Time to clean out the barn!

[shazapple]

We are cleaning out the big red family barn for our wedding in May... it's going to be a long haul. The area is about 2,200sqft and is almost entirely filled with junk. We decided this was going to be better than spending the $1500 on a tent.

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East hallway: under all this stuff is a shingle making machine from a local shingle/cotton mill in the 1930's.

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There it is! My dad wants to get it going again. It will have to wait until better weather before it moves from this spot. It used to be in the sawmill until it collapsed in the 1950's, and will be going out a building on the same spot.

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[shazapple]

So far, the junk to cool stuff ratio has been very high (mostly just old wood). No, there are no 'reclaimed barn boards', just shitty wood

A clawfood tub. We will fill this with ice and kegs and no, it is not for sale!

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Horse drawn sleigh (pung), needs a bit of TLC. Doesn't look too comfortable.

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Some retro stoves. It would be cool to have these in the house, but chances are they don't work. (There is a third behind these two)

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[Lynners]

*feeling very sorry for myself* I want to find cool old junk!!!

I feel like there have been 800 million families (in reality probably 5 or 6 or 10) that have lived in my house and anything cool has left forever. Blerg.

Neat finds and cool idea for the tub! Keep the pictures coming

[wletson]

My, what a gorgeous shot of the farm!

[PowerMuffin]

Well, I think you found some treasures, love the old stoves and so will someone else! The shot of your land is wonderful, talk about pastoral and blissful, wow!
Diane

[Alexander]

The shot of the farm is beautiful, should be on a calendar. Several years ago I was ask to help a friend that was using the family farm for her wedding and they planned to use the barn for the reception. Let me begin by saying I am from town and have really never been to a farm before this visit and as she was driving me down the bumpy farm lane I ask her what the animals were in the fields and she looked at me and said COWS! I said OH, but they are not black and white so that gives you an idea of what I know about farms.

We cleaned out the barn of everything we could and stored things in side wings using bales of hay to hide things and then power washed ( low power) everything we could or at least hosed things down and the beams and planks were beautiful. We put several thousand white Christmas lights up in the beams, and used rented tables and chairs and the place looked great. I called every great aunt I had and borrowed blue mason jars ( the kind with the glass tops) and filled them with wild flowers many from the farm and some from a flower shop for centerpieces. A portion of the barn was full of hay and it smelled great. It was a late afternoon wedding and there was a buffet dinner and dancing late into the night. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended and the barn made such a wonderful setting for the reception. I am sure you will have a beautiful event and if you can charm the trees to be blooming the day of the wedding like in the photo it will be fantastic.

Have fun treasure hunting on your way to the alter

regards,
Alexander

[shazapple]

The shot of the farm is beautiful, should be on a calendar. Several years ago I was ask to help a friend that was using the family farm for her wedding and they planned to use the barn for the reception. Let me begin by saying I am from town and have really never been to a farm before this visit and as she was driving me down the bumpy farm lane I ask her what the animals were in the fields and she looked at me and said COWS! I said OH, but they are not black and white so that gives you an idea of what I know about farms.

We cleaned out the barn of everything we could and stored things in side wings using bales of hay to hide things and then power washed ( low power) everything we could or at least hosed things down and the beams and planks were beautiful. We put several thousand white Christmas lights up in the beams, and used rented tables and chairs and the place looked great. I called every great aunt I had and borrowed blue mason jars ( the kind with the glass tops) and filled them with wild flowers many from the farm and some from a flower shop for centerpieces. A portion of the barn was full of hay and it smelled great. It was a late afternoon wedding and there was a buffet dinner and dancing late into the night. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended and the barn made such a wonderful setting for the reception. I am sure you will have a beautiful event and if you can charm the trees to be blooming the day of the wedding like in the photo it will be fantastic.

Have fun treasure hunting on your way to the alter

regards,
Alexander

That's scary. Did you travel into the future to attend our wedding? What you wrote was basically what we are doing! The only differences is that we don't have cows and we are using clear mason jars with glass tops!

[Alexander]

Hum one never knows. It was so much fun and the barn was fantastic. We added some spot lighting in some areas to highlight the beams as they were wonderful and went into the woods ( most farms have a wooded area or so I am told) and brought in some branches from dead trees and stuffed them covered in lights up in the beams and everywhere we thought to have some interest. The bathtub full of beverages is a fantastic idea. I think the nicest thing is the evening was informal and people relaxed and had such a wonderful time. They did just for fun have a fiddler for a bit then a DJ played most of the night and it was wonderful. No cows is a good thing as the clean up is easier, LOL. We used blue jars because one of the brides colors was blue but they would just as good in clear. At that time of year there are so many wonderful wild flowers and great greens to make great bouquets.

Sounds like fun all the way around, Would there be any way to use the shingle machine as a buffet line? some of that old machinery is beautiful, an art form in itself.
All the best.............Alexander

[melissakd]

That tub has its original hardware which costs a mint to replace. Lucky you!

There are old-stove forums where you could get advice on rejuvenating those stoves, too, whether they work right now or not.

MKD

P.S. LYNNERS: If you like, when spring comes you can dig for treasure on your property. My DH does it as a hobby and can tell you where to dig. Believe me, he'd take any excuse to do it himself.

[Lynners]

P.S. LYNNERS: If you like, when spring comes you can dig for treasure on your property. My DH does it as a hobby and can tell you where to dig. Believe me, he'd take any excuse to do it himself.

LOL. Remember my post on another thread? You know you're an old house owner if....