Our inspiration, the 'Barage'

This is the 'other' barn in our life. This one is in Missouri at our parent's home. This will be their barn-garage (or Barage as we call it). This barn plan is from my father-in-law Ken, an electrical engineer with too much time on his hands now that he is retired.

He has built the house pictured on top, mostly carving it by hand from a solid block of mahogany :-) Actually, his house is made of Legos filled with concrete--insulated concrete forms made of polystyrene and locked together. It's about an insulation value of R50 and resistant to rounds fired by an Abrams M-1 tank. It's a beautiful house filled with beautiful things--like to the two best people I can imagine as my bride's parents.

The barn was first built in California at the house where Linnea grew up. It's here on Google Earth--the poor man's satellite imagery. When Ken moved to Missouri, he lost the plans and had to redesign it from scratch. We have said about 100 times over the years that the barn would make a great house--now we are finding out if that is true. It is definitely easier to side if it doesn't have a walk-out basement. Look how much further along they are than we are!