I almost cried as I watched the old barn burn..

[Elizabeth M]

... and it wasn't even mine. My neighbors' 140 year old barn got bulldozed and burned yesterday. The whole thing made me sad. It was a beautiful old barn with foot long wooden pegs holding the huge beams in place and homemade pig iron hooks in all the stalls.

I took what little of the weathered wood home that I could but she could find no one that wanted most of it... and it really was beautiful old wood. I guess I was wrong when I told her that people would love to have that wood because of the age of it... it was in really good shape, too.... and free for the taking.

She couldn't afford to keep the barn up now that her husband is dead. Her family told her it was crazy to pay taxes on it if she wasn't using it, so they convinced her to knock it down.

Was I wrong? Is old barn wood not wanted these days?

Elizabeth M

[sirquack]

If I had been anywhere close, I would have gladly come and gotten some of the wood. They woods of today are not nearly the quality they once were. Most of the old wood is hard wood and was allowed to grow tall and straight. The wood we see now a days is usually grown just long enough to let it get them a certain length and then they are cut down and sold.
I would much rather have old barn wood for my construction projects.

[Curtis B]

I would have loved to have it too. I keep watching for something like that around here, but nobody gives anything away. People on craigslist sell the old barns to be tore down. I have also seen old barn wood sell for $3 a linear foot.

[Elizabeth M]

It sure was pretty wood, too. It was tongue and groove? where one piece slides into another. I don't know what wood it was (and neither did she) but the few pieces I took felt like I was hammering into iron when I tried to drive a nail in them.

Maybe I should have let you all know and someone could have come to Southeast Indiana if they wanted it. Sorry.

[uncle Will in In.]

I feel your heartache Elizabeth. It seems like one big old barn after another gets demolished in our end of the state also. Upkeep and taxes are the barn killers. They don't fit into the modern farmers program. There is a crafter near here that will remove the siding and leave the rest to destroy. There is a white barn within a mile of here that had the siding stripped of a couple months ago waiting for the cremation and burial of the remains.
There is now a sawmill near here that takes the old white oak beams and cleans them up before sawing off the weathered outside, and sawing the centers of them into high dollar flooring. I'm told they will buy barns that meet their criteria, and leave nothing for the owners to have to clean up.
The country I grew up in is obsolete and being wiped off the landscape. The country is taking long strides forward, but these strides aren't steps up in too many ways. Hand me a napkin Elizabeth. <>UNK

[Minelson]

That would have made me very sad too

[Ozarkquilter46]

they should have gone to the web site This Old House and ask if they could find someone who wanted it to come take it down and haul it off. Norm on This old house loves that kind of stuff. He is always looking for old barn wood to make remakes of antique furniture out of. So so sad!!

[Elizabeth M]

You're preachin' to the choir, Uncle Will. I think pole barns are so ugly. In the 10 years I've been in Aurora, I've seen so many beautiful barns and coops and grain bins and silos torn down. And if they are replaced it's with metal... yuck!

There are 2 shaker houses and a beautiful stone millhouse right down my road that are just falling to pieces. I think there are just too many old buildings in Indiana to save.

[Nature Man]

It's really sad, for me, to pass by an old barn in an abandon farm field. I always think about the way life was, back then, on the farm and the farmer tending his livestock.
Old barns remind me of the old lighthouses along the coasts but many of the lighthouses are being restored by local historical groups and several federal government agencies. Not so with the old barns. Its sad indeed!

Bill

[Loquisimo]

They TAX barns in Indiana? Wow. Of all the taxes we suffer in California, a tax on barns is one thing we DON'T have-and there's still a lot of ag and grazing land here. I've seen old barns in the backcountry just rotting away. If it's not in the way people just put a fence around it and let it rot. So what do we do when we've moved all the agriculture offshore too, despite all our good land, because it's cheaper to grow and raise food in South America and ship it here by plane? What jobs will there be? What happens when oil is no longer cheap?

[mammabooh]

Oh, that just mkaes my stomach hurt to think about an old barn burning down...especially on purpose. Our bank barn turned 100 years old this year. We sunk $18,000 into it last year to restore it and hope it provides great service for another 100 years at least.

[Elizabeth M]

Here in Indiana your property tax is determined by the number and type of additional structures you have on your land, so a barn raises the property tax, as do sheds, chicken coops, etc.

I bet for every one well cared for barn around here, there are 4 that falling down and rotting away.

[Elizabeth M]

Originally Posted by mammabooh

Oh, that just mkaes my stomach hurt to think about an old barn burning down...especially on purpose. Our bank barn turned 100 years old this year. We sunk $18,000 into it last year to restore it and hope it provides great service for another 100 years at least.

That's awesome! Got any pictures? I just love bank barns.

[krische1012]

I would have been very sad too. I love old barns!

[Ezekiel's Garde]

That's sooo sad!!! I know someone in Knightstown who would've loved to have gotten his hands on some of it!

[springvalley]

Very sad day when no one wants barn lumber. And 140 year old barn should never be torn down.I have one half that age I just spent a small fortune on putting a roof on it again, but it was worth every bit of the thirteen thousand dollars. We do not pay taxes on barns in Illinois so to speak , sometimes the taxes go up when you tear one down, because you are making an improvement by tearing it down. We do get taxed on putting up the nice tin boxes they call pole buildings.I like (no love) my barn very much, I`m in it every day. Thanks Marc

[Nancy]

I know what you mean. Our neighbor's son bought 75 acres from his parents. These acres surround our 5 acres. There is an old barn on it which is just feet away from our north property line. They haven't taken care of it at all and stored hay in it when it was still water tight but that's been awhile. Anyway the son is taking out all the old trees and the barn so he can farm that ground. Probably about 3 acres. It is an old barn as our house was built in 1883. There goes our windbreak. We hate it but what can you do.

[sidepasser]

Too late now, but there is a company that will come and buy your old barn for the restoration and resell it to another person. They do very lovely work. Let me see if I can find them:

Found them here: http://www.heritagebarns.com/

Just scroll through their pictures, I'd live in one of their "old" barns in a flash.

Also here is another site that you can advertise old barns on for sale or to buy:
http://www.thebarnpages.com/

sad when old barns are razed and burned..just terrible sad.

[Common Tator]

I am unfamiliar with your tax structure. In California, property taxes are based on the purchase price.

[plowjockey]

A a truck driver, I get to see the regular deterioration of many barns, over periods of several years. It starts simple with something a broken window, large door falling off, or roofing getting blown off. they just get worse and worse, until they fall down.

It's easy to understand the economics and the use restrictions, of pouring money into old barns to keep them up.

Often, I see this awesome large unused white barn, the rare barn with the huge curved roof, slowly deterioriate, month by month.

I often wonder how much it might cost to hire a crew, a crane and flat-bed semi truck, to dismantle and move the barn 125 miles to my property - too much.

Guess I'll just continue to watch it, as I go by.