Jules wrote:
....
... I spotted a truck with a
telescopic cherry-picker style boom sitting in the back-yard of a neighbor
to one of my son's friends on Friday evening. It looks like it possibly
isn't in active use any more. I've made a mental note to go round there
sometime and ask if they still use it, or rent it out, or want to sell it
etc.

Certainly if you can find something like that for the asking or
borrowing that's a lot cheaper... I looked at a couple of them and
my complaint was the size of the one-man bucket -- it would have
required some modifications to make it more amenable to use as a lift
for shingles, etc. Certainly a doable venture if one's own, perhaps
less so if borrowed. The thing I really like about the JLG is the cage
is large enough for two piles of bundles on each side and still had
enough room for the two of us (of course, neither of us was/is very big
). Then, as I noted, before, bolted the 16-ft "L" walkboard to the
front to "land" on the roof and away we went...

....
Yeah, someone had called it a gambrel roof before, but I think technically
it's a "barrel-top" (gambrel being two straight slopes of different pitch
on each side).

Yes, the gambrel is two-pitched straight sections. Out here yours are
called "arched" but I don't know what the true architectural name is. I
looked in my barn book and it doesn't even show one in the several
hundred examples...never noticed that before.


....

Sure. I'm happy doing mechanical stuff so long as it's not something
ultra-rare that I can't easily get parts for.

The only pita w/ JLG is that they're the only source -- stuff is
available but it is somewhat pricey. I don't know about the bucket
lifts -- our electric co-op has a repair service that works on stuff for
others; maybe I'll ask them about whether there are brands/models to
look for and/or stay away from for that reason.


How large is yours -- this is 38x66 ground all 2x6 frame construction of
virgin-growth SYP--gorgeous stuff.

Ours is *tiny* - I just measured and it's near-as 30' on all four sides,
so even smaller than I'd estimated elsewhere in this thread. I'm yet to
see another barn in that style that's so short (and it sits on a slight
hill, so it's not like they were ever planning to extend it or anything,
at least not without some major landscaping). It's about 11' up to the
base of the roof, and 9' inside up to the hayloft floor.

That is pretty small but if the driveway is wide enough, the lift'll
just fit...

For reference, the decorative corner boards on ours are 14-ft from
ground to aw, crud, can't think of what want; the board around the base
of the soffet. It's a 1x12 so it's about 15-ft to the underside of the
eaves at the corners. It's just over 7-ft from floor to underside of
haymow floor joists, little over 8-ft to the floor. That makes the
lower level difficult to use for woodshop or similar because of low
clearance. The pickup will just clear w/ a little to spare over the
threshold.

I'd thought I'd like to move the woodshop into the mow and rig up some
sort of industrial-style elevator but the aforementioned problems w/
snow and resulting damp put a little damper on the idea. If I could
figure out how to do an interior enclosed area and take care of the
water I might eventually do that--it's so large and open it would be
impossible to even think of adding any heat to the thing as it stands
which would be an objective if had the shop there...


Has 3-1/4" horizontal siding

I'm not sure what ours is, without going back out to measure - I think
it's more than that though, around 4" (and the various other
out-buildings we have are done with the same stuff). It's like that on
three walls, but the fourth wall (end wall opposite end to the hayloft
door) is all just rough-cut planks which has all gradually warped and
shrunk over the years - lots of inch-wide gaps between the ends! Beautiful
aged wood, but it'll all have to come down and be replaced on that side.

May be 5+ -- that I could find still. It seems it was milled to
dimensions from old "full-size" 1x4 or 1x6 stock. Part of the
problem/expense w/ the siding was they couldn't get a full-width profile
out of modern 1x4 stock so had to use 1x6 and rip it down. That was a
significant waste unfortunately, but unavoidable because couldn't work
in siding narrower than the existing or would either have a gap or it
would be 1/8" short every row...

A fair amount of it needed replacing
and had to have it milled as well as nobody could _quite_ closely enough
match the old profile.

I'm torn between keeping it as original as possible and just replacing
with whatever works. Part of the issue is that there's little consistency
in the original anyway - they built with whatever they could lay their
hands on (even the lumber for the hayloft floor isn't all of one single
width).

That and that it's not all that old would make it easier...this I tried
to put back as it was. In part, of course, it's that this is our
place--it was my grandfather that built it originally (and is the gent
on the wagon in the old photo)...so, I wanted it to be as much like the
original as possible.

....
I took the liberty of sending a picture of the front as it was about the
time first finished the bulk of the painting side-by-side of one taken
sometime in the early 20s...

Those are awesome! Really nice to have a 'period' photo, too. I should see
if I could get some similar old photos of ours - some of the family who
grew up on our property are still in the area.

I just braved the pigeons and took some photos of ours - I'll see if I can
upload them somewhere later today.
....

If you do, I'll see if I can do some more of the
construction/rework/roofing including a shot of the lift...

--