bunch of floor space upstairs and down with a staircase, Mike decided to make a nice sturdy ladder for the loft that he can move around.

A great little wood stove. Note the fan... forced air heating?

A great big, centrally located work bench.

Lots of space for tools and projects.

Just a really cool space. It's surprising how much room there actually is in this 16x24 "Baby Barn" down stairs.

Plus, he's got the 12x16 loft! Mike did a portion of his loft railing that latches up and swings down to load stuff up in the loft area... brilliant!!

Mike says he's spent just over $10K on the project, so far, including extras like that nice metal roof, the fancy lap siding and the wood stove. (the flue cost almost as much as the stove!) Timewise, 8 months of weekends and holidays to get to this point, doing about 80% of the work by himself. He's got a few more things he wants to do when he gets a chance, like insulation, a heavy duty electrical system, drywall and a tongue and groove wood ceiling inside but that's down the road a ways.