Play Area Inside Of Old Barn Foundation Finished

 

We (he!) finished the play area.

It was a ton of work this last month.

We bought it off of Facebook Marketplace for $100.

But it needed some TLC, including both "feet" replaced on one side.

This is my favorite addition -- a rusty tin roof over the fort.

We (he) added wire "cattle fencing" (that we already had)

to two sides of the fort.

View from top of the slide --

yep, that is the back of our guest cottage.

Play area is directly behind the guest cottage.

Addition of a bench in the cellar of the fort.

Here is the "front" of the play area that faces the cottage.

Very shady.

You can see how the play area is inside the old barn foundation.

Notice the trees which have also grown inside of the foundation area.

Just west of the play area is the picnic area.

Amish made picnic table, and we just ordered two adirondack chairs for the area.

Inside of the old stone foundation.

Gorgeous.

And lastly, icing on the cake.

Preparing Old Barn Site For Play Set

I discovered the old barn site the day we first looked at the house. I say "discovered" because it was buried behind grape vine, poison ivy, tall weeds, old tires, broken glass, tree limbs, and more.  But I was smitten from the beginning.  All that is left of the barn was the lowers walls.  

Half of it is stone, and so cool looking.  The other half has old concrete walls, not quite as cool.  But with plants, vintage gates, etc we will give it more of a vintage vibe.  THAT is the half the way are talking about today.  It sits directly behind the new guest house. To make it safe, I would have either had to rope off the barn site or clean up all of the glass.  So this spring when there was a huge ditch around the guest house exterior I knew it was time to act.  I filled the ditch with all of the old metal, broken glass, melted glass that had been inside the barn site.  No more danger zone.  It took a few months for us to decide the next step.

Last weekend we ordered pea gravel from a garden center, and it was delivered Tuesday.  8 scoops. Also on Tuesday I found a playset (new fangled word for swingset) on facebook marketplace.

 We ended up buying it for $100.  

Today we fueled up at our favorite restaurant.

And tackled the disassembling and LOADING of the playset.

Good old van!

Barely got everything inside and on top.

Next Saturday is assembly day.

Stay tuned!

Trip To Amish-land

 Here is the main problem about taking trips to Amish country --

you can't take pictures of it.  We ordered this picnic table from an Amish man

about a month ago and went to pick it up today.  

 Sturdy, cedar, 

split seating, sits eight -- just what we wanted and at a good price.

Plus the bonus of visiting with an Amish family with at least 10 kids.

Ready to host families in the old barn site.

The oldest son makes really nice baskets, so we purchased

one of those as well.  CUTE KIDS, I wanted to take pictures so badly!

 Then on to the Amish general store and bakery.

The loaves of bread are only $3 each!!

I should have bought more.

Rusty Junk From The Old Barn Site

The past few days I have been working at clearing melted glass and metal from an old barn sight on our property.  The barn burned in 2000. I would have loved to have seen it.  All that is left now is a crumbling stone foundation.  And melted rubble.  Mostly glass.  And a bunch of it.  I have been staring at it for two years wondering how we were going to get rid of it.  To simplify a complicated explanation -- we can't put it in our trash can.

(Hand forged hinge.)

When our contractor said he was going to refill the dirt around the foundation of the guest cottage sometime this week, a thought occurred to me.  It is very close to the old barn site.

I could just toss in the broken glass right next to the foundation before it was back filled  with dirt (mostly rock).   The mess of glass and metal will rest securely about two feet underground and not pose a danger to anyone.

(Do you see a potential candlestick here?)

The plan sounded so easy...rake up chunks of glass and metal bits into a dustpan and throw it in the trough next to the foundation.  Repeat. I worked at it about four hours the first day.  My body let me know that night that I could not keep up the pace.  So I have been working at it about two hours a day since.

This Victorian hinge and the doorknob help make a case that

there was a house on the property before our 1933 house was built.

The broken horse bit probably is civil war era.

All of the rusty license plates on my shop door

came from this site.  I found about 10 more this week,

but all in worse condition than these.

And my prize find.  

A super old license plate that went on the chicken coop door.

Working On The Little House In The Ozarks Day 28

 Besides doing some white on white painting,

I worked on the fire pit area today.

It is one of those secret gems that made us fall for the house.

I bought the fire box thingie at a garage sale last weekend for $10,

and that spurred me on.  Yesterday I cleaned out the inside

of the circle and leveled it.  Then my son carried 5 bags

of pea pebbles for me. Which I spread out today,

and it barely covered half.

 The stone circle is the old foundation of a silo.

It has such a cool "been there forever" look.

 Next door to the fire pit is this great old stone foundation

of a barn.  It will take a ton of work, but we are going

to turn it into an awesome outdoor seating area.

Bonus of being outside is taking in some of the wildlife.