City Homestead Tour #4...The Barn

Okay, it is not a barn in the same way that Country Sister's barn is a barn, but it is a place that houses animals, tools, and needs to be mucked out, which are all functions of a barn.  My barn's sill had rotted out, so had most of the siding.  We had been storing our feed and straw out there until we found evidence mice had moved in.  In all, it was a sad, sad, place.  We stored the lawn mower, buckets and  tools in the barn after that.

My parents came out for the weekend.  We spent most of our days outside working on making this old barn into...

...this!

In this picture the barn is still in progress. 

Already, it has already had some improvements.  The doors were hung before my parents left.  Also, the top portion above the door has been repainted a nice barn red.  A manure door was made to go right from the back of the barn to the compost heap right behind it.  And a door has been built on the side to let the chickens out.  This is going to be the new permanent chicken barn,  The hubby and I are also going to create an outdoor run on the right side of the barn to let the girls roam as much as legally possible.  So, there you have it, in one weekend my wonderful parents came and taught us how to rebuild a structure.

As a side note, the place looked so good I joked about how we were going to move in instead of the chickens.  W. liked how I said he'd have bunk beds on one side, and mommy and daddy would have a bed that folded up into the wall on the other, but was not happy about the lack of kitchen, bathroom, and electricity.  C. did not care, she was too busy doing her own paint job on the kid's playhouse.  In order to convince C. that her assistance was not necessary on the top of the ladder while I was painting the trim, we gave her a set of watercolors and set her loose on painting her playhouse.