It’s not every day you get invited to a barn raising, so when I did, I jumped at the opportunity. The event took place on a 300-acre parcel southwest of Marshall owned by Chris Allen and Daniel Larkin. They have managed the restorations of numerous houses in New Orleans’ French Quarter, so when they moved to North Carolina and it was time to build a place to store their machinery, they didn’t want any old barn. They wanted a building that would be just as beautiful as it was lasting and structurally sound.