With the temperatures FINALLY warming up enough to paint again, I used some to turn the entry door into a faux barn door. Now if I could just finish the silo.

In the last few days of nice weather, I used every available minute of daylight... and several hours under the night lights... To get it done. I finished touching up the last of the trim as darkness approached and the storm clouds threatened on the horizon. This morning brought cold, wind, plus our first dusting of snow on the ground- winter is setting in! Now we need to put a roof on this thing....

With the temps hanging in the 40s during the day, the opportunity to finish siding and painting the barn is still there. With the help of my mom, dad, sister and Lisa, we've been pushing to get it done. Here I am, painting "Minnesota syle"- sporting a jacket, hat and gloves. The gable ends of the barn took considerable time, as each piece of siding had to be precisely scribed and cut to fit tight along the curved roofline. About every fourth course also had to be notched to go around the lookouts. Barnbuilding is slow work (how did they do this a century ago???)

Time to cover up the pretty pink barn. I started by building a faux door for the front. Eventually, I will add the hinges and latch hardware from the original barn. But for now, there are more pressing things to be working on. The siding is dutchlap pine, purchased from a local sawmill who custom-planed it to match the siding on the other barn we have. This is the only wood in the barn that is not salvaged or FSC certified (because I was not able to find FSC certified siding in the style we wanted), but at least it is locally sourced. I made all of the window, door and corner trim from the salvaged roof boards that we removed from the old barn when it was deconstructed. With Lisa's help, we also put the remaining windows into the silo. And the Therma-Tru entry door went in as well.

Windows. I shopped extensively for windows last Spring. I wanted the most energy-efficient glazing possible, without sacrificing the rustic, barn-like aesthetic. I wanted to buy local. I wanted to support a company who supports greenbuilding. Like everything else going on, in, or under this structure, I wanted a product that would survive the test of time (even if global warming takes us all out first!). Lisa and I visited H-Window in June, a small manufacturer in Ashland, Wisconsin. We were both sold on them right away, despite blowing the budget right out of the water. So here they are. We still need to trim them out and install the exterior 'grills' that will make them look more authentic, but at least they are all safely installed in their new home!