150 Year Old Barn Transformed Into Home

The idea of setting up housekeeping in a barn doesn't appeal to everyone, but once you find out the barn can be transformed into a very comfortable home, the idea becomes more interesting.

The News On 6's Rick Wells reports a 150-year-old barn from New York state will soon be a beautiful home for a Claremore dentist.

As you cross the creek on the low water bridge you can just make out the top of Dr. Warren Murray's new house.

It's a barn, built at least 150 years ago, maybe longer. A company in Waco, Texas bought it, took it apart and warehoused it in Texas until it came to Claremore.

"In my research, I always wanted to build a timber frame home," said Dr. Murray.

And to make a long story shorter doing it this way, he found, is cheaper than starting from scratch.  When the company took the barn apart they tagged and numbered all the pieces so it could be put back together.

He's thrilled with the look of the old beams.

"The timbers themselves are hemlock," said Dr. Murray.

The ax marks left by the people that made them can still be seen. It still looks a good deal like a barn, but Mark Campbell's job will be to turn it into a house. Mark's a teacher and girls basketball coach in Claremore.

"We're working together, he's gonna do a lot of the work himself," said Campbell.

There will be a second floor over the back half of the house with a couple of bedrooms upstairs.

It will have around 2,500 square feet and will be 32 feet from floor to ceiling.

Dr. Murray hopes to have it finished in about six months.