Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Steve Harper from Hammer Saw Builders of Bristolville prepares the opening for a new window at the front of a refurbished 119-year-old barn structure in Champion. In the background is the farmhouse.

CHAMPION — Tracey A. Laslo, an Alliance attorney, had wanted to do something special to honor her family’s homestead off state Route 305 just west of Champion Center.

She has commissioned a local construction company to refurbish the 2,440-square-foot barn that was built in 1901 on her family’s nine-acre farmland.

“The farm has been in my family for about 50 years,” Laslo said, “It was a fixer-upper before it was popular. My parents bought it so I could go to kindergarten in Champion.”

Laslo said she “grew up with the horses” in the barn.

“My favorite memory was being able to ride on the horses and going to 4-H,” Laslo said. “My sister and I would go out and ride all day. We would be grounded if we didn’t clean up that barn.”

Laslo said she wanted a place for gatherings for her large extended family. She said she wants to get this “COVID construction project” done in time for her niece’s wedding in the fall.

“I wanted to make it some place special to come home to,” Laslo said.

Every animal you could imagine was in that barn, and Laslo said she wants to preserve the old-time exterior look of the structure.

Laslo said she still will use the first floor of the refurbished structure for agricultural uses.

It was really a “match and patch” effort, the contractor said.

Steve Harper, who owns Hammer Saw Builders, said he hasn’t used any architectural plans for the job, but worked with the homeowner on a few drawings. He said Laslo had a hard time finding a contractor. She first worked with some Amish contractors to put in the cupolas and get the beams and flooring from their mill in the northern part of Trumbull County.

“Things sometimes change, and then you have to do some stuff on the fly, figuring out things as you go along,” said Harper, who said he secured 35 windows from Window Corp., a West Virginia company that sells to his supplier, Banner Supply Co. “It was a difficult process to figure out how many windows to order. You had to make sure everything is lined up just right. I probably measured these windows five or six times before putting in the order.”

Harper and his crew have installed dozens of windows around the barn’s second floor as well as hammered in wood siding to give the exterior a nostalgic feel. The three cupolas in the roof have “weathervane lighting” that will make the structure a township landmark, he said. The windows are planned to extend across the rear section of the second floor that overlooks a lake and dock area.

Laslo said she has been pleased with the work of Harper and his crew.

“Steve is an amazing contractor. He seems to know what I am thinking,” Laslo said.

Harper said he expects the crew will spend a few more months at the site. He said he is trying to do the job in the most efficient way possible.

“That is really the challenge,” Harper said.