Our Barn

When we started looking for a farm years ago – I had secretly hoped it would be an old farmstead that had an old barn. There’s something incredible to me about the older barns that are still standing after 100+ years. I love the construction – the old hand-hewn beams – the stone and mortar walls – everything about them. So when we started looking at this farm – I was excited to see it had a barn.

We don’t know a lot about the actual construction of the barn – but based on a brick we found in the wall we assume the foundation was done in 1911…

The foundation of the barn is stone and mortar and the upstairs framing is all hand-hewn log and timber construction. The barn had been used for a variety of things through its lifetime. The upper barn was used primarily for storing hay. We initially thought that the gaps in the wood siding were because of lumber shrinkage over 100 years but were later told the boards were gapped intentionally – to let more air flow through and allow the hay to dry.

At some point a new, metal roof was installed on the barn which really helped preserve the upstairs timber. There are some places which definitely need some help – but all and all the upstairs is in pretty good shape considering that snow and rain can just blow right through the siding.

Next to the barn on the north side is an area that we believe used to be a lean-to. We believe they kept horses in this area but aren’t 100% sure. When we bought the property, this space was so overgrown with wild raspberry bushes that you couldn’t even see the old foundations…

The lower barn was once used for cattle and had milking stalls for cows. The previous owners left a lot of things behind (which is great!) so we’ve got quite a few things to sort through. The clean up process is ongoing but we’ve already found some treasures in the barn.

It’s not hard to see that the barn has seen better times, but the fact that it’s standing at all at this point is incredible. Several areas of the foundation are in need of fairly extensive repair. Not only do the walls need a lot of repointing, some areas need to be completely rebuilt where the stone has fallen away over time.

We’re excited to start restoring the barn. We plan to work from the bottom up as the foundation seems to be in the worst condition at this point. I’d like to think that the barn was the centerpiece of the farm during its operational years. Our goal is to preserve the barn so that it can continue to be so, for years to come.