Predator257Roy
New member
Back in February we moved from middle Tennessee to central Florida. Hunting has been little and projects have been many. We moved into a single wide on 20 acres. I had ruled out trailers as possibilities for a home, but we loved the property, backs up to state forest land. I now reside in a trailer, have no mortgage, which makes living in a trailer really great, and I rather like my trailer home. Maybe a house later, but the trailer is fine for now.
Space is slightly hard to come by in a trailer home, plus a heavy gun safe may tip it over or go through the floor. Not to mention deer heads clutter up the walls and a reloading bench is just out of the question - according to the Miss' but I understand.
Horses are her passion, shooting and hunting mine, fishing too now that I'm in Florida. She needed a barn for her horses, me, just some room for me. Compromise, I get man cave room in the barn, totally sweet! Electric, a/c/, refrigerator, tv, reloading bench, gun safe, roof and four walls! Not to mention steel door with a lock! My place, all mine!
I'll make this an ongoing post, with updates to Operation Man Cave. Of course the wife and horses get first first consideration. I'll pick away at the man cave little by little. But they both go hand in hand. You will see progress on the whole barn.
First we picked a good location.
A good pad is an important foundation. 11 dump truck loads of sand, and a weekend on the rented Bobcat.
With my schedule, there is no way I'm going to do all of the work. I'll be the general contractor, still enough work to do. Hired out someone to get the main barn up. 60'x40' with a 14' overhang
Barn builder done, got the hard part out of the way. The roof is up, I have a barn.
Time for concrete. I've done concrete, don't want to do it, and can't do it myself. Willy gave me a good price and since we both knew what we were talking about, I got it the way I wanted. Compacted the base, 4" thick, 6" edge for a better look, 4000psi concrete and footers where appropriate ( we'll get to that shortly) all reinforced with wire, rebar and tied into the posts. 6 mil poly under everything.
No, I'm not afraid to get into the concrete. Reminds me of a job as a younger man. ( I'm the only white dude out there if you can't figure out who I am)
So, back to what I said about footers in the appropriate place. We were going to do traditional stick framing for the man cave because of cost, but with this being Florida with hurricanes and all, I like block. What'd you do when someone nearby is selling a bunch of block on Facebook Marketplace for dirt cheap? You buy it all! Just the right amount or the project! Block walls need footers.
No, I don't do block.
Space is slightly hard to come by in a trailer home, plus a heavy gun safe may tip it over or go through the floor. Not to mention deer heads clutter up the walls and a reloading bench is just out of the question - according to the Miss' but I understand.
Horses are her passion, shooting and hunting mine, fishing too now that I'm in Florida. She needed a barn for her horses, me, just some room for me. Compromise, I get man cave room in the barn, totally sweet! Electric, a/c/, refrigerator, tv, reloading bench, gun safe, roof and four walls! Not to mention steel door with a lock! My place, all mine!
I'll make this an ongoing post, with updates to Operation Man Cave. Of course the wife and horses get first first consideration. I'll pick away at the man cave little by little. But they both go hand in hand. You will see progress on the whole barn.
First we picked a good location.
A good pad is an important foundation. 11 dump truck loads of sand, and a weekend on the rented Bobcat.
With my schedule, there is no way I'm going to do all of the work. I'll be the general contractor, still enough work to do. Hired out someone to get the main barn up. 60'x40' with a 14' overhang
Barn builder done, got the hard part out of the way. The roof is up, I have a barn.
Time for concrete. I've done concrete, don't want to do it, and can't do it myself. Willy gave me a good price and since we both knew what we were talking about, I got it the way I wanted. Compacted the base, 4" thick, 6" edge for a better look, 4000psi concrete and footers where appropriate ( we'll get to that shortly) all reinforced with wire, rebar and tied into the posts. 6 mil poly under everything.
No, I'm not afraid to get into the concrete. Reminds me of a job as a younger man. ( I'm the only white dude out there if you can't figure out who I am)
So, back to what I said about footers in the appropriate place. We were going to do traditional stick framing for the man cave because of cost, but with this being Florida with hurricanes and all, I like block. What'd you do when someone nearby is selling a bunch of block on Facebook Marketplace for dirt cheap? You buy it all! Just the right amount or the project! Block walls need footers.
No, I don't do block.