Hey there!
We are nearing the end of the first week of 2016 and though I am not one for resolutions, I am a goal oriented person and like to revisit my list of long term goals and sometimes cross off successful short term goals. :)
This time last year our family was contentedly going about daily life in Burlington. My days were filled with car pools to preschool, Girl Guide meetings and crochet sales. Fast forward to today. We have been in our forever home for just over six months now and though we are still content, I feel a lot more daily joy and pride.
With my laptop back up and running, Derek and I took a peek through our initial photos of our home here on Nassagaweya and reflected on the potential that WE saw when first walked about the property. Needless to say, there weren't many with us that saw what we saw or fully understood the connection to our dreams that we were feeling.
Here is our first view of the barn (complete with green chainlink fencing and overgrown pastures).
Okay, there IS a part of me that will admit a slight mood of disappointment when I first saw it but it didn't take long to see that although it wasn't aesthetically pleasing, it is a well built barn with a great layout for what were we hoping to have live in it...
Here is our barn today. Still in need of paint on the roof, but new doors have been built (all by Derek), barn board replaced and windows secured. Looking at the photo below I just realized I had left the door open... but it IS there.
Green chainlink fencing removed, wooden fence for the horse ring installed and horses in the paddocks behind. But this next photo shows my favourite accomplishment:
Chicken/Duck coop with free ranging hen... oh and green chainlink fencing. It came in very handy in fencing off a small yard for times when we need to keep everyone close to home.
Funny... I became a crazy chicken lady so quickly, I didn't even notice it happening. Love these little birds and enjoy spending time with them. :)
Alrighty, now for the real deal. On that cold March morning, we opened the barn doors expecting to see a barn that had been ignored and in need of a little work. What we were met with was...
A teenage version of a man cave... complete with BAYWATCH posters and a Lionel Richie album cover (I don't know what that was all about, but okay.. not judging..) moving on...
The white walls in the above picture is drywall that was nailed to posts and beams to create a type of games room with the other sections being storage. Below was one part of the extra storage areas.. complete with four wheeler and boom box stereo. :) For the times you wanna bomb around the yard to the sweet sounds of Lionel's "All night long"... Again I regress..
Alright, so consider the above photos our BEFORE pictures. Now, walking into the barn you find yourself in the main hallway with three complete stalls. Two on one side (the closest stall in the photo below was where the four wheeler was parked) and one stall and a completed tack room along the other side.
Most of the two inch stall boards were still in the barn and were fitted back into place to divide the stalls. Derek built and hung the sliding stall doors himself. Have I mentioned in this post how amazing I think he is?? :)
Here is the tack room, complete with tack! New floor boards where needed and a solid ladder to the hayloft.
Over the Christmas break, Derek was able to rewire the entire barn. Some of the wiring looked to be original and was a little scary. All lights were changed from the fluorescent boxes to shatter proof LED lights.
There is still one end of the barn to be tackled. Right now it houses the riding lawn mower, wheel barrow and miscellaneous items. Thoughts have been to make it a run in for animals, hay storage or another stall. We will see where inspiration and materials take us. Because that is something that I am thankful for and can't forget to mention.
Though we did need to purchase new wood.. (quite a bit of wood) we were blessed with a lot of usable building materials that were left behind by the selling family. From larger items such as the tracks for the hanging stall doors to small items such as door latches and green chainlink fencing! We were able see potential uses in items we had on hand.
So there we are. An amazing six months looking back.
Thanks for sharing our journey,
Jeanette
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