Barn/Cottage Update

A quick recap: Back in April of this year, our long-awaited Barn Building Crew finally arrived and built our 30x50 foot “Barn/Cottage” in our backyard.  View all Barn/Cottage posts here, beginning with the barnraising!

Our Barn/Cottage is also described as a “Shouse” (shop/house combo – thank you, Patti, for teaching me that cool word!), or simply a living quarters at one end of the garage-workshop. This building will ultimately be where we move in to during the period that our old house is being torn down and (hopefully) new house is being built. The tear down/build up project is at least two years in the future. However, the Fiddler will stay there much of the time over the next couple of years. Mr. W worked long and hard on many of the finishing projects for the Barn/Cottage during the past few months. However, with farm and other projects taking priority during much of the Summer, we still had quite a lot to finish up the Cottage area before super cold weather hits.

Yesterday, we were fortunate to have some of the Fiddler’s friends to help out with drywall. I was fortunate to entertain one of the friend’s little five year old (adorable) girl for the day. We had to check out kittens about a bazillion times (but it was fun of course!). And pet donkeys & feed them baby carrots. And see the geese & feed them dandelion greens (their favorite). We scrapbooked & did crafts too.  A fun day for me! And hopefully for her!

Back to the Barn/Cottage: The drywall is completely installed. I managed to finish painting the bathroom with primer, then paint two walls of color. And we now have the double doors partially installed between the garage portion and the cottage. You can see our progress below, as well as some beautiful artwork one of the friends left for us (on the drywall). He and his twin brother are very talented artists.

First the Artwork. This fine drawing was penciled in a matter of just a couple of minutes. Such talent!

The new doors ~ still wrapped (for now) in plastic. Soon they’ll be primed and painted… or just sanded and varnished? The more I look at the pretty wood grain, the more I hate to cover it up.  See the insulation below the new drywall sheets? We’re putting barnwood panels there. One of the next steps!

On a whim, I chose this gray-blue color for the bathroom. I am very pleased with it. Light fixture ~ $20 Lowes; Sink & Vanity Combo ~ $88; Recessed Medicine Cabinet $12 Lowes (yes, $12!!). The faucet is Moen & was about $50. This bathroom was really very economical to do. 

I really wanted Barn Lights, and this was the closest I could get. Lowes had copper pendant lights. I sprayed them silver to coordinate with the tin ceiling.  These are scattered throughout the Cottage area.

 

Some more artwork  with painters tape compliments of Mr. W and accomplice…

Oh, and Toilet is by Jacuzzi and was less than $150 at Lowes.

Tub and Shower combo (not pictured yet) was about $315 with Moen faucet & shower parts running about $75 I think.

Next up -- a new tankless propane water heater, more painting, drywall taping & finishing, the barnwood panels, blown-in insulation to the ceiling, outlet & switch covers, trim trim & more trim, a closet, a built-in storage cabinet in the bathroom, and yes… more painting.  We’re getting there! Hopefully we’ll have faster progress now that we’re “down to the wire”, so I’ll try to post updates more often.

Hope your weekend was great!