Monday, May 11, 2015

The barn gets prettier and prettier . . . and so does our front porch!

We had gotten a porch installed all the way around the barn a couple weeks ago.
The porch now runs all the way around the barn making the horses
all VERY happy now when it storms these days!

















When it storms, Duke and Arthur stay inside their stalls eating hay and not paying attention to the rain at all.  But Shadow stands out of the porch watching it pour down - but not going out into it.  Very nice!

But since it poured down rain last week when the gutters were supposed to be installed on the barn, the gutters weren't put up instead until yesterday -- Sunday afternoon! So when it pours down rain again, hopefully the paddocks will no longer be overrun with flooding water as in the pictures above from water running off the barn roof!  Instead the water is going to run into the gutters and over into the raised flower beds in the front of the barn instead.  Nice!

We got very dark green gutters but they actually pretty much match that very dark teal paint we have on all the trim.  Nice, huh?

But since the gutters needed to be able to get ALL the water running off the roof, the guy had to cut back the edge of that metal roof so that the water would all run into the gutters and it wouldn't pour out over it.  So it should do a fine job of keeping the paddocks reasonably tidy from now on - and the horses won't end up with mud clear up to their knees!  


So here's the gutter on the far side of the barn 
(that chain fence is going to be taken down eventually).
That portion of the barn has already been painted so you can see
that the dark green gutter looks pretty good with the teal paint.

Here's the gutter along the back of the barn porch.
And in this pic the gutter has been installed at the back of the barn,
but the guy is busy cutting back the metal roof there on the right side
so he hadn't completed the gutters entirely yet in this pic.  And of course
Jerry will soon be painting that new porch there around the back.

Jerry is sure going to have plenty of painting to do before long!  We had all those walls put up on our own porch as well.  I think we'll have those painted the same pale blue as the house itself.  Here's the one over at the end of the porch near the barn:


Our course it's not just that new wall that's going to be painted.  We're also going to have the porch floor sanded down and repainted as well.  (It sure is a mess, isn't it?)

Obviously that storage loveseat there on the right is going to need to be moved since that's where Mark's golf cart is going to be parked eventually.  

Obviously it's pouring down rain in this photo.  The pipe that runs under the driveway and over to the canal has been filled up and needs to be opened back up -- that's why there's practically that "lake" there in the front yard when it pours down rain currently.
We also had a wall thing built at the other end of the porch so that the rain can't blow in onto the furniture down there. And it's also a bit more private now as well.  Nice!

That floor looks really bad, doesn't it? . . . but once we get it fixed up, the porch is going to look SOOOO much better. (And that rolled-up rug is going to get cleaned as well -- that's the one that Rocky died on so it's outside because it smells just awful right now.)

Obviously we can use some additional furniture out there once the floor is nice.
(One thing I REALLY want is a swing, but we'll see.)
We also need to clean off the walls there on the porch as well. And we're going to be planting some things there in front of the porch as well -- but we haven't decided just what yet on that.  Always something, huh?  But life is good for us these days.  And as long as I keep working I don't feel guilty about spending money so I guess that's a good thing.

But one thing I would really like to have is a Dutch Door to replace the regular front door.  As we continue to get older, I want to be sure it won't be a problem to open the door to a stranger.  With a Dutch Door, I could open just the top and the dogs would throw hissy fits but wouldn't be able to run outside.  Then no matter who the person might be, they sure wouldn't want to force their way in!  Well, I guess I'll see if Mark would go along with that or not.  


2 comments:

Misfit said...

I love Dutch Doors. What was the old tv show that started with one? Something Swedish maybe?

Misfit said...

It looks great! One of these days I will get down there to visit!