An Official Feed Room

I know the posts have not been as frequent as last year and that is partly because I keep taking Francis away from his project! I make him help with family dinners,drag him off to help me bag shavings for horse bedding or task him with picking up more hay from local farmers, or he is there offering support to me as in the case of our recent loss of Bonhomme.Therefore, he doesn't quite get accomplished what he wants to in a weekend but that is just how he is-- ever willing to give up what he wants to do in order to help me, a shoulder to lean on( or cry on).

So I will now endeavour to catch you all up on recent progress. I will do separate posts for each project. So as you know from my first post this year, the interior walls have been insulated and finished with lovely tongue and groove lumber. It loos lovely and bright and now...will still have to put some kind of "finish" on the wood-- clear stain of some sort to protect the wood, but that will happen inthe hot afternoons of summer when the barn is a cool sanctuary.

The next project he tackled was an official feed room. Last year we used the space next to Pippa's stall to house a freezer that we kept all the grain in( dual purpose- keeps out mice and curious horses ...hmm I wonder who I might be talking about ? hehe). That area also housed the wheelbarrow, broom and manure fork. Originally, there was to be a stall made next to Pippa's but the person doing the cement work screwed up and didn't listen to the foreman (ME), and put the buffer wall 9 1/2 feet from Pippa's stall and not 10. Therefore, it is too narrow to be in a stall ( in my opinion), so we have made it the official feed room. 

Work started with repairing( sistering) some of the joists and framing in the structure.

I had planned on a window being put in the front wall to allow in natural light ( I love sunlight and windows!). Construction was going well and I went out to check on the progress and good thing I did. Poor Francis had the framing all done for the walls and was already putting up the material for the walls when I arrived. Oops, someone had forgotten about the window. 

But Francis just made this face,😠 , and then started taking it all down again and reframing an opening for the window. Poor Francis, he is so patient with my requests/visions etc.

The door for the feed room is another old door we found out in the machine shed and Francis dragged it out through all the snow back to the barn where he lovingly sanded it off and adapted it for use as a sliding door. I am a big fan of sliding doors as they are easy to open when holding onto something and don't take up space. Must admit, this door is rather on the heavy side so is not easily opened with a foot ( must actually use the handle) but in the case of curious horses this is likely a good thing. The hardware that was on the door had been taken off to be "restored" but has not been put back on yet as I am not sure exactly who is to restore it??? Francis?? or am I supposed to paint it or something?? ( to be continued)

 The window is all framed on the inside with a lovely deep sill made out of the same lumber as the interior walls. The boarding for the walls is the same as the tack room. The plan is to make some cupboards  ( to house the first aid kit and other essentials) and have a counter top section for mixing up the grain tubs. We have on old stainless steel counter top from an island we removed from the kitchen so that will be our counter top. Those finishing touches will come later.....

 As I am writing this, I am already thinking we put the feed room in the wrong place (oh dear!!). You see Francis found an old water line in the foundation coming from the old well out near the far fence, and we plan to use this as a water source for the barn. And as we will need to be able to keep the pump warm, I am thinking that the feed room should have been a stall after all,  and the feed room should go where the water line is-- that way we can insulate that room to keep the pump warm for future use if we ever have horses here in winter..... oh dear.... how do I tell him I want him to take it down and start again??? I may not live to make another blog entry.......