Here are some before and after pictures of my new shop in West Virginia. The location is close to Maysville, about 18 miles north of Petersberg.  It is in the valley just east of the Dolly Sods.



This is the barn as it originally appeared.  It was built around 1930. We know because it is made of wormy chestnut, the "worm" holes are the result of the chestnut blight that wiped out American chestnuts around this time.  As the blight arrived, the trees were cut down before they died.  The original barn is 18 by 24 feet as was built for chicken egg production.  The shed on the left is a later addition.  The plan was to renovate the original barn to be my shop and use the shed for wood storage.



The first thing I had to do was to clean out everything that was in it.  This was hay that had been stored on the second floor - as home for snakes and bees.



This is concrete that was on the second floor - note the windows about two feet off the ground - I guess this was so the chickens could see out.



This is what the second floor looked like after the hay and concrete were cleaned out.  When I saw this, I decided to put my lathe here and most of the rest of my tools on the first floor.



This is the first floor.

The next step, for which I don't have pictures, was to make some structural improvements to the barn.  Three steel I beams were put in below the second floor joists and the whole barn was jacked up about eight inches.  We then dug out the floor and put in a concrete floor.  The old chestnut sills were replaced with new black locust sills.  The barn was then lowered down onto the new sills and two of the steel I beams were left in for supports.  Most of the west wall (the weather side) was replaced.  I also replaced some of the old boards on the second floor and covered them with plywood.  Then I put in windows, a big exhaust fan, and new doors on the first floor. Finally we put in a chimney for a wood burning stove.



This is what it looked like after this work.



This is the back, with all the new wood and the chimney.  The shute between the windows was the idea of Marty, one of the renovators - I can sweep shavings into it on the second floor and then empty it from the bottom.



This is the wood burning stove.  Before I insulated  the barn I could get the temperature inside up to about 60 when it was in the 30s outside.  I can also get rid of all the my scraps instead of paying someone to take them away.



The final step was to insulate the inside and put up some paneling, and then to cover the gaps in the barn siding with battens.  The barn will look a bit like a zebra until the battens weather.  You can see the exhaust fan on the second floor.  This pulls all the dust out when I'm turning.

All my equipment is now inside the barn and I have done some turnings, but we are also living on the second floor while our house is being rebuilt, so everything is still kind of a mess.  I'll put some pictures of the inside when we get it straightened out.