Carpentry and Woodworking - Renovating Old Grainery

I was not sure where to post this, but I guess this looks like it fits the best...

We will be hopefully starting on renovation on our old grainery soon and I am looking for some tips. We may not be able to do it all right now and hope to do most of it ourselves. I don't want to look back though and say...oh, we should have done that then because we could have done a better job, cheaper and easier. The grainery is from the early 1900's and has a main building with wood floor that rests on large boulders for foundation. This area we intend to heat and convert to storage area, workspace and tool storage, etc, and upstairs for our children to hang out. :rolleyes: There are also 2 attached leantos. Leanto #1 is on the west side and we plan to covert to a garage, leanto #2 is on the north side and connects to the west one...this one we will probably not heat and will use it for lawnmower, bikes, etc(thus a wall will be built to separate them).

This is what we are thinking and the order we are thinking;

Storage building part:
1. Have carpenter friend look at the structural stability and note any areas of concern.
2. Repair any areas if needed.
3 Replace windows
4. Replace doors
5. Metal roof on
6. electric wired(we have the box with electric there, but no wiring yet)
7.Inside door added to get to from "storage" to "garage" area
8. Insulate
9.Walls up-not sure what we will use yet to cover insulation
10. Build shelves for storage
11. Build benches, shelves, cabinets, etc for shop area in storage building
12. Add heat source

Lean tos:
1. Structural stuff(same time as rest of building)
2. Electric(same time as rest of building)
3.Steel roof(same time as rest of building)
4. Concrete work
5. Add windows?
6. redo doors...add garage door(this will take some reworking of wall,etc
7. ceiling
8.separation wall between garage and other leanto area??
9.insulate
10. benches, shelves, etc.

I don't know when to do the concrete work...we are separating the project for now. The storage area/work area(the main part of the building) is our first concern to get done, so we can rearrange inside our home better. Some if it we will do at the same time if it makes the most sense, but the rest of the leanto part will be done afterwards.

We are seriously thinking about using the blow in foam insulation in the main building (storage and work area) and possibly the leantos as the building is constructed of trees(logs) and home sawn lumber mixed together for the uprights and tongue and groove siding on the outside so not airtight at all. We like the old wood look, though. The blow in is quite a bit more expensive, but it sounds like it will strengthen the building, seal it and act as a water barrier, and save us money by not having to put steel siding over the outside. Not sure is we are thinking correctly here or not. Any one ever used the blow in foam/had someone come in and do that for them.

Not sure what to use for covering the walls either. Personally I would rather not cover them, but with the insulation you almost have to, don't you? I like to see the trees for studs and the bark on the rafters I think it shows character. Do you think a person could paint the foam insulation, or would it get damaged too easily if left exposed? Also no 2 trees are identical, so we would be doing alot of shimming to make the walls straight if you know what I mean. It isn't like 2X4's where everything is an even 4 inches from the outside walls.....some logs may be 4 inches, some 5, some maybe even 6. I figure we would attach the outlet boxes to the biggest logs, so they are out the farthest.

Any ideas/thoughts? Does this look like the right order to do it in? The steel roof is one that we may decide to do later, depending on how things look when we get into it more.

1. Have an engineer look at the building and evaluate the structural integrity. This is something that a carpenter is ill-equipped to do.

Another thing I would add is that even though you are in a rural location, your local municipality will have rules governing building construction and renovation.
Because your insurance coverage could depend on compliance with building codes, I would suggest you first consult with your local officials.