We're Building Barn!!!
The Barn Is Officially Mapped Out!
Today, we physically mapped out the barn—and apparently, we’re building a budget barn for me and a luxury car wash/woodworking barn for Rob!
I’m the wildly enthusiastic farmer. Rob is the reluctant farmer who hates being filmed but has begrudgingly condoned chronicling this adventure!
Before we started, Rob gave me a stern budget lecture: “Don’t get your hopes up. No wallpaper. Nothing that isn’t in the bargain bin.” Fair enough, but approximately five minutes later, he decided the barn needed a commercial-style power washer and a mounted vacuum system for washing cars.
Excuse me?
He gripes about my request for a wine fridge but believes a 10-car garage is perfectly reasonable. This is the man who’s supposedly keeping us on budget.
So, what are we planning this barn for? What are we going to do with it?
The barn will include a two-room guest rental with a sitting room and pullout sofa downstairs, plus a king bed and trundle upstairs. It will also have two full bathrooms. We haven’t decided which rental platform we’ll use yet, but we’re excited to create a charming place for guests to stay.
The farm side will include a proper grow room for seedlings because my greenhouse is useful for approximately four months of the year, think fried egg on sidewalk the other 8 months! Think of this grow room as a hardworking mudroom: sink, washer and dryer, ice maker, floor drain, outdoor hose bib and enough room for more seedlings than I would EVER want to plant at one time.
We’re also planning:
A large storage room for art supplies
A walk-in pantry for food and cleaning supplies
A fancy powder bath with real tile and wallpaper—regardless of what the reluctant farmer says
A 20-by-40-foot workshop for art, cooking classes (not by me), mahjong lessons and potential league and anything else that let’s us play
I would also love to donate the workshop once a month to a nonprofit that needs meeting space—think Girl Scouts, community groups or another organization doing good work.
We’re dreaming big, but we’re also dipping our toes in carefully. We both still work full time, and we have two precious grandsons five hours away, so we’ll be very protective of our time. Keep an eye out for classes and opportunities to pick flowers at the flower farm. If you have ideas, want to teach a class, or might be interested in helping part time, feel free to message me!
These are the early days—full of learning, dreaming, budgeting and negotiating over wallpaper versus car-wash equipment.
Follow along as we share the ups, the downs and everything in between. The barn adventure has officially begun!
Comments