Sun City residents Duane and Nancy Fontana had their Barndominium ground-breaking ceremony with a gold shovel, balloons, and champagne on Wednesday, March 15, 2022. On November 4, 2023, they celebrated the completion of their Huntley Barndominium with an open house.
Family, neighbors, and friends attended the celebration. The weather cooperated, allowing the guests to wander outside for conversation and enjoy the perfect weather. Other guests sat upstairs in the loft and watched while others danced to the familiar music of their youth provided by the band Rick Lindy and the Wild Ones.
What was their biggest challenge?
Duane said, “We broke ground on March 15, 2022. Getting stuck 30 feet high in a scissor lift in below-zero temperatures was rather scary. Installing heavy beams for the dormers was very challenging. The hundreds of purlins (roof beams) lifting 800-pound beams and assembling the six bents (ribs of the barn), weighing 4400 pounds each, were painstaking. The challenges were many, but we ultimately overcame them and finished the barn in November 2023.”
Barndominiums often tell the history, and Fontana’s barn does this well.
Duane said, “Nancy’s decorating talents really brought the ‘barn’ theme to life. Spending several summers with her grandma on her Iowa farm inspired her ideas. The knickknack portion of the loft is dedicated to her grandma’s 100-year-old sewing machine, a metal milk container, and butter churn.”
Duane has a piece of his past displayed near the sewing machine as well. Duane’s childhood ceramic dog bank dates back to the early ’60s, with one eye still attached by a piece of chewing gum, fixed by his dad.
Nancy felt that the biggest challenge dealt with the instability of the timeline.
“The biggest challenge is that it kept changing every day, week, or month. First the permits, then the twisting of the beams. We maxed out the crane, got the Tele handler stuck and the monster dormers, and can’t forget about the insane insulated roof panels that no one wanted to do, and perched a ladder on top of the scissor Lift to reach the 32-foot peak. But most of all, worrying that someone would get hurt.”
Teamwork made the project possible.
Nancy said, “Duane did so much manual labor, and luckily, he had so much help from friends and family. There was always a new challenge or dilemma. You think you have over one problem, but there is another, then another. We could never have expected what an ordeal it was – but it came out beautifully to me.”
The barn is a piece of art with details in every corner, including the selection of appliances and fixtures. There is a 16-foot-long bar made from a single piece of Ponderosa pine.
The couple is relieved that the majority of the project is complete.
Nancy said, “Is it perfect? No. Duane says it’s just a barn, but, no, it’s more than that. Finishing this was a miracle. Especially since a 74-year-old retired optometrist created it.”
The two said that this project will keep them happy for quite a while.
Duane said, “We are happy that we built it and hope that it brings much enjoyment and happiness to our friends, but seriously doubt we take on a project of this dimension again.”
