Actually the barn, as it has come to be called, was built to be both a
music room and my workshop. It is normally entered through the
residence, but the upper level is essentially at grade, allowing things
to be conveniently moved in and out through two large doors at the
front patio end of the barn. A driveway leads around and down
to the side of the building to allow access to the shop floor on the
lower level through an overhead garage door.
Even after our normally short and mild Virginia winters, the coming of
Spring is a very welcome change. It's fun to see the grass
green up and the new leaves emerge. This is the springtime view of the
meadow behind the barn as seen from the windows between the two pipe
chambers.
Most of the restoration work took place in the work shop which is
located on the lower level, about 9 feet below. A 10 ft. wide bridge
starting at the edge of the upper level allows visitors to walk above
the workshop floor to a window stack overlooking the meadow.
This picture was taken during the installation of the organ
when the shop was still pretty crowded.
This is about how it looks today, although for concert performances we
almost always reposition the console to the opposite side of the
listening area, behind the camera, to increase effective seating
capacity to 160.
The bridge and window stack separate the two pipe chambers to increase
the spatial diversity of sound. I chose to place the console at the
opposite end of the studio to allow the organist to hear the same more
distant sound heard by the audience.
The next section will show and describe the restoration phase for this
instrument.