Friday, April 15, 2011

The Barn Project

I wrote some time ago and showed the doors on the old style barn. Well, we found someone who bid a reasonable price and he started this week, Wednesday.

Here are some before pictures.

The barn faces the south and there are three door or were at one time and a loft door where DH's pitches down my mulch hay.

This shows the heavy center door and the rotted and damaged loft door.

This is the east door way. We have been keeping a cattle panel tied here.


He has started framing and building the west door already,


I like the detail of the way he is building the door. Notice the brace is cut at an angle in the corners.



I think they have left for the day so we went out to see how things are looking.

This is the center door that opens to a hallway the length of the barn. There are individual pens down both sides where I used to bottle feed the Holstein baby calves.

This door will be solid.

He has already patched the rotting wood above the door. He thinks he can find a piece of the yellow barn siding to match. If not I will paint a piece.

and this is the west door into the pen where I used to milk Willow.


All is built with treated lumber that will have to age for a year before painting and I may not paint! I told him I didn't want a 'cutesy' barn look. I want it to look like a normal barn used by farmers who did not go in for fancy hardware or t&g
barn doors like he suggested. I just want it sound and usable.

I am very pleased so far.

I have to be amused at us.....we were both city people. Since moving out in 1976, we have slowly become 'farm people'. The farm comes first before the house even. Here I am needing, no wanting, new living room furniture and carpeting but I want all the outbuildings up to snuff first! DH could probably have been swayed in either direction.

6 comments:

  1. Glenda, when I read your posts, they make me smile! I'm glad you've chosen this fellow and the work he's done looks great! I would let them simply "age" and the wood will turn gray. I've been asking the Pres to work on our shed, but one can only hope....:)JP

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  2. I dunno. You 'farm folk' are a might particular 'bout yer out buildings. (Me using my best 'country' accent.) LOL

    It's going to be great when you can use that Dutch door. Where I grew up we had a Dutch door (before storm doors or even screens) and it was great for a kid to hang elbows over the edge and watch outside. Didn't seem to be many bugs came in. Could just be my memory getting selective... Looks like he's doing a good job. I'm happy for y'all. ;-D

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  3. The doors look great. I agree, the gray weathered look is more like a barn you'd find on a country barn.

    I love the dutch doors. You can open the top for air movement without critters being able to go in or out unless you want them to. Love the way you take care of the farm buildings.

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  4. Oh, those doors look wonderful!

    When I was a kid growing up in a small town (after we left the farm), there was a big red barn in our back yard! The man who'd had the house before us had a team of horses and he would plow people's gardens and such for pay. There was a big door that opened out to the unpaved alley and that's where he took his team in and out through. I used to love to hang out in that old barn.

    Up in the loft there was still a lot of loose hay. Mom and Dad never cleaned it out. It was old and dusty but I remember thinking that it smelled like tea leaves. One year, some neighbor boys figured out how to get into the loft from the alley using a ladder. They had a "secret clubhouse" up there. I heard their voices and went and told Dad. Dad went out there, quietly climbed the ladder that was inside, just past the manger, and as soon as he had his head up above floor level he hollered, "WHUT'S GOING ON HERE????" Ricky and Dale Lawson made a hasty retreat, the ladder fell down outside and so they jumped into the tall grass out there in the alley, got up, and ran for their lives.

    My dad was a quiet, friendly man, but none of the kids knew him very well and so they were scared to death of him. He looked so much sterner than he really was.

    Dad chuckled off and on for several days about those boys going flying out the loft door. LOL

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  5. I forgot to mention that not only do the doors look great but I'm sure it will be warmer for you next winter with doors that close tight.

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  6. Your barn looks great,doing a good job! You will be so proud when it is finished. Blessings jane

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