The Blog That Saved a Barn

This is the picture that started it all. You see, last spring, we had a record breaking hail storm. The storm also knocked down several trees. There was so much damage in the area that the Red Cross came in. My poor little pickup had more than twenty dings on the cab alone and my Sweet Hubby's car was in worse shape. We figured we were lucky.

A while later, some vultures decided to take a break on the barn roof and I was lucky enough to get this picture. I was concentrating on the birds. When my Sweet Hubby saw the post, he said, "What is wrong with the barn roof?"
This picture, I call it "Peace" was on the top of the side bar of my blog for a long time. I love our old barn and this is such a peaceful atmospheric picture of it. We compared the two pictures. Peace was taken well before the storm and when you compare the roof, you can see the damage.

This is the back view of our smoke house. When we checked, we discovered the roof on it and the summer kitchen were also damaged.

You may have seen this picture before, I posted it in the autumn. I love it!, the damage is there, but hidden by the leaves. The roofing companies were busy all summer repairing roofs on houses. (Our house roof is fine, no leaks). So we had to wait for them to come to us. One thing these pictures don't show well is the sheer size of the barn. It is a two story barn and it is huge. We don't know how old it is but from the inside you can see many of the most support beams are "Rough Hewn" (there have been repairs over the years) and the old hand made nails were used, just like in the house.

Remember this one? The Summer kitchen does not look very summery here. My understanding is that the summer kitchen was used for cooking in the summer to keep the heat out of the house. Remember, back then they did not have central air and it gets hot here in the summer.

This is a close up of the barn with snow on it. I can imagine the animals that used to live here. This was once the heart of a working plantation and the barn may be original. It is hard to imagine when you look at all the trees, but they raised cotton here.

The smoke house with it's proud new roof. These buildings were all here when we arrived and are original to the place.
We keep seasoned fire wood here, close to the house for days like today. A solid roof keeps the contents dry and will help keep the building standing.

The summer kitchen with it's new roof. I love the way you can see how these buildings were constructed. It gives clues to the parts of the house you can't see. Notice the summer kitchen has a raised foundation and floor, the smokehouse has a dirt floor.

The barn looks quite proud with it's new roof. I was a little worried that a new roof would look out of place on an old barn, but my Sweet Hubby picked just the right materials.

From a distance with my Daffs in the foreground. This was taken Sunday. Today it is snowing again. Two snow storms in one year is a lot here. That is fine with me, the fire is crackling behind me and none of us have to go anywhere.

My Sweet Hubby stepped outside after I went to work yesterday and took this one for me. He did not want me to miss it. Isn't it the prettiest view?
Hopefully the new roofs will keep the main support structures dry and our old buildings will last for years to come. I feel like I am living with history and I love it!

Have a lovely week and stay warm.

Kat

Before and after, porches

Porches and me go way back. See the chubby little kid in pink, the one in her big Sister's arms? That is me. Margaret was holding me, Paula is beside her in red and Pete is wearing his cowboy hat. Mom lined us all up in front of the porch steps to take our photo. We were getting ready for the "Pioneer Days Parade". I think that was the year I got to ride in a "Covered Wagon" made from Pete's Radio Flyer. I actually remember that. I remember lots of fun things about that porch. I remember hiding behind the wall playing "Cowboys and Indians" I remember dressing Paula's cat Sherry up in doll clothes and sitting on that porch with him (yes, him, that is another story). I remember jumping off those pillars and I remember cracking my head open on the steps (four stitches). I remember sitting on those steps, or should I say jumping up from them constantly, waiting for my big brother Jimmy to arrive. I also remember sitting on those steps waiting for news after my Father's first heart attack. I remember when we moved, walking down those steps for the last time and I remember thinking how glad I was that our new home had a front porch too.

Fast forward 28 years to our first look at the new house, IT HAD PORCHES! Not just the front porch, but a side porch and nice steps up to the back porch. Heaven. The first porch related project took place before I could join the family up here. See the nice brick path up above? it is leading to the side porch from our parking area. This is the door that gets used the most. As you can see in this photo, we have been having a bit of work done (this is why we did not decorate the outside of the house this year). See the festive plastic and blue tape? We had to use the back door for a couple of weeks over the holidays, the weather just did not cooperate (we have to wait for it to get cool so the bees won't get so excited, a lot of the work was carried out right next to their entrance). My Sweet Hubby made the balcony livable last summer and we have really enjoyed it. Now it's time for the next step.

This is the back entrance, it got a bit of attention too. The railings that were up, were resting right on the steps and they were quite rotten. The contractors replaced the top and bottom rails but reused the posts. These steps and railings are a very late addition to the house. You can't really see it here, but they are elevated just a little so they should last a lot longer.

When we bought the house, there were no railings on the front porch and a good bit of the porch floor was rotten. About half the floor on the side porch was also in sorry shape. We had all of the front floor and the bad part of the side replaced a couple of years ago. The railings and posts sat covered in cobwebs in the barn and the smokehouse until this year. We found someone who was willing to restore them. This photo and the next show some of what they had to work with.

Here are the bits and pieces again, we think they are the originals but have no way of knowing. Our carpenter and my Sweet Hubby figured out how to repair the bad bits and combine other bits to go all the way round the porch.

This is one of the old column post holes, looks occupied.

First set is in place, looking good.

All the railings are up, now all we need is a little bit of paint.

They painted the columns too, (see the plastic is still covering my bushes).

Close up.

I am so pleased! Technically, the job is not finished yet as the porch floors still need to be painted, but you can't see that in the photos anyway and I wanted to show you what has been going on. I'm thinking we are going to have to find a couple of rocking chairs and a swing.

My lovely old house just got better.

Kat