A Major Improvement

This is what the front of the barn looked like the
week after we closed on the property.
It was in desperate need of landscaping.
It's a bank barn that had no driveway to the barn doors.
All the Amish needed was a way to get the horses in & out of the barn.
We needed to get a vehicle in those doors.
On this side we hope to have a greenhouse in the future. The area above will be the living area.
Right now, we live at the other end. It is a large room with a woodstove, bed,
desk & kitchen area. This will either become a guest area or part of
Steve's workshop when we finish the living area.

Notice how the dirt is way down on the side wall.
When it rained, the water flowed down right next to the foundation. Not good.
We are standing next to what we called "the killing stump".
When we looked at the property, a little Amish girl
was cutting off heads of chickens on that stump.
We put in new windows in the basement and
future plans call for a regular garage door in
place of the metal sliding door. We arranged with our neighbor Dave to do the landscaping.
A new driveway was formed. They had to push a lot of dirt up to the
area to be able to level it off enough to put in a driveway.

They did a great job straightening it all up for us.
The retaining walls were a nice addition.
We also had a well & septic put in at that time.
This project was our biggest expense so far but
it has made the barn more "user friendly" for us English folk.
(See photo at top of blog.)

Now the truck "Earl" has a place to stay out of the weather.