On our property are two awesome Barns….I’m in the process of restoring the older (and smaller) of the two. It was built in the 1870’s or 1880’s. You can still see the ax marks on the beams. I’m at the point where it’s starting to get interesting. This job is definitely not for the faint of heart. The picture below shows the issue I’m addressing today:
Those larger beams are carrying the floor load above and a portion of the roof as well. I invested in (3) 20 ton jacks, spent this morning installing extra shoring, so it doesn’t come down on my head when I start jacking.
Here’s a photo of this barn from the orchard:
Below is a photo on the back of the barn: We had to removed a portion of the rock foundation because it was ready to tip over. After this photo was taken we poured a 4 ft cement wall. On top of that I’m going to frame the rest out of wood. Eventually, I would like to re-lay the stone so that it looks like the original wall from the outside.
Our long term plans are to insulate the barn in order to heat and cool it, enabling us to use it year round to host live music events and such. There are matching grants to help preserve these old barns…typically 50% of construction costs are labor related, since I’m a general contractor by day, I am working on this on my days off. For me it is like working on a very large and slightly dangerous puzzle.
Here’s anothe photo of it as you come into our drive way:
There is a part of me that would like to embed a pay pal donation link on this blog in case you the reader would like to invest in this most noble project….for now, if you’re interested (in donating) just drop me an e-mail and we can handle it the old fashion way..by snail mail 
As always..thanks for reading and commenting if you feel so inclined. DM
Hi from Oxford Mills, south of Ottawa Canada. We too are in the process of fixing up an old farm building (mid 1800’s) just like yours to accomodate our two horses. I am sending you the site where we have some pictures posted so you can see for yourself. The building construction is very similar with the old post girders and trusses. The cedar ones were easy to handle but the oak ones (25 feet long) weighed a ton and had to be cut up just to move them. We are raising the roof about 3 feet from 6 to 9 and planking in the stalls with ash. We hope to use the posts we cut out as support for the new 2×10 trusses and stall posts. The planks in the hay loft and much of the smaller support posts were rotten with mold and can’t be salvaged. Drop me a line if you would like to hear more
Herb… herbwaye@hotmail.com
http://picasaweb.google.ca/christinebedard11/