the barn room renovation has begun

The barn room is in the works! We've been focusing all our efforts on the farmhouse since it is so imperative that it gets finished first. Now that the farmhouse is seemingly under control (fingers crossed) we can turn our attention to the barn room. The room measures 23'- 6" x 27', with a 12' ceiling height. It is really a lovely scale to the rest of the house. If you've ever been to New England, you've seen some antiuque houses that have these huge barns attached to them... those scare me! Our barn is a really nice size- not too big, not too small. The barn transformation is very exciting for us as this was always a hard-to-visualize room since it was indeed a real barn! The room has been closed off from the rest of the house all winter because the barn door was frozen open. Just for the record... it's hard to stand in a 10 degree room and make design decisions!

We are very, very happy to say that after removing several layers of wood flooring in the barn we found our very own wide plank pine floor! This little jewel of a find easily saves us $10k! There are a couple of rotted boards that will have to be replaced, and it won't be perfectly level (but it's not that bad either), but it's ours, it's original and we couldn't be more thrilled to make this find! We will sand the boards, and then apply tung oil as it's finish. The floors in the farmhouse will be a medium brown and these will be a honey color.

This is the newly cut opening and the temporary stairs which connect the barn with the kitchen! The opening (which has the top boarded off from this side) will have a transom above it where we will use antique glass from doors and windows from the house and barn. The framed opening on the left will be one of two french doors with transoms that will flank the stone fireplace. It is hard to tell scale at this point, but the french doors with the transoms will be 9 feet tall. The door to the right of the stairs is the opening into the first floor half bath, aka "the outhouse!"

(fyi- I've cleaned my camera lens, so my best guess is that the round lights/spots you see in the photos are the houses' spirit angels!!)

This is the view into the kitchen- you can see the kitchen fireplace on the back wall. We will use old planks from the barn for the steps. I do not know what the single board holding up the barn ceiling is all about. I stand by the old adage... if you can't stand the answer, don't ask the question!!



The found chest (from several posts ago) in the outhouse! The outhouse measures 5 x 7'. The toilet will be to the right of the vanity.



Same view, different angle.



View of outhouse from upstairs guest bedroom window. The double window on the second floor above it is the master bath. The single window on the first floor is in the kitchen and is one of the windows that flanks the range. Outhouse will be shingled and painted the same color as the house.



This gives you a good view of the framing for the french door. The french doors will eventually open onto a stone patio and face the east meadow.




Between the two french doors will be a stone fireplace.



This is the south wall in the left of the photo, and the west wall on the right. You can see the outhouse door opening on the south wall in the far left of the photo for reference. The framed opening on the west wall is where the iron gates (seen leaning against the wall) will go. The area you see on the second floor is a loft area that is not open to the barn room. The iron gates divide the barn room from the barn mud room. The mud room has stairs that lead upstairs to the loft and downstairs to the garage, and a door which leads to a storage room. If you notice, all of the walls in the barn are being framed for finish walls. This will ensure that the walls are straight (which they aren't now) and allow us to insulate the room.



To the right of the iron gate opening you see the large original barn door leaning against the west wall.




The old barn door with it's original hardware will be mounted on the west wall!

The perfect piece of art for the room!



This is the north wall. There will be two sets of two over two, double-hung windows (for a total of four windows) with wall space between the two sets. I'm sure it's hard to "see" it all with all the boards and framing, but if you look close you can see the framed window openings. Once we get the windows, they'll just cut through the plywood to install.




This is the view into the barn room from the kitchen. You can see the size the door opening will be from this side once the silver board is removed. The door jamb on the right of the photo leads into the kitchen mudroom.




Yesterday, after having had snow on the ground for months it finally melted away! Then this morning we woke up to at least 5.5" of fresh snow! Isn't it pretty?! These next two photos are on the drive from the rent house to our farmhouse.

Ella in the back yard at the rent house. How 'bout that view! Toto (I mean Ella!) we're not in Dallas anymore!