With the property we purchased last spring came a four-stall horse barn. It was dusty and unused, but otherwise in pretty good shape. Since we don’t have four horses, we chose to undertake a renovation project to make the barn more suitable for our farm operation goals.

We removed the interior horse stall partitions, saving one stall and its associated exterior door for the future (we’re talking DISTANT-future 😂) possibility of a horse (you might know that Sasha rides and loves it very much). In the meantime, we might use this stall for our chick brooder.

We closed two of the other four horse doorways to the exterior - the doors were rotten and unneeded. They were so rotten at the bottom that animals were coming and going freely. We also installed one large double-door for entry/exit of larger machines such as our Bad Boy zero-turn mower. Which is awesome (the door and the mower 👍).

We poured a concrete floor in the half of the barn that was gravel-floored. We installed a staircase to the loft; although headroom up there is at a premium, the storage possibilities are considerable. And we gave some attention to the front door that was sticking like crazy - it now swings open and shut in a respectable manner 😁.

We were left with a grade that sloped significantly towards the barn. You can see my as-yet-unfinished attempts to rectify that situation.

A big “Thank You” to Mike Z. from Backyard Improvements, LLC in Manheim, PA for his excellent work.