More Details!

Sorry I’ve been so quiet about blogging and commenting but it is after all summer time and we’ve waited a long winter for the warmth and to be outside. Outside also means I’m riding a tractor 10 plus hours a week mowing (3 open acres), hiking Dylan dog 30 plus miles a week and with our home and all the things that go with life, gardening and my business, well you get the point. So if I go quiet on you I’m just really busy!

One of the details on the outside of the barn are the windowsills. See the sill under the window it’s one solid piece of granite stone and took four men to lift it up into place. New Hampshire is called the granite state since we have a lot of it and you literally trip over the stuff.  

Since we had a lot of the antique granite blocks leftover from mister man building the end walls he decided to use some up making the apron in front of the barn. It also matches the foundation on our home, our foundation is made up of giant and I do mean giant boulders faced with huge slabs of granite stone. Mister man laid the block and then filled in with stone dust.

 I purchased this zinc planter from Restoration Hardware for the front corner of the barn but it would eventually sink in the dirt so mister man built a pad for it. Yes I know my shrub is small but it’ll grow, it’s a “Green Mountain” upright boxwood.

This picture came from a beta-plus book called "Building with Reclaimed Materials"  (love this book) it was the stair railing I was interested in because it was so open.

Well the railing arrived and voile OPEN! The railing is right in the middle of the third bay jutting out into the room and I didn’t want a busy railing cutting off my view of the entire barn. The railing also sits in front of the French windows and I didn’t want them cut off from view from the annex. Yes I know this railing isn’t to code but there’s a way around that problem.

The code only states that the railing has to be solid not pretty to the eye so our contractor made the railing solid for inspection. Nice huh? It passed.

See how a solid railing would have cut the room up? Anyway the wood is off my railing and I would say nobody's the wiser but hey, I just put it on a blog...lol.

I got this door picture from the same beta-plus book above. I thought a dungeon type door would look amazing going up the stairs with the stonewalls.

But instead our contractors made this door…not exactly the door I envisioned but for now it’ll do until I find a door I prefer.

This picture was taken out back of the barn just look at that nice big open space I get to design for my secret garden. I say secret garden because you can’t see it from the street or from our driveway in front of the house.

Mister man is going to put in a stone patio for me as soon as I make up my mind what kind of stone and pattern. Yeah that’s going to happen quickly, making up my mind but you have to understand mister man is aging ;) and he’s only going to do this once for me so it has to be the perfect stone! (Yes mister man reads my blog so he'll see this....Hi honey!)

As you can see the area where the patio is going needs a lot of dressing up but I started by sticking a bench in already did you notice in the picture above?

Dylan dog is going to help me plant too he’s already digging a hole….lol. Up next the revel of the decorating inside the barn. I can tell you’re all excited!