Ship Lap for the Barn

Let's catch up on the barn's progress. 

In July Jordan made the forms and we poured concrete for a new wall on the north side of the barn where the existing foundation had toppled leaving the wall hanging from the roof. You can see that in the photo above. It's not because it was pushed into that position. 

Much easier to see from the outside in the daylight, but apparently I'm still not taking proper 'before' photos. Maybe it's because I prefer the during and completed stages?

August was for building a new wall on the new foundation. It worked out! Jordan prepared the framing including windows, which are from a school bus. Can you tell? We ordered ship lap from the local lumber yard for the siding, giving a sample of the original to copy. When the so called ship lap arrived it turned out it was different... This peeved us to some degree. It's not as if it were inexpensive. Custom orders are not. Maybe we could have been told in advance, and been able to decide for ourselves? 

The horizontal pieces below are how it's meant to look. That's from our rustic sitting room between the Coop and Rabbitry.

Or here, partly repainted, partly not, on the east side of the barn. (Minus the door of course, that we rebuilt in February.)

And here's another modern usage to create a similar look which the previous and meticulous owners used on the coop:

(Yes, those are our hens busily munching on mustard we grew. They love treats of all kinds, but were pretty darn excited and gluttonous about the 50 or so slugs I removed from my pumpkin patch. Did some one say permaculture? It works for me!) 

We tried to see the silver lining and found of course there were some pros: we were doing an entire wall so that wall will look uniform (though we ordered extra to make fixes on other walls), the quality of the boards is very high - no seconds or thirds here - resulting in a very tight fit of the 'lapping' edges, this also means painting is easier and faster, while an inside wall covering is probably not even necessary. We would totally recommend the mill! 

Of course I'm very pleased with the all over job, but my favourite part is the door on the corner. There are things that could have been done differently, yes, like there always are. Despite the 'ship lap' the barn sure looks in ship shape! 

I helped, but credit is mostly given to Jordan, who has even painted a second coat of barn red and fashioned the other door since I've been gone. You can see that best below:

I realize we could have just ripped the whole thing down and started from scratch, however, we like the history of the barn, and although it has been added to over the years (both side wings and height of the hay loft) and those additions are actually in the worst repair, we have got a new roof, albeit undulating, but the space is good space and furthermore the original and 100+ year old structure is as strong as ever. 

It turns out the Burns knew a few things about building. As usual.