Quinn and I have lived in Blueberry Barn ever since we were married. We rent it from my wonderful in-laws, who first built it when Quinn was only 3 years old, as a little living space while they built on to their cabin. It was never supposed to be a nice place - just something to live in while work was done on the real house. But over the years it's been getting nicer and nicer, and finally it was decided to build onto it.
"Oh! What light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Greta is the sun!"
Last summer, Paul - my father-in-law - worked away at preparing to build onto the Barn. Everyone was involved. First we needed to tear off the green house (now a shed) from the back of the Barn. This was moved down to the chicken coop and converted into more space for them (I try not to think too much about the fact that the chickens got an addition way before I did...). Then came the dirt work, dad using his old excavator to do the job. And then, pouring concrete.
In the photo above you can see the bare patch where the shed used to be, along with the orange wires for our future in-floor radiant heat. It was all-hands-on-deck that day, every one of us helping smooth out the wet concrete (and all of us learning a lot along the way, as dad was the only person who knew what he was doing).
As you can see in the background, Laura is helping a great deal. Haha!
Lupin and Greta of course were very excited about all of the noise and excitement, and they seemed to be just as tired as we were by the end of the day!
We worked all morning and well into the afternoon smoothing and re-smoothing and smoothing again. The day got nicer and sunny, so we ordered pizza and sat outside on the porch and ate it, very tired from all the work. But of course this was really only the beginning of the work.
Over the next few months Quinn and dad worked tirelessly to put up the studs and to enclose the two floors before it snowed. The plan was to build a downstairs living/dining room, with a small laundry/furnace room off to the side, with a second bedroom on the second floor above. The pounding that went on during that time was crazy. I don't think there was a single picture I owned that didn't fly off the wall at sometime or another. Eventually I got the idea and took them all down.
Here is Quinn showing Lupin the start of the walls.
When I sat upstairs, I could see Quinn and dad working away. Several times Greta made it up onto the second story somehow, to peak at me through the window...
And here's a photo of what the second room looks like through that same window, but now all walled in and ready for insulation and sheet rock:
Soon we had something that really looked like a proper house!
As it often does, life gets in the way of these big projects. There was Christmas, and a long visit down to see my family in December, then mom and dad left on a trip for a month and a half, and the new addition didn't get any good progress for a while.
But soon dad was back, and he and Quinn set to work again - this time covering the Barn with a fine layer of sheet rock dust (that seemed to be everywhere no matter how hard I tried to clean it up). Soon the walls were done and ready for paint, and we were finally to something I could help with! We decided on a light green color for the walls, and I painted and painted until my arms and hands were so sore I could barely hold the roller! But we wanted to get this living room done! We had set a goal to finish the downstairs living/dining room by Mother's Day - and we were going to try our best to reach it!
Here's Quinn tiling the floor, as handsome as ever!
Besides painting and helping to tile the floors, I had another fun project to work on. Melissa had offered to give me her old wood cook stove, as she had gotten a nicer one two years prior. I heartily accepted, and set to work cleaning the stove. It had been outside under a shed roof for two years, so it was covered in spider webs, some rust, and it was buried under all the stuff that goes into Paul's boat in the summer. So after excavating it I was able to see what I had gotten myself in to.
Dad had oiled the top when he had put it in the shed, in hopes of saving off some of the rusting that was bound to happen. After sanding it all down, I took it all apart and washed each piece in hot soapy water three times to get rid of all the oil. The ash bin was bursting beyond all capacity, dad said he didn't think they had ever emptied it. The poor stove was in a very sorry state, but dad promised me we could patch the holes and repaint it. And after two days of work it was looking a lot better! I couldn't wait to move it into the new addition!
Quinn and dad worked so hard to get the living and dining room completed - finishing it the day before Mother's Day. The upstairs bedroom and the laundry/furnace room have to be completed, but they deserve a nice long break after all the hard work they put in! And now, on to the reveal:
Here we are looking into the new room from the doorway into the kitchen. This doorway is in the same space a little window used to be, and the stairs to go up to our bedroom are to the right. Quinn's cuckoo clock was the very first thing to get hung on our new walls.
Here is my new-to-me wood cook stove! I have used it a lot since putting it in - just for fires, I haven't yet been brave enough to cook or bake something with it yet (but someday!). Through the doorway you can see into the kitchen, and on the very left of the photo you can see a panel that will someday open into a storage space under a new set of stairs.
Of course Greta wanted to be in a photo too (in reality she was waiting for me to let her outside, haha!)! After moving the couch and the table and chairs downstairs, our bedroom felt very empty - and more like a bedroom!
Here you can see the coat closet dad added to the space - something I am very grateful for! You can also better see the curtains I made! They are white and lacey, and I think they'll be perfect for all seasons.
I wanted to write this out not just for you, Dear Reader, but also for myself. That way I can look back at all these photos and remember everything in this journey to build an addition onto Blueberry Barn. Of course it isn't finished yet (that's why I titled this 'Part 1'), but we have reached the first victory, and I wanted to share all the hard work Quinn and dad put in to reach this!
Until next time Friend!
