Clouse in the Woods: The Barn

I am not sure when we made the decision that I would get an upstairs and Jim would have the majority of the downstairs in the barn. I can't say that I even remember an initial discussion about a second story, but I do know my husband seems to love lofts. Somewhere in there, he volunteered to build a loft for me.

"We'll just put it right above my head here..."

Since the downstairs' theme consisted of cars, gas station signs, and a step back in time to the glory days of the automobile, I determined that the upstairs area would be an airplane theme, more specifically the Wright Brothers. You see, I am a huge fan of Wright Brother's history. I've been to the majority of the Wright Brothers museums and historical places in Dayton. It isn't so much the airplane itself that intrigues me. I am much more interested in their process and persistence as well as the human story element. The story of the Wright Brothers is a huge part of Dayton history. Innovation, engineering, and dogged persistence. You can't beat it!

The loft idea also became a game changer when we found out JC was on the way. We needed a safe place for a little fella to crawl around while Jim was organizing and doing manly things downstairs. And so the building began...

So... much ... stuff....

Jim is the type of person who sees a truck carrying a big load of wood down the road and immediately thinks it should be his. Luckily, this drive of his caused him to purchase a large chunk of old barn wood on Ebay that sat around for 10 years. He just knew it would come in handy someday, and now was its time to shine in what I began calling the Flight Deck. We bought a little planer which was probably harder to use than a nice big planer. My expanding belly and baby on board did make the process interesting, but we got it done and up on the walls.

Since going up and down a ladder to get to the flight deck was a really bad idea for a pregnant lady, Jim built some stairs. It was actually his first time ever building stairs. Here is the unfinished product.

We went to one of the hardware stores and picked out some flooring that would match well with the barn wood walls, and Jim did the install. Jim also picked up a Dayton flag for my birthday. As weird as it may sound, I've wanted one for years. Every time I'd go to the airport, I wanted that flag. I heard a few years ago that they were considering redesigning the flag, and I have to say I was not a fan of the redesign options. I knew I needed to get one before that happened because the new flag options did not bring me joy.

We wanted a window upstairs, so Jim put a big ol' hole in the wall.

I am not an interior designer nor do I play one on TV, but I've heard accent walls are pretty important. With the wood on the side walls, we decided to use the copper sheet metal for the back wall because that stuff is just buuu-tee-ful, and it's a barn so I can do what I want, right?

We also decided to use copper pipe to conceal the electrical wires and painted the outlet covers copper to match. At this point, things were really starting to look fancy to this Texas gal.

Jim also installed the railing and a baby gate on top of the stairs to keep both adults and littles safe and sound. We actually just took down the baby gate today! Seems we have a preschooler now.

Sometime after all the heavy lifting was completed and JC was born, I went about the business of choosing colors and decor. The finished product is below. Not bad for a couple of weekend warriors! This actually took us years to complete. Anything we could get on closeout (wicker chairs) and restore or repurpose (bookshelf, table, chairs and desks), we did.