Barn Update with Loft Room

 Two years ago Keith and I bought a 1950ish metal machine shed about 9 miles from our farm. We paid someone to dismantle it and deliver it to us, then we brought it back to life here piece by piece, post by post, as our barn.

Two years ago. Where did that time go?  It's still not finished but not for lack of effort and hard work. With Keith working full time off the farm, his hours for barn work are limited, but he does manage to keep at it whenever he can, repurposing so many, many materials from the old 1868 house we are tearing down on our property.

He has even recycled the old insulation, some of it loose, some in the form of Styrofoam panels, some in strips. See below.

To date , we are able to store hay, hog grain, our tractor, our lawn mower, our freezers and all of Keith's shop materials, even though he does not yet have walls for his shop area, in our barn.  Details, details. We also have stalls for our three steers and my horse.

While I was in Texas visiting a niece last week (a blog about that is next in que) Keith took a week off from his job for a Farmcation. He was as excited about staying home and getting work done here as I was about getting OFF the farm for several days.

In my absence he made tremendous progress on the loft room which will house the homesteading supplies we need, but don't use everyday, like: canning supplies, soap making equipment, winter chore clothes, sewing equipment, plus we'll have room for a full size bed for guests. Or Keith and I will sleep there and the guests can have our fancy 10 x 10 grain bin bedroom. This new barn loft room will have four walls, a pitched roof, three big windows and a reading nook. (The raised platform just behind Keith in pic below.)

We don't plan to heat or cool it so guest overnights will depend on weather but when your GK population keeps growing it's nice to have options.

The best part of this new space are the truly awesome floors! Keith recycled each board from the 1868 house. Some were floor boards, some were wall boards, but all were sturdy and well made as they were in the 1800's. My plans are to lightly sand the boards and then just cover with several coats of polyurethane. Most are already over 150 years old, they should hold up for a few more.

It's funny how Keith and I were all about downsizing when we sold the old Chatsworth farm in 2015,  which had about 3000 SF of living and storage space. We figured a grain bin house of 670 SF would be plenty of room for just the two of us and it is. It's just not enough room for all our homesteading crud! Eventually, if we keep going the way we are we'll have the same amount of space we used to have, only scattered about in three or four buildings. Oh well, all the walking between house, barn, lofts, studios etc...should keep us in shape.