Newbie with questions before jumping in...

[Opc Patrick]

Hello all,

I am looking at starting this project this year some time.   Before I start I wanted to bounce some things off y'all (I live in Texas)  Really I just need people to keep me between the ditches.  I live just south of Dallas TX in a town call Waxahachie.  Indian name, but the funny thing was they thought it was Indian for Buffalo creek, only later did they find out it meant buffalo poop.   I guess the settlers didn't see exactly what the Indians were pointing at.  Any way I purchased a some land in Oklahoma just outside of Waurika, Ok on the Red River. 

I am wanting to use the 20 X 30 1.5 story cottage plans.   I am thinking I will need to lengthen it out a little maybe 34' and maybe add a room off the side.  I am wanting to do most of the work myself.  So here is where the questions start..

1. I was thinking I would like my cabin to look like an old weathered barn.   Rustic looking, not like the nottie pine mountain cabins we visit in New Mexico, which are awesome in their settings, but kind of out of place in the cattle prairie.  My plans include large slidding barn doors to cover the french doors while we're gone.  As well as a copula with weather vain. Of course a covered porch front and back.  How does this sound?  Am I crazy yet? 

2.  I was given a house, it was my wife's grandmothers house on the family dairy built just after the great depression.  The family hoped I  could use some of the wood.   Looking at the house I don't see any wood being used structurally, but maybe as interior accents.   I do want the out side to be weatherd looking but be structuraly sound.   I am not sure what my options are?  I could find old barn wood and use it but I am afrade it might not be sound enough like the siding on this house.   Has anyone seen a product I could use?  Maybe a method to distress new wood to make it look that way.

Here are some pictures of the house / wood I have to work with.



and




I don't know where but that door knob will be used.. 

Oh yea... I also love to take pictures so once I start the project I will over load my flickr account with pictures of the process.   

[Don_P]

I've used some recycled wood in restoration work and it's generally cost far, far more in the end than sourcing new. High waste and very labor intensive, but if the labor is "free" and if you have your heart set on it that has value too. I ended up getting a wand type metal detector to find the nails you can't see. I took care of insects and fungi with a borate dip made using the ag chemical solubor. It wouldn't hurt to treat all wood in the house to avoid bringing in anything to munch on your new wood. You can also sterilize if you get the core of the wood over 130*f for an hour or two, this is not as easy as it sounds and has no residual protection after it cools. If you see fresh "frass" piles of fine sawdust below small holes, it is better to take a pass than to risk inporting the bugs. The frass of the powderpost beetle was colonial baby powder  . I'm not a big fan of reusing weathered wood out in the weather but that's just me.

[poppy]

I was able to buy a bunch of rough sawn cedar that I intend to use for siding my cabin build.  I have not decided on whether to use it horizontally or vertically, but it could be made to look like barn siding.

Cedar will weather and look old if you don't treat it right away.  If you have a good rough sawn cedar source, you might consider it.

I lucked out at an Ohio farm auction on my cedar.

The trick would be to get the look of a barn while still weather proofing the siding.  Most barns have vertical siding with natural gaps between the boards.  Tar paper might work as the last layer before the siding.  You need something dark but weather resistant.

If you can salvage that old house siding, you might be able to use it as is.  Very old houses had siding sawn from old grown heart wood and it lasts a long time without paint.

[glenn kangiser]

Commercial establishments around here love the old wood - Bass Pro used it - holes and all on the floor...  very rough too, as well as rusted corrugated roofing on the ceiling .

[NM_Shooter]

I'd be wary of using any of that for structural, or even for outside covering, as the wood is probably a bit compromised in terms of dry rot and UV damage.  Take some of it and use it to maybe put on the ceiling of a room, or as a background wall covering, but I'd only use it inside. 

[Opc Patrick]

I actually when back and pulled some of the lapboard off.   I have saved a few panes of glass from the windows and thought I would make some picture frames with the wood and glass from the house. for some pictures of the old dairy.   The exterior wood is mostly gone.  maybe I will build a gazebo with it.   Talking with several people it is starting to sound like I will have to change my plans and go with new material all around.   If I am going to go through the expense and trouble of building it I might as well make it last, and be of as high quality as I can afford.

[NM_Shooter]

I think that is sound reasoning.  Do try and save some of the glass, especially if it is of some age and has the wavy, non machine poured look!