Last weekend, we had some time to chat with one of our neighbors (two of our neighbors grew up in the house).  She told us about how many happy hours her father and brother spent in the barn working on projects.  Apparently, they were wood workers who loved fixing things up and general handiwork.  Prior to their living here, this barn and the small outbuilding attached were used for a dairy farm.  The milk was kept in the outbuilding where the milkman would come and pick it up to make his deliveries.  There was a different barn here in the 1800’s, but it was blown down by The Great New England Hurricane in 1938, after which, this  one was built.

The barn is huge.  And while the bottom level is a tidy shop with little to clean or organize, the top is a fantastic disaster.  I say fantastic because it is a veritable treasure trove of old, random china, wooden crates, vintage furniture, mirrors, a trunk, suitcases, piles of unused lumber, a stack of handmade shutters, screen doors, and so much more.  I say disaster because it is almost completely covered in guano and mouse poop, filled with mouse nests, and under a thick layer of dust.  Needless to say, before we can put any hay up there, we have quite a bit of cleaning to do!

Here are a couple photos of the upper level to give you an idea what we’re dealing with:

Yikes!

We are ordering respirator masks this week and hopefully getting started with some clean up shortly after they arrive.  Obviously, one of our biggest challenges is that we can only work on it one person at a time since our wee one is not allowed anywhere near this particular project until it is 100% complete!  That said, I am excited to get to it and hope to do at least as much salvaging as trashing.  I’m starting a sub-section to the Mac n’ Cheese Manor blog series which I call, “We Found it in the Barn.” where I will feature our favorite discoveries.

That’s all for now!  We are still in progress on quotes for the electrical in the house as well as a lengthy list of what we want/need to do and when we want/need to do it.  So, as I suspect I’ll be writing for years to come, stay tuned for the next installment of Mac n’ Cheese Manor! Coming soon . . .    : )