Its mission is pretty straight forward: “To create Jobs, increase wealth, and improve the quality of life for St. Clair County citizens.”
Since 1999, the impact of the St. Clair Economic Development Council has been just as clear: 8,373 new jobs, over $233 million in new annual wages and over $1.7 billion in new investments.
As EDC passes this anniversary milestone, rest assured there are more up ahead.
In the next five years, EDC’s strategic goals in recruitment and retention of business and industry are:
Announce 1,200 new jobs
Announce $350 million in new investment countywide
Leverage business relationships for 10 prospect leads
Leverage business relationships for seven outbound recruitment efforts
Develop relationships with six new industrial or commercial brokers annually
Develop relationships with six new site selection consultants annually
In addition to reaching numbers EDC sets based on strategic planning input, the team implements programs to strengthen its relationships across the county and meet the needs of existing business.
In keeping with its push for economic development in the retail sector, EDC will be hosting a retail summit for elected officials to educate them on current retail recruitment strategies along with its other programs and initiatives.
To ensure the needs of existing industry are satisfied, they meet with existing industry and large employers annually to discuss the benefits of St. Clair County, and they meet with large employers to discuss programs of benefit.
And they build relationships with regional and statewide development agencies to promote the county’s strengths and opportunities.
“Strategic planning is time consuming,” Executive Director Don Smith admitted, “but it makes the expectations clear. It’s a matter of executing the plan. Everything else falls into place.”
Perseverance’s payoff: Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve ready for visitors
Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Mackenzie Free
It was a word repeated early and often in what would become a decade-long journey to Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve – “perseverance.”
But on a clear, Spring-like day in February, close to 400 people witnessed just how perseverance paid off.
It was billed as a ribbon cutting. What it became was testament to what can happen when visionaries don’t give up.
The much anticipated, much heralded Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve officially opened, marking the end of one journey and the beginning of many more. This 422-acre slice of Alabama nature tucked away alongside a pristine creek in Springville blends miles of trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding, birding and just plain enjoying nature.
Plants, flowers, trees of all descriptions dot the landscape. A crystal-clear creek meanders through the heart of it. Below its surface, rare aquatic species have found a home. Towering trees form the ideal canopy for the trails below.
It’s a scene no doubt played and replayed in the vision of people like Doug Morrison, whose passion to preserve, protect and share nature’s gem never ceased. Perseverance.
Posing with new sign, from left, Richie Gudzan, who designed the new logo, Preserve Manager Doug Morrison, Springville Mayor Dave Thomas and Granger Waid of Norris Paving, who played a major role in getting the Preserve open.
It’s a scene where one by one, a burgeoning army joined in the advocacy, embracing the vision. The Friends of Big Canoe Creek, Dean Goforth, St. Clair Economic Development Council, Springville City Council, St. Clair County Commission, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, State Lands Division, Freshwater Land Trust, Forever Wild, Nature Conservancy and Big Canoe Creek Preserve Partners became an unstoppable coalition of noteworthy impact on generations to come. Perseverance.
And it’s a scene where a new journey began once those gates opened, drawing multitudes now and in the future to – as Morrison puts it – “explore and discover” the natural treasures found within its borders. Again, perseverance.
The day following the ribbon cutting, the gates opened officially to the public for its very first day, Feb. 3, and 731 streamed in throughout the day. That’s over 1,000 people in just two days, and the enthusiasm and allure have shown no signs of slowing since.
Springville Mayor Dave Thomas said he had not visited for about two weeks after the opening and decided to check in one morning. The upper parking lot was full, and the traffic kept coming. “It was 10 o’clock in the morning on a Thursday,” he said, the note of surprise evident in his voice.
At the opening, Morrison talked of the Alabama Forever Wild program and the wonder of its impact on the future. “They are taking this property and buying it to set aside for people forever. It will be for this community from now on.”
The abundance of biodiversity is now protected. “We really are blessed here,” Morrison said.
A main focus of the preserve, in addition to its recreational value, will be its education component. No sooner had the ribbon been cut than the first education outreach program was announced – a turkey call expo.
Youths from all over were invited for a day of learning all about turkey calls, making them and enjoying the outdoors. Outdoor classrooms will be a hallmark of the preserve.
Thomas called the preserve “a fantastic opportunity to protect the ecosystem and promote conservation education among students and parents. This will be generational. It will outlive us all.”
Surveying the map of the 422 acres that make up the preserve
Commission Chairman Stan Batemon, who was a game warden in his professional career, knows firsthand from both roles the benefits and potential of the preserve. “This is the ground level of economic development,” he told the crowd. He talked of young people and an emphasis on work ethic through groups like the Cattlemen’s Association and 4-H, which can use the preserve as a resource for “building up and creating a workforce.”
And Morrison centered on a community of people who came together around a common good. When skills and expertise were needed in each area along the journey’s way, he recounted, community stepped up to make it happen. Whether it was securing the land, building a website, painting, paving, addressing environmental needs, carpentry, trail design, providing funding or dozens of other issues, someone always came forward.
“People in this community care,” Morrison said as he reflected on years ago when he and wife, Joannie, moved to Springville, his home on the banks of Big Canoe Creek. “Destiny brought us here, honey,” he told her.
And perseverance brought the preserve to this moment.
Making it official with the cutting of the ribbon
Key Players
A project of this magnitude had to have a team. When their number was called over the past decade en route to opening day, these agencies all played a role in acquiring and transforming the Preserve into a winner:
City of Springville
St. Clair County Commission
St. Clair Economic Development Council
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, State Lands Division
Curiosity got the best of Granger Waid, and Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve is lucky it did. Same holds true for Joey Breighner. And again, the preserve was on the receiving end of this lucky charm.
Their names often pop up when Preserve Manager Doug Morrison recounts the contributions the pair made to transform the preserve into nature’s gift to all who visit.
“Early on, the preserve seemed to be some type of clandestine operation hidden behind poorly secured cattle gates,” Waid said, recalling his morning commute past the 422-acre site. “It always begged the question, ‘What is going on with this place?’
“One day my curiosity overtook me. I parked at the gate and started walking. Following the little iron ore-stained trickle upstream, I came across an old spring house with remnants of the old home place on the hill above. I thought to myself, “What is going on with this place?”
That was four years ago. Fast forward three years, and Waid was at a pre-bid conference for his company, Norris Paving. The conference was for a new parking lot being installed at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve. He finally asked his “nagging question” about Big Canoe Creek of Charles Yeager, Turkey Creek’s manager, and his response was, “You need to meet my buddy, Doug.”
Morrison and Waid met, he toured the property and saw the potential. “Doug shared his vision for the preserve, and I saw that it could be something truly special. I knew right then I wanted to be a part of it.”
It is much the same story for Breighner. He came. He saw. He got involved.
“I was familiar with the preserve, but when Doug invited me to the preserve and seeing his passion for the project, I immediately became interested and seeing where I may be able to contribute,” said Breighner, an engineer by trade. “After a tour of the preserve, I saw quickly where there were land surveying and engineering needs where we could jump in and help.”
Joey Breighner of Schoel Engineering joins Doug Morrison at the new sign. Breighner is credited as a major force in the project.
Lucky for the preserve, both men’s expertise matched their enthusiasm, and they went to work. “I had no idea that it would turn into a full-blown passion project,” said Waid, who also holds degrees in landscape and horticulture. “My wife would call it an obsession, but she gets me, and is one of the few who sees that it’s more to me than building a parking lot and putting plants in the ground,” he said.
“Nature is a necessity for me,” he continued. “There is a healing power in the sound of running water, and sometimes a sturdy oak’s trunk is the best shoulder to cry on. So, I’m all for the preservation of wild lands, because a quiet walk in the woods may be the only under-prescribed medication in America.”
Breighner, too, talks of the healing effect of this particular project. “It’s always gratifying to look back – and forward in this case – on a project where you may have had an impact or feel you have made some contribution.
“The vision had already been cast; we came in and helped where we could, working directly with Doug, the City of Springville, and the site contractor,” Breighner recalled. “As professionals, we are often cautious about projects we support and involve ourselves with. However, after an in-depth introduction to the preserve and an understanding of the short-and long-term vision, it became quickly obvious that this was a project that I wanted to be part of and contribute to.”
The skills Schoel possesses as a company in the field of engineering and land surveying was “a great fit,” Breighner said. “There will be a life-long connection to both the preserve and the people we have been able to work with.”
Waid’s personal philosophy melded with his professional ability, he said, sharing a story of his own. “At our wedding, we gave away tiny ‘Snowflake’ Hydrangeas and said, ‘Let love Grow.’ You can’t take a building seed and plant it to share,” he said.
“Buildings don’t grow with age, they don’t change colors in the fall, or bloom in the spring. You can’t eat them – well, maybe gingerbread houses – and they certainly don’t get to be 100 feet tall all by themselves. Landscapes evolve. They are four dimensional. Having the ability to see a space that doesn’t exist, from every angle, at all times of the year, imagining its future, and combining it with paving, concrete, stone, and steel is a unique skill set that I guess I have.”
He had to have a little help, of course. He likens it to a recipe, adding “a fleet of GPS machine-controlled heavy equipment, a little AutoCAD, sprinkle on some engineering, and for something a lot bigger than shovel and wheelbarrow can produce. Just add diesel fuel and long hours.”
Waid noted that some of the earthwork had been done by the county, but it was clear there was not nearly enough parking. “We donated the men and equipment for a couple weeks and built the lower parking lot and expanded the upper parking lot.”
With Breighner’s help in engineering, “that led to the design and installation of the upper parking, roads and bioswale.”
What will be the preserve’s greatest impact going forward? “Some will say the economic impact in the community, an amenity for the city, others, the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, hiking, biking, horseback riding, etc.,” Breighner said.
“I see the primary impact as having a nature preserve in St. Clair County, that will be held undeveloped, in perpetuity, with unimaginable diversity available for public enjoyment. The Big Canoe Creek in itself, stands alone in the country with its biodiversity.”
He wants others to have an opportunity to share his appreciation of what can be discovered and enjoyed there. “I have met some incredible folks and made some lifelong friends,” Waid said. “I’ve learned to appreciate the little critters that often get overlooked because they’re not on your hunting and fishing license. Like mussels and darters or sculpins, and salamanders.”
And there’s more, he said. “Surrounding wooded areas filled with flora and fauna unique only to our region will be available to families and children forever. The diversity of the preserve will provide education opportunities for our children, research opportunities for academia that are available only in this region.”
Breighner talked of the trails with varied elevations providing different challenges for hikers, bikers and horseback riders.
“With the preserve in its infancy, and much work left to be done, I don’t know if I can fully imagine the current and future impact the Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve will have on this community and the surrounding areas.” He looks forward to the future as it continues to grow, add amenities for visitors and, lucky for the preserve itself, “where I can work with the Nature preserve team.”
Waid captures his glimpse of the future like this: “My hope is to keep people curious. Wandering and wondering is important. Maybe they’ll take a moment to stop, lean against a tree and just soak it all in.
“I also hope that the Preserve will impact some kids and will recruit some apostles to go and spread the clean water gospel. We could use some more Loraxes in the future. The world has enough Oncelers,” he said, referring to Dr. Suess’ fictional characters in chronicling the plight of the environment.
“More than anything else, I hope people take a memory with them,” Waid said. “I grew up playing and fishing in Big Canoe Creek. I’m grateful for my dad, grandad, and uncle taking me to ‘the creek.’ I’ve watched my girls play in the creek. Hopefully I’m fortunate enough to take my future grandchildren to dip their feet in Big Canoe Creek, just like mine took me.”
When you pass through the gates at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve, know that many hands built it – maybe not physically, but nevertheless formed the foundation of it all.
Manager Doug Morrison is quick to tip his hat to a long list of people and organizations, who along the way, had a hand in making the preserve a reality.
Springville Mayor Dave Thomas, who encouraged the nonprofit formation, advocates for support of the preserve and the education component.
Commission Chairman Stan Batemon, consistent advocate during Forever Wild nomination process and through present day.
The Friends of Big Canoe Creek, the supporting organization at the beginning to preserve the land and nominated the acreage to Forever Wild.
Wendy Jackson, former executive director Freshwater Land Trust, pitched the idea of greenspace economic value to former Springville Mayor Butch Isley, Batemon and St. Clair Commission, who supported the effort that laid the groundwork.
Isley and Recreation Director Ashley Hay, secured grant from Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, which enabled original master plan.
Dean Goforth, businessman and owner of Homestead Hollow, facilitated navigation of governmental agencies to get the project moving through the process.
Richie Gudzan, a board member with Coosa Riverkeeper, who designed the new logo at no charge.
G.T. Laborde, a major contributor whose donations funded the website and other projects during construction.
Big Canoe Creek Preserve Partners, the preserve’s board that has guided the process through to success.
Granger Waid/Norris Paving, prepared road for tar and gravel and raised the idea of reshaping the original plan and incorporating the bioswale in the upper parking area.
Joey Breighner/Schoel Engineering, created new master plan and map for free. Also worked closely with Granger Waid during reshaping of original plan.
Beau Jordan, painted the gate and information board for free.
Jaresiah Banks, major volunteer.
Lee Jeffrey, major volunteer.
Jill Chambers, major volunteer.
Bill Fuqua, who lives close to the Preserve, built and donated 25 bluebird houses.
Drexel Rafford, major volunteer who has helped on many projects and is the Park & Rec liaison for the Preserve worked closely with Jake Tucker, maintenance tech to build the information board at the gate.
Parks and Rec staff – Rick Hopkins, Austin Brower, Justin Parkman and Josh Miller – helped on many occasions.
Discover St. Clair Magazine, St. Clair Times and Trussville Tribune, consistent supporters that covered the journey since its first steps to raise awareness.
Organizations which contributed either through grants or donations:
EBSCO
BCBS of Alabama
Coosa Riverkeeper
KEBCO
United Way of Central Alabama
Amerex
Walmart
Lovejoy Realty
All American Ford
Sherwin Williams, which donated paint for the gate and info board at the entrance
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Mackenzie Free and Roxann Edsall Submitted photos
It may look like just an ordinary landscaping job to many who park at the Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville. There, in the middle of the parking area, is an island of landscaping. Lovely, but on the surface, unremarkable. It is, however, quite remarkable.
This is a bioswale, a highly efficient and aesthetically pleasing landscape engineering tool, whose job is to control stormwater and its resulting erosion and to limit the transference of pollutants. It functions a bit like a stormwater detention basin, but it looks far better.
Why is it needed? In areas with solid surfaces, like roads, driveways, and like BCCNP’s parking lot, storm water is not able to soak in, so it runs off, taking pollutants like oils, pesticides, micro garbage and cigarette butts with it. With enough rain, the volume of water takes these pollutants to grassy areas and to creeks.
Now landscaped, the bioswale underneath is unnoticeable, but its environmental impact looms large
Enter the bioswale. Graded to be lower than the rest of the parking area, it is essentially a trench, into which all the rainwater funnels. The trench contains perforated drainage pipes and layers of gravel, sand and organic materials to filter the pollutants before they are absorbed into the ground soil.
Flood and drought resistant plants are then placed into the area to keep the filter materials in place. Domed metal grates are tucked into planting areas on either end of the planting area to handle extreme volumes of water.
Granger Waid, vice president of Norris Paving and Excavating, worked with Joey Breighner and Schoel Engineering on the design and installation of BCCNP’s bioswale.
Waid used both his work experience with concrete and asphalt surfacing and his degree in Horticulture and Landscape Design to come up with a different design for the parking lot that would be both attractive and functional. “I drew it up with the help of Joey,” explains Waid. “We then were able to make my two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional one, so we could just plug it into a bulldozer, and it automatically graded the parking lot that way.”
Breighner and his crew gave Waid detailed specifications for the soil mixture to put on top of all the drainage layers. This “dirt recipe” was designed specifically for the native redbuds, sweet bay magnolias and pink muhly grass. Because it is a Forever Wild property, only plants approved as native to the state by a botanist from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources were allowed.
Since this bioswale is in the middle of a parking area in a remote setting, the plants had to be drought tolerant, but be able to survive in standing water. And they had to look good from all angles and in all seasons.
They do look good, but understanding the greater purpose makes them even more interesting.
Waid and the team at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve are working on a documentary on the bioswale and its function. Soon, visitors will be able to scan a QR code on a sign to connect to that information.
This landscape area is definitely not just a pretty space.
Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Mackenzie Free and Elaine Hobson Miller
What has 6,000 square feet, 185 hand-carved spindles and posts, 51 windows, 15 doors and is made of rustic pine and cedar? The barndominium on Alabama Highway 23 North built by Jeff and Shelley Main, that’s what.
“Barndomimiums are pretty big up North, I think because of all the dairy barns there,” says Jeff Main, architect and chief builder of the local project. “They’ll convert some, especially ‘bank barns’ (two-story structures built into a hill or bank) which usually have two or three cupolas on top. But they also build some new ones.”
It so happens that Jeff and Shelley are from “up North,” where they had a 1,200-square-foot home in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, a rural borough in the South-Central part of the state. For 42 years, Shelley worked in nearby Hagerstown, Maryland, for a metal fabrication plant owned by David McCain. David is from Ashville, and the city’s McCain Memorial Library is named in honor of his family.
McCain retired a few years ago and sold his business, then the new owners retired Shelley. “He invited Jeff down to turkey hunt,” she says. “Both of us came for turkey season two years in a row. Then COVID hit.”
The centerpiece of the Great Room is the stone chimney flanked by pine-plank walls
For three months during the spring of 2020, the Mains lived in an apartment inside McCain’s barn across the lake. They fell in love with Ashville, McCain offered to sell them some property, and the couple picked the one on Highway 23 because of its lake view.
The house is a testament to the environmentalist phrase, “Reclaim,
Recycle, Reuse.” From the pine timber that forms the superstructure to the stones in the chimney, plus floors, steps and walls between, most of the materials used to build the house came either from the McCains’ Ashville property, the Mains’ property in Pennsylvania, and some material from the property where Shelley was employed.
They built their barndominium from pine logs furnished and sawn by Corey Young of Blue Mountain Sawmill on nearby Country Road 31. The stones and brick in the foyer and the bricks outlining the fireplace in the Great Room came from the foundation of an old shed and chimney left on their property. The Mains had to clear an acre of bamboo and brush just to get to the well and the shed behind it. There’s still quite a bit of bamboo at the edge of their “yard” to be cut down.
“Corey cut the timbers and the wide-pine planks for the upstairs floors, and I planed them,” says Jeff. “The live-edge steps leading to the upper level are made from weeping cherry trees from our yard in Pennsylvania, while those that are not live-edge are from the metal plant’s property in Maryland.”
Jeff, Shelley and some friends hand-stripped the wood for each stair step and the railing around the loft, including each of the 185 bannisters. Inside walls across the front of the house are made of reclaimed barn wood that had been stacked and stored for many years in a former dairy barn nearby. “We brought it home, and we pressure-washed it, bleached it, got the old paint off, then pressure-washed it again,” Shelley says. They bought the sliding barn-style doors in the house, but she also stained those.
Although he did a very rough sketch of the front of the house initially, Jeff says he really didn’t draw any formal plans. “It was all in my head,” he says. “My wife was very supportive. She didn’t know from one day to another what I had in mind or what I’d be doing.” Semi-retired as a ski resort mountain operations manager (he still works at a resort in Pennsylvania two weeks each month during the winter), he had the tools and the skills needed for construction. “We talked about it for years,” Jeff says. “But what we talked about was not what we wound up with. Normally, barndominiums are only one floor. We have a balcony all the way around the inside.”
View from the balcony
“He told me the kitchen will be here, the bedrooms there, but other than that, I really didn’t have any idea of what he was going to do,” says Shelley, who, after 32 years of marriage, has learned to trust Jeff’s instincts. “I wasn’t sure about the front (inside), but it worked out for a dining room.”
The inviting front porch is filled with rocking chairs, plants and a swing. It leads into a small foyer, with the dining area to one side. The Great Room, its measurements of 40 x 40-feet – defining the word “great” – is flanked by three bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths, a kitchen, pantry and dining room. There’s an entryway at the front and a breezeway at the back that is really more of a breezy room than a breezeway. “I got the breezeway idea from the Looney House (historic home of dogtrot design), but that one went all the way through, front to back,” Jeff says. “I couldn’t talk her into that.”
Jeff made the two chandeliers, one on the front porch, and the other in the center peak of the Great Room ceiling. They are wagon-wheel styled and covered in deer antlers he found in the woods of Pennsylvania. The inside of the 37-foot tall chimney is hollow, with a metal flue and a ladder for accessing the inside of the chimney.
Downstairs floors are poured concrete. “The fireplace is a see-through, so you can see it from the breezeway behind it,” Jeff says. “We had the concrete work and fireplace contracted out.” They purchased the wood for the tongue-in-groove ceiling and the planks for the walls flanking it, but Shelley cut it, and Jeff installed it.
On one side of the Great Room is the kitchen, which features granite countertops, a brick backsplash, dark-green painted pine cabinets made by Joe Dickert of Big Rock Cabinet and Woodworks just up the road, a gas cooktop and two electric wall ovens. Next to that, on the outside wall, is a walk-in pantry lined with shelves on one side and a countertop on the other that has a small sink, coffee pot and microwave oven.
The wide-plank pine floors in the kitchen, like those upstairs, are 1 x 12s.“I’m going to build an island with another sink in it between the kitchen and Great Room,” Jeff says.
A guest bedroom suite also occupies a portion of that side of the house. Its walls painted gray, it features a stone sink with a slate backsplash and slate above the shower walls. The Master Suite and another bedroom and bath are on the opposite side of the Great Room. The Master Bedroom features a 12 x 12-foot cedar-lined walk-in closet that has its own furniture. The cedar came from fallen trees on the Ashville property. The closet has its own chest-of-drawers, dresser and some built-in shelving and storage.
The bedroom has yellow walls, and floorsthat Shelley stained, sanded, painted and sanded again to look like a white wash. Furnishings include a king size bed and a 4 x 8-foot mirror. In the adjoining bathroom, gray pebbles line the walls above the shower stall and create a backsplash behind the double sinks and granite countertops.
Shelley likes to make mobiles from shells and beads and “twisted sticks” from hand-sanded twigs she decorates with yarn and beads. She has her own craft room next to the breezeway. “This is my room,” she says. “That’s my son, two grands and three great-grands,” she adds, pointing to pictures on her walls and counters.
The house has two small, separate garages flanking the breezeway and craft room. There’s a storm shelter under one of them and a side porch off that garage that will eventually connect with the wide front porch. Standing on that side porch after a rain, you can barely hear yourself talk over the noise of the frogs and crickets. “They get really loud when it’s (weather) wet,” Shelley says.
Upstairs are his-and-hers seating areas that are bigger than their modest home in Pennsylvania. Hers, at the front end and overlooking the lake, is 15 x 40-feet, while his, measuring 20 x 40-feet, is at the back end. Walkways down each side of the loft connect the ends.
Her area features plants and what-nots on wide windowsills and picture windows overlooking the front porch, and two seating areas. One area has chairs and a daybed facing each other, along with a small television.
Shelley has a view of the lake from her side of the loft
The other has a chaise lounge facing the front windows, which are stacked, with the 60 x 60-inch version across the bottom and the 72 x 60-inch on the top. The latter is in a V-shape pointed toward the sky. An old quilt made by Shelley’s great-uncle hangs on the nearest loft rail, and one of Shelley’s twisted sticks rests atop the rail.
The walkways between the his-and-hers spaces display family treasures, such as WWI and WWII paraphernalia from both Shelley and Jeff’s dad and one granddad, including an Army jacket, rifle and two American flags.
At the back end of the loft is Jeff’s area, his “man cave,” as Shelley calls it. One side has large leather couches from their home in Pennsylvania, a bookcase displaying his collection of toy Hess trucks, and oodles of stuffed wildlife, most of which he killed himself. There are deer heads, turkeys, a coyote and a bobcat that was hit by a car on the road next to their house. The couches are on one side of the man-cave, a log futon and matching chair on the other, along with more display cases.
“We brought most of the furniture with us from Pennsylvania,” Shelley says. “A lot is family furniture, like the pedestal table in the dining room and the small, drop-leaf table in the Great Room that was my great-granddad’s.”
The china cabinet near the chimney displays glassware, jewelry, old gloves and other treasures that belonged to her great-grandmother.
All 6,000 square feet are cooled by a seven-ton air conditioner and heated by the fireplace and four mini-splits scattered about the rooms. Shelley admits the master suite is a bit chilly at times, though. She estimates they have about $200,000 to $220,000 wrapped up in materials, while Jeff believes that he probably saved about $300,000 by doing most of the labor himself. Shelley’s favorite feature of the house is its open, airy feeling, while Jeff most enjoys the fireplace.
In addition to the kitchen island, he has yet to finish the outside of the barndominium. This Spring, he plans to stain the outside walls a dark colonial gray.
So, what will they do when they are finally finished?
“It’ll probably never be finished,” Jeff says. Shelley just smiles.
