Barn on 4th of July

A retired seaman andhis artistic wife havebig plans for anold dairy barn.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
KINSMAN -- The Kaulbacks' ship has come in.
After years of his living at sea in the merchant marine, then four years in different extremes of retirement, Allan and Catherine Kaulback have set anchor in the four-story barn Allan has owned since 1979.
They hope to open the barn, in one way or another, to the public.
Pending approval from Kinsman zoning officials, a shop on the ground floor to sell bookshelves and coat racks from Allan's woodworking business will open July 4.
The business, Kinsman Barn Cats, supplies four Ohio stores, said Allan, 54. He bought the business since retiring from the merchant marine.
Other attractions
Further plans for the barn include an art gallery on the second floor, to be stocked with work by local artists. The gallery also would offer seminars and classes.
A bed and breakfast is also being considered for the living quarters at the top of the barn, which rises from the rolling pasture like a ship on the sea.
Guests could bring their horses and pasture them on the 16 acres at state Route 7 and Webber-Cole Road.
"We have no shortage of ideas," said Catherine, 54, a former interior decorator and designer in Kirtland.
Zoning change
Allan said the massive building, raised as a dairy barn in 1920, was zoned commercial when he bought it, then rezoned residential without his knowing it during the intervening years. There is to be a hearing July 1 on changing the zoning designation.
It is not too difficult to understand why zoning officials might have been unable to contact the Kaulbacks. For the past 29 years, Allan has been crossing the oceans or the Great Lakes with the merchant marine, gone for months at a stretch. Even then, the couple lived in Ohio only in the summer, preferring winter in Florida and Tennessee.
"When I bought it, this wall was a wall of hay, and there was manure on the floor," Allan said, directing visitors to the a first-floor woodworking shop in what had been a loafing shed for cows.
It looks like a shop class now, with concrete floor and high ceiling, raised five feet to provide clearance for the hydraulic car lift.
Spiral iron staircases, salvaged from the former Ohio Leatherworks Co. in Girard, bring visitors through rooms in varying states of polish.
A section of the second floor, where the art gallery is to be, is partially furnished and ready to be painted.
Other sections are still awaiting a permanent floor.
Furnishings are sparse.
Hit the road
After Allan retired from the sea in 1998, the Kaulbacks unloaded much of their possessions and hit the road for 18 months in an RV.
They had planned next to go on a mission trip to South America, but it was canceled. Instead, they took up residence as house parents for New Life Maternity Home in Vienna, a home for pregnant teens.
"After that experience, we committed to doing something more for the community," Catherine said.