If I'm completely honest, there have been many moments since we made the decision to convert the barn when I doubted that it would really happen. The time from the completion of our drawings to actually having a building permit was almost exactly two years. As I mentioned previously, there were a few hoops to jump through and several hurdles to overcome. With each bump in the road I would ask The Lord, "Is this not Your will?" As much as we wanted this dream to come to fruition we knew if it wasn't God's will, then He had a reason and we would accept that.
But, here we are, permit in hand, running full steam ahead. Demo officially began right before Christmas and while we were away for New Years our builder, Nelson, sent us this picture.
It looks like a muddy mess but to us it was beautiful! To us this picture represented a dream becoming reality. To give you some context the next picture is before demo.
Over the next few weeks demo continued inside. In the lower level the concrete floor was cut and removed to prepare for plumbers to lay drain lines. The bedrooms and mud/laundry room will all be on this level. The existing concrete enclosed staircase was also removed.
The picture above is where the stairs previously came down. The block walls
around it were removed first and then in the picture below the
concrete pad was removed.
These two pictures are where the feed trough/mangers were located.
There will now be bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchenette, and a small theatre area .
The pictures above and below are what was the tack room.
This will be the location of the mud/laundry room.
As exciting as the demo phase has been, the project has definitely kicked into gear in just the last week!
Framers began working on the main living level just over a week ago. To say it's exciting is an understatement. When we walked down to see the progress after the first night we were amazed at all that had been done in one day. (I was so excited I was dancing a little.) This picture shows the ceiling joists which had to be altered to accommodate insulation. That's a lot of work in one day!
The next evening we, again, walked down to see the progress. This time I squealed!!
Do you see that?? Those are walls!!!
After so long waiting and hoping and doubting and hoping...walls!
I could cry just writing this.
Ok, you probably see where this is headed. Today as I was returning to the farm I glanced up the driveway to the barn, and this is what I saw...
I sent the pic to Brad and said, "Do you see what I see??"
In late 2020 we were with our closest friends on a vacation and talking about all the delays we were encountering with the barn. Our friend is a homebuilder by trade and he advised us to order our windows before anything else. He explained that they had houses sitting complete and unable to close because they could not get windows. By April 2021 we had ordered our windows. But I should clarify these aren't just windows to me. These are the windows I dreamt of having as a little girl, French casement windows. These are the kind of windows in English cottages, French chateaus, and Italian villas. They're the kind of windows that you push open and lean out to water the flower boxes, or talk to you neighbor. I really never imagined that I would even have a place to put such windows.
So you can understand my excitement as I pulled up the driveway today. Our beautiful windows which we ordered almost two years ago and had delivered almost one year ago are finally in!
Oh Happy Day!!!
