Next Level Equestrian Living
by Dustin Gruetter
Caring for horses is a labor of love, but the time and resource investment can be tiring. Whether it’s driving back and forth between your home and the place where your horses are stabled, or tending to equestrian facilities and a house on the same property, it’s a lot to manage. One increasingly popular way horse caregivers are opting to simplify their equestrian lifestyles is by investing in an apartment barn.
Otherwise referred to as barns with living quarters, apartment barns are multi-use structures that house both people and their horses. While sharing an address with your horse might not sound like the most glamorous of lifestyles, the truth is that these kinds of homes are well geared toward rustic aesthetics and custom designs. If created with a commitment to longevity and quality craftsmanship, these hybrid homes are an investment worth keeping in the family.
The benefits of a barn with living quarters are plentiful. For the dedicated equestrian hobbyist or professional, apartment barns offer a cost-effective and energy-saving solution to caring for horses. Inherently sustainable as a result of their efficient use of resources, the apartment barn allows you to stay close to your equine friends and even closer to the lifestyle you love. Given the nature of horse care, proximity is of the utmost importance.
Flexible Apartment Barn Designs for Your Lifestyle
DC Structures designs and assembles pre-engineered apartment barn kits that can be modified in any number of ways to meet your vision. We’ve helped people create apartment barns with as few as one stall and as many as 12. From equine boarding businesses attached to caretakers’ quarters and covered riding arenas to small family barns with two stalls and a one-bedroom upstairs home, DC Structures has executed a spectrum of designs.
Our clients are creative individuals who insert their personalities into their final apartment barn kit designs. Between viewing windows that allow the homeowner to keep an eye on their horses from the kitchen to eco-friendly upgrades like solar panels and electric car-charging stations, we are happy to accommodate any request our customers throw our way.
While it might seem counterintuitive, prefabricated building kits don’t have to be cheap or lacking in original character. Using our signature building style of post-and-beam construction, we create barns, homes, and apartment barns that are both functional and uniquely attractive. Our design process entails working one-on-one with our clients to ensure that the apartment barn they want is exactly the apartment barn they get.
Building something like a horse barn, residential home, or barn with living quarters is an important milestone in any property owner’s life. As such, it should be designed with the future in mind. We encourage clients to anticipate the ways in which their needs might change over time. Additionally, we engage them in a transparent and collaborative design process while continuing to educate them about the long-term benefits of our preferred method of apartment barn construction.
Post-and-Beam Dreams for the Future
Post-and-beam construction is a building method that calls for the use of heavy timber in lieu of traditional dimensional lumber. This construction style makes for structures that will remain standing for 100 years or more with proper upkeep over time, thereby effectively doubling the lifespan of their pole barn counterparts. In fact, post-and-beam buildings are often the only ones to survive in the wake of a natural disaster.
Aesthetically speaking, post-and-beam apartment barn designs allow for dramatically open spaces with vaulted ceilings. These open-concept interiors give your living space a touch of elegance and are wonderful for relaxing with family and friends. It’s actually quite easy to forget you’ve got horses for neighbors downstairs on the first floor!
To learn more about apartment barns, building kits, and how DC Structures can help you take your equestrian lifestyle to the next level, visit our website at dcstructures.com. We know our role goes way beyond designing apartment barn blueprints and assembling pre-engineered materials packages. At the end of the day, we are cultivators of our clients’ dreams, and we’d love to help you live your passionate pursuits more fully.
Originally Published February 2018 Issue
An Oregon native, Dustin Gruetter is a serial entrepreneur with a diverse portfolio of businesses to run. His two largest roles are as president of both DC Builders, an elite design and construction firm, and DC Structures, a construction materials company. With more than a decade of leadership and management experience, Dustin lends his expertise to Eris Creative as the head of business development. Dustin lives in Portland with his wife Ilanah, son Maxton, daughter Violet, and dogs Piper and Marley.
