Battens

Two of the outbuildings on our little farm are sheathed in plywood. Not very appealing or traditional, but they were built from materials on hand at the time, and we inherited them. in their dressed down condition.

I don't know what we would have done without the barn/tractor shed. Over the years it's never held stalls for my horses, but it has housed lumber, a couple of tons of hay, our John Deere tractor, and the past decade, our 1977 GMC pickup truck. I always wanted stalls and a tack room, and even designed a layout in AutoCAD and made a materials list, but we never seemed to find the time.

When our painter/contractor made his first walkabout, he suggested adding battens to the barn to dress it up a bit, and I loved the idea. I was less enthusiastic about battens on my tiny chicken coop. John added trim around the door that had never been installed, and when he held up a board for a belly band, I could see it all "whole. So my cute little rustic coop is now everything it should be.

There is history surrounding our chicken coop, which once stood on the big farm next door. My husband has vivid memories of going there for eggs with his mom and younger brothers and sisters. The little coops dotted the hillside, surrounded by grass and chickens. And when we bought our place, having one of those original chicken coops was a pretty special thing.

But they never looked as cute as ours does now. In a couple of weeks, it will be painted and I'll post final photos.