View from the Barn Loft

Here are some views from inside our barn loft. It’s still only accessible via ladder, as the staircase won’t be finished until the concrete slab is poured.

We don’t have firm plans for how to use all of this space; obviously a chunk of it will be for hay storage. And a lot of stuff that’s currently cluttering up the upstairs of our house and our kitchen pantry will go out there. We are garage-less and may be so for some time to come, so the barn has to fill in there. The loft is big and we may have some extra room initially, but we figured it was wiser to go ahead and spend the money to make it a full loft than to skimp on it and regret later that it was too small. You only get once chance to design it!

Here is a panoramic view from the shed dormer windows (click to see bigger image). The pasture’s not actually bowl-shaped, that’s due to my unsteady camera hand.

It took no time at all for owls to start barfing up there. In fact, since the barn construction has started, owls have been making quite a racket of screeching outside all night. This is new, I don’t think I’ve ever heard them before. Now it sounds like we have pterodactyls prowling around every eve! They must have their hearts set on moving in; and will be sorely disappointed to learn we plan on having doors and windows!

The carpenters who are building our barn sometimes make creative little tools. Like this funny saw. I’m not sure what they used it for, but I know there was a lot of tedious cutting to fit the floor sheeting around all the posts.

This is looking out the front of the barn, they hadn’t yet framed into the girts for the big hay loading door or the windows on either side. This part of the barn will have great mountain views.