Barn Progress

Bill spent 3 days earlier this week working at the farm. I will post pictures when I get them off of his camera. He was able to finish building the concrete forms and was able to lift part of the barn floor (with lally columns) and insert a new header over a couple of the windows and a door. In doing so he also found another place where the stone wall has split, so by putting the new header in it will alleviate some of the pressure on the split wall. He repaired some of the stone and did some tuckpointing as well. We are now just waiting for the excavator to show up. Until he clears the feedlot area for the buttresses, we can't pour the concrete new footings and buttresses. The weather window gets smaller and smaller.... I still hope we can get it done this year, but I am beginning to fear that we have to wait until spring.

In other news we finished construction on and rented our vacant apartment (in Chicago)! What a relief both work-wise and financially. Our new tenant moves in at the end of November which is exactly one year after the previous tenants moved out. This was a huge time and money-suck this year but it increased the value of the building and will cut down on the number of 'fix-it calls' that Bill was fielding from that apartment. We ended up doing an almost-gut rehab so everything is new. It looks beautiful and I rented it to the 2nd person I showed it to.