Barn Storming?

I've been able to make some progress on the barn although not as much as I would of liked. Some poor planning on my part has forced some changes in the design. First, I've switched to swinging doors. I couldn't figure out a good way to slot the doors in to rails without making the whole assembly far to thick. The doors aren't finished yet since I'm waiting on some thinner basswood to complete them, but I'm going with a simple wire loop and piece of wire to use as a hinge. Also due to the hayloft covering half the barn I needed a crossbeam in the middle of the barn. That would of put it right in the middle of the doors so they had to be moved over and a new piece cut for the front. Old Man Rutger should of fired his architect!


That's the hayloft floor in the lower right.

Second, in order to put the hayloft on I needed to start painting the lower level. I first brushed some wood filler randomly across the floorboards as dirt and such. Then the interior got a coat of brown paint and worked up from there. I almost forgot to paint the bottom of the hayloft and put in the rest of the supports too, but remembered right before I was going to glue it in. Once it was in I kinda wished I made the side doors openable too as its more than  a little dark inside.


Hayloft floor glued in and some support beams glued to the underside of the overhang.

I also built a little shed thing onto the front of it to give a little more interesting layout. I saw a similar thing in a picture of a American Civil War era barn. I figure it's probably a tool/junk shed like you see on most farms.


The shed out front with the old roof just before I decided that I didn't like it anymore.

Side view showing off the shed door and the overhang area.

I framed out the roof but the more I looked at it the less I liked it. So back to the drawing board there. I have a good idea how I want to due it but its going to be a time consuming and fiddly job that I haven't psyched myself up enough to complete. So that leaves me with finishing those doors, the roof, and the rest of the painting.