A New Room? In the BARN? (Summer)

Carrie cleaned out the back of the trailer to use it for her next project.

It got loaded with all sorts of construction material.

Carrie hired Jesse to add a climate controlled feed room for the barn. She'd asked him to come out for a quote and was surprised to find he'd cleared the weekend thinking she was ready to roll!

Jesse doesn't gather materials and only charges for labor. There was a little bit of a scramble as we bought the gear and cleaned the area up so he wouldn't have to. 

Jesse brought a friend and they started the demo. Carrie was so proud of that little room when she had it built, but it's done nothing except hold old tack and collect rodents since. 

We bought pizza for lunch that first demo day and brought a full pizza down for Jesse and his friend! I think we're one of Jesse's favorite places to work, because Carrie clearly cares so much (and we tip since we think he undercharges!).

Carrie supervised construction and answered questions. She often went behind and cleaned up construction mess after Jesse left for the day.

My role was to play errand boy. I tried to work the Lowe's run into other events for efficiency's sake, but I did solo trips, as well. The Deck Correct was awkard, because Carrie it online while I was at Lowe's picking up other stuff but did it for the wrong location! I had talked the paint mixer in person and we caught the error at customer service and smoothed it all out.

One day, Carrie was at work and Jesse told me he needed a particular piece of lumber. I ran down the street to ACE and grabbed it (carefully yet creatively!).

I started to recognize some of the staff at Lowe's after a while. There's something to be said about being a regular somewhere!

Shane came down a couple times to see the build, but he was more interested in trying to play with his cousins online.

Carrie's a genius about finding things for deals online. When the barn was originally constructed, Carrie was quoted over $3,000 for the price of building a climate controlled room. Four years later and we're paying less than half of that.

And that's including equipment for the room. Carrie wanted to switch to electric from propane for our water heating needs. She found a portable heating unit we can bring in the house and run on the generator and a window ac unit for the room.

Carrie gave some updates on Facebook throughout the process.

Carrie's last update included a brief overview of why she was so stressed earlier in the week (Me being gone for our marriage anniversary and the time of Kitsune's death....Boomer's lameness...). Barbara and Jess had come out on Tuesday when she was upset to tell her she needed to tell them when she needed help so that they could (Good friends are a gift from God!). Those good intentions had also stressed Carrie out some (she's an introvert no matter how confident she projects in person and usually tries to isolate herself when she feels as she did...), but I'm thankful Carrie some love.

The room was nearly finished by the end of the month! There will be some pictures of the final project in July.

Carrie assembled the shelves, the sink, and even ended up doing some of the water heater herself. The first water heater DIDN'T WORK. We had to return it and Carrie squared up with Jesse for the work done. He'd left some wires shorter than they needed to be, but Carrie made it all work in the end. She's beautiful and the electrician of the family!

She set up the utility sink herself, as well. 

I'd say we were 95% done by the end of the month. There was still plenty of construction mess to clean up (look how the rain filled up this lovely drawer!) and some finishing touches to be done but Carrie was happy with the final product.

I have to admit, the addition is great. I don't think we needed it, but it adds consider value and utility to the barn for a steal of a price. And it's the summer. Having a room that permanent stays above freezing in the winter (even if it's only in the 50 degree range) will be a luxury. No more hauling water buckets from the house or wheeling out the portable heater!