I spent much of the day repairing an old machine shed that was damaged a few weeks ago when a thunder storm went through. There was several sheets of the roof blown off and one door had came unlatched on just one end. With just the one end latched the door slammed around until it split vertically. So it needed new cross pieces.
I have some practically new corrugated sheeting that I salvaged off of some hog buildings that where torn down by a neighbor. I have a pile of one inch lumber out of a granary I torn down on another neighbor's farm ten years ago, they were going to just burn it . So I had every thing I needed free other than roof screws and nails.
So I started on the repairs right after lunch with the younger two Grand Sons helping. We got the roof repaired and the door took down. Then we rebuilt the door while it was laying flat. We needed some muscle to rehang the door. Two of my sons came over and helped rehang the door. While we where doing this the younger of them complained about it being a "waste" of time and effort repairing this old shed. I was not real happy about that.
Now the shed is nothing special. It does have long term problems in that the back foundation is leaning in because it was not buried in the ground deep enough. This pushed the back wall east and that makes the building have a pinched base. It is narrower at the bottom than the top. It also has old car siding and a corrugated roof. So it is far from a show building. LOL But is has "value"!!! It is 30 ft. by 50 ft. 12 foot to the square. The roof does not leak and the floor stays dry even being dirt.
Back to my son. I told him that This shed had a better return on investment than all of the "NEW" stuff on the farm. He did not get it. Here is the deal. This shed has stored all of the gravity wagons for YEARS. I asked him how much more did they get when they traded in several of them a few years ago??? I know the dealer had some exact model wagons that had set out that he was asking $2000 a wagon less than the ones we traded in. I then asked my son IF the dealer asked him how new of a shed the wagons had been stored in??? The point is was making to him was that this shed was paid for in 1926!!!! So the repairs I did cost me less than $50 of out of the pocket money. So that is pretty cheap weather tight storage!! Equipment does not require a new shed.
I told him he was getting a "gift" from his Great Grand Father. My son could not see where I was going with this. LOL Here is how I thought about it. This shed was build and paid for by my Great Grand Father. So My kids are getting the use of a building that my Great Grand Father gifted to his future relatives.
I have always realized that anything you inherited was a "gift" to you. I does not make any difference if it is a pretty thing like a hand made quilt or a common thing like a hammer. You still did not have to pay for it so it is a gift.
In a post a few weeks ago I was talking about hating to see useable building torn down. I made the statement that these building had been some ones "DREAM" when they were built. I talked about how I have spent a good amount of time and effort to keep these old buildings usable. Another poster stated he did not want to be tied to some ones building just because it was their dream. So each to his own but I rarely tear anything down. I feel that most buildings have value. Even if you need to remodel/change them to meet the needs of today. I do not like building new just "because" its easier.
Now some history of this shed. My Great Grand Father bought this farm from his Father in 1920. So like most farmers he was working his butt off to get started. He an a brother had taken several old wooden threshing machines and made one that worked. I wish I had pictures as they used different brands for different parts of the threshing machine. Since the original wood was bad they made new wood pieces and black smithed/fabricated the steel parts and drives. They completed the threshing machine in 1924. They did not have anywhere big enough to store the threshing machine. They actually stored it in the woods among some pine trees to break the winds off of it. They fought to keep a cover on it when it was not in use. My Great Grand Father wrote in his journals of shoveling the snow off it before the spring thaw so it would not get as wet. So by the fall of 1926 he had scrounged up enough money and supplies to build a machine shed to hold the threshing machined but also the Wallis tractor they used to pull it with. He only had to buy the Portland cement to make the foundation out of, nails and the Corrugated roofing. The lumber was sawed out of trees cut on this farm and the siding was saved off of old railroad cars that were scraped when a local short line closed. The total cost of everything was under $600. This included the lumber sawed, new roofing, nails, and some hire labor. So 30 x 50 =1500 square feet of space for $600. That works out to 40 cents per square foot of shed space. It was resided in the late 1950s as the salvaged car siding was rotting. That cost $750. LOL more than the total when new. Still not bad for a shed that is 90 years old. It still has the original door track and rollers.
P.S. My Great Grand Father was more than likely smiling today with us repairing the shed with "salvaged" stuff. He would save and use just about anything to save money. He even clean out outhouses in town for pay and the waste to add to his fields. People would give him buildings to tear down. Small portable sheds to haul off. He was a PACK RAT deluxe!!!!! LOL I even showed my Grand sons how to straighten some of the nails and reuse them. I can remember setting watching my Great Grand Father, in this very shed, on rainy days straightening and sorting nails he had saved. He had put a bench along one section and used it as his shop too in his later years. All on a dirt floor.
I have some practically new corrugated sheeting that I salvaged off of some hog buildings that where torn down by a neighbor. I have a pile of one inch lumber out of a granary I torn down on another neighbor's farm ten years ago, they were going to just burn it . So I had every thing I needed free other than roof screws and nails.
So I started on the repairs right after lunch with the younger two Grand Sons helping. We got the roof repaired and the door took down. Then we rebuilt the door while it was laying flat. We needed some muscle to rehang the door. Two of my sons came over and helped rehang the door. While we where doing this the younger of them complained about it being a "waste" of time and effort repairing this old shed. I was not real happy about that.
Now the shed is nothing special. It does have long term problems in that the back foundation is leaning in because it was not buried in the ground deep enough. This pushed the back wall east and that makes the building have a pinched base. It is narrower at the bottom than the top. It also has old car siding and a corrugated roof. So it is far from a show building. LOL But is has "value"!!! It is 30 ft. by 50 ft. 12 foot to the square. The roof does not leak and the floor stays dry even being dirt.
Back to my son. I told him that This shed had a better return on investment than all of the "NEW" stuff on the farm. He did not get it. Here is the deal. This shed has stored all of the gravity wagons for YEARS. I asked him how much more did they get when they traded in several of them a few years ago??? I know the dealer had some exact model wagons that had set out that he was asking $2000 a wagon less than the ones we traded in. I then asked my son IF the dealer asked him how new of a shed the wagons had been stored in??? The point is was making to him was that this shed was paid for in 1926!!!! So the repairs I did cost me less than $50 of out of the pocket money. So that is pretty cheap weather tight storage!! Equipment does not require a new shed.
I told him he was getting a "gift" from his Great Grand Father. My son could not see where I was going with this. LOL Here is how I thought about it. This shed was build and paid for by my Great Grand Father. So My kids are getting the use of a building that my Great Grand Father gifted to his future relatives.
I have always realized that anything you inherited was a "gift" to you. I does not make any difference if it is a pretty thing like a hand made quilt or a common thing like a hammer. You still did not have to pay for it so it is a gift.
In a post a few weeks ago I was talking about hating to see useable building torn down. I made the statement that these building had been some ones "DREAM" when they were built. I talked about how I have spent a good amount of time and effort to keep these old buildings usable. Another poster stated he did not want to be tied to some ones building just because it was their dream. So each to his own but I rarely tear anything down. I feel that most buildings have value. Even if you need to remodel/change them to meet the needs of today. I do not like building new just "because" its easier.
Now some history of this shed. My Great Grand Father bought this farm from his Father in 1920. So like most farmers he was working his butt off to get started. He an a brother had taken several old wooden threshing machines and made one that worked. I wish I had pictures as they used different brands for different parts of the threshing machine. Since the original wood was bad they made new wood pieces and black smithed/fabricated the steel parts and drives. They completed the threshing machine in 1924. They did not have anywhere big enough to store the threshing machine. They actually stored it in the woods among some pine trees to break the winds off of it. They fought to keep a cover on it when it was not in use. My Great Grand Father wrote in his journals of shoveling the snow off it before the spring thaw so it would not get as wet. So by the fall of 1926 he had scrounged up enough money and supplies to build a machine shed to hold the threshing machined but also the Wallis tractor they used to pull it with. He only had to buy the Portland cement to make the foundation out of, nails and the Corrugated roofing. The lumber was sawed out of trees cut on this farm and the siding was saved off of old railroad cars that were scraped when a local short line closed. The total cost of everything was under $600. This included the lumber sawed, new roofing, nails, and some hire labor. So 30 x 50 =1500 square feet of space for $600. That works out to 40 cents per square foot of shed space. It was resided in the late 1950s as the salvaged car siding was rotting. That cost $750. LOL more than the total when new. Still not bad for a shed that is 90 years old. It still has the original door track and rollers.
P.S. My Great Grand Father was more than likely smiling today with us repairing the shed with "salvaged" stuff. He would save and use just about anything to save money. He even clean out outhouses in town for pay and the waste to add to his fields. People would give him buildings to tear down. Small portable sheds to haul off. He was a PACK RAT deluxe!!!!! LOL I even showed my Grand sons how to straighten some of the nails and reuse them. I can remember setting watching my Great Grand Father, in this very shed, on rainy days straightening and sorting nails he had saved. He had put a bench along one section and used it as his shop too in his later years. All on a dirt floor.
