Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Here are two views of the upstairs.  While it is just one open area now, you can see on the floor evidence of where the walls used to be that divided it into eight bedrooms.  Downstairs is sub-divided with two smaller areas that were used by the previous owner as a workshop for making candles.  Part of the back was once stables, and you can still see where the horses kicked the support beams that were once part of the individual stalls.  Eventually, I would like to use part of the barn for my workshop.  Currently, it is located in one of the living rooms, and getting very overcrowded with equipment.  I will definitely need to install some heating first, however. 
These pictures show how the barn looked when we bought it.  The bright yellow, the electric blue and the red roof combine to make such an attractive combination!  Then I guess that the perpetrator really did think it looked good.  We thought that it looked terrible.  On top of that, the roofing was disintegrating from where limbs from the tree to the right, plus some more trees at the rear, had rubbed the roofing material away allowing water to pour in.  The roof, including the substructure that had started to rot away, had to be replaced.  The barn is on two floors, totaling a little more than 3,000 square feet.  At one time, when the property was used as a boarding house, there were eight bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.  Each bedroom also had its own sink.  Subsequently, the dividing walls and the plumbing were all removed leaving the upstairs as one large area.  Even the walls and ceiling were stripped back to the studs and joists.  The entrance was modified as originally it extended to the right to accommodate carriages. 
The cupola on top of the roof, with its horse weather vane.  The first picture is prior to doing any work; the others are after painting and having the new roof installed.  We are not sure of the age of the weather vane as this type was made in the last century, and continues to be made today. 
Apart from the new roof, and a quick coat of paint, very little has been done to the barn.  It really needs to have all the paint stripped-off as there is considerable alligatoring, but I do not have the time at present, and there are many more pressing jobs to do.  So, I used the trusty spray-gun to paint the exterior white to match the house.  It took very little time, and at least it hides the ghastly yellow.  Perhaps I will just put up new siding.   
 
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Gentleman's Barn
Our c. 1860 House -

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