Barn House Sale - This Saturday!!

We had a wonderful time this weekend at the first Flourishes Flea Market. Outside of an actual bear rolling through and knocking over some of the displays in the wee hours of the morning, it was a beautiful day. Aleta has some before and after pictures on her blogs. Fortunately for us, the Barn House booth was untouched. I don't know if it was the garlic cloves Joe hung (to ward off any vampires), or the fact that he peed around the parameter of our space to keep the deer from eating our display flowers, but whatever it was, IT WORKED! Just Kidding Aleta ...he would never-ever-EVER pee outside at your place! But, we did have a little talk with Bill, your son and son-in-law just for future reference. ;o) Here are some more pictures of our space.

The Barn House Family has been hard at work here on The Farm getting ready for Saturday!!! Everybody has been out shopping like maniacs over the past few weeks. Joe has spent ALL of our breakfast, lunch and dinner money...Sylvi (Little Cottage) is exhausted from all of the shopping/sewing she has been doing...we saw Susan & Chrissy (no-blog-having-Couture Junquie) this weekend and they told us about the truck loads of great treasures they are bringing over!! Toree (no-blog-having Narrow Gate) called today and has also found some great items she is bringing. AND, we can't leave out our favorite "Master Primitive Finder" Natalie (no-blog-having-Sparrow) and what must be her under-studies and the newest members of The Barn House Family, Debbie & Laurie (no-name-having-OR-blog having!). They (Debbie & Laurie) came over today and started on their space and it looks Fantastico so far!!
NOW, it's just time for EVERYone else in The Family to get to work while I (Jermonne) am slaving away at my other gig!!! :o) This evening after I came home, I helped Joe haul all of the completed projects and new-finds out of the basement to The Barn...and out of the basement to The Barn...over and over like a broken record.

Good thing there is always the surprise of a pretty new flower when I get home to distract me from all of the hard (and I mean HARD WORK) that still needs to get done, or I might have a spell that requires some "porch time." BUT, this family works great under pressure!! And we hope y'all are delighted by the end result!!

Keep checking on us out for more pix of the progress this week...Hope to see you on Saturday!!

J & J

Weekend Jackpot...

What a beautiful weekend to hit the "Vintage Home & Garden" Jackpot! Saturday morning, we decided to cruise through the country-side to see if we could spot any good sales on our way to the nursery. After a couple of major disappointments, we stumbled upon a "garage" sale...that was not by any means a typical garage sale. We drove down a long driveway which revealed a beautiful old house that had a few small, very cute cottage-style buildings on the property. As we began to get into that treasure-finding-zone (some of you may be familiar with this), something seemed oddly familiar. As it turns out, we were at home of Rose -- we met last year at the Willow Nest Flea Markets AND most recently at our opening!! We got a tour of her house--GORGEOUS and full of a million Linda and Ludmil creations. Rose and her friend Rosy (who showed up too) are getting ready to open a store (Rosy Rose) in one of these cute buildings on her property. We got a preview of the store AND the opportunity to shop. Then her husband came home and took us into his studio and we got to shop even more! At this point, the pickup was too full to try to go to the nursery. Look at this incredible primitive cupboard!! We are trying our best to give Natalie a run for her money in finding great primitives!! ;o)

Next we decided to go to the Battle Ground Farmer's Market to pick up some plants. "Some plants" is a huge understatement! I am not sure what got into us, but we went a little crazy and ended up spending the rest of the day planting like maniacs. Shoveling and hauling compost around is awesome! ;o) Hopefully one day soon our work in the garden will be done, but that is highly unlikely.


We are not the only ones going a little koo-koo around here. About five of our hens decided to go "broody"...and for y'all city folks, that means five of our hens have decided they want to sit on their eggs for weeks to hatch little baby chicks. This is a picture of the first born. I have no idea what we are going to do with any more chickens!! Good thing our egg selling business is steadily growing...we to have to pay for all of this chicken feed somehow.

Shopping, planting and playing with baby chicks is not all we have done this weekend. We have also been working on getting the store ready for our next sale. It's looking good!! The layout has changed quite a bit, and LOTS of great new goods are being brought in on a daily basis. We hope our next sale is even better than the first! More to come...

Joe and Jermonne
The Boys of Barn House

We are back...

Geez, we can't believe it's already been a couple of weeks since our opening. Joe has been running himself ragged shopping like a mad man. That $$$ from the first event didn't take long to start burning a hole in his pocket. I think he was out early the day after the event to get his "fix." I, on the other hand, have been sitting on the porch (recovering) with a .22 pistol hunting the bunnies that are ravaging our gardens! Not really...that would have been MUCH more productive than what I have actually been doing on the porch (in recovery). BUT, I can say that it is exhausting to watch Joe run in and out of the house with truck loads of stuff to price...hence, more recovery time was needed and no new blog could be added (sorry).

Joe has been branching out of our neck of the woods with Natalie (Sparrow) and Sylvi (Little Cottage). Sylvi has some great pictures on her brand new blog of a few items she will be bringing...I know there will be more to come! On one of the excursions with Natalie (Sparrow aka The Master Finder of Primitives), Joe stumbled upon this table full of Ironstone and other treasures. Some of the Ironstone (the largest bowls and platters I have ever seen) are not pictured as they are trying to find a place in the Barn House "Home Collection." Yes, he really has an illness.

And even though it sometimes feels like winter is still upon us, he has been finding lots of old concrete and other garden treasures too!!

Thanks for all of the wonderful comments about our opening event!! We had such a great time that we plan on doing it all over on June 28th...with our featured guests: Sylvi (Little Cottage), Cindy Dockins (Queen of Tarte), Natalie (Sparrow--and one day she will get that blog up-and-running...yes you, Natalie), and Susan & Chrissy (Couture Junquie). And the baby chicks will be there to greet you too!!

Oh, and we are VERY excited to announce we will be vendors at the very first Flourishes Flea Market at Mt. Pleasant on June 21st!! Aleta and Bill's place is truly magical...the beautiful view of the Columbia River, the Historic 1800s school house (now converted into a home) and old wood gymnasium and barn (we have serious barn envy)!! We can't wait...thanks Aleta and Bill for the invite!! :o)

J & J

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!!

If you came to our first show, we hope you felt the excitement, the love, the friendship, the emotion and the sincere gratitude. We also hope you found MANY treasures you couldn't live without AND ALSO left with a feeling of what Barn House is all about! And we REALLY hope we didn't scare anyone with the hugs!! :o)

Thank You!!

The Barn House Family

Four Days Until...

Progress is upon us! And yes, we will be selling farm fresh eggs too.
Barn House in the making! Still lots of pricing to fill in the gaps, but we are getting there.
It's rustic and it's primitive...it's a farm, not a museum. We often remind ourselves of this when we are trying to perfect what is not to be perfected. It's what we like to call "country-crooked" -- that's what Barn House is all about. HEE HAW! ;o)

More to come...

J & J

Barn House is Blooming

Everything is blooming! The lilacs have come alive, the Barn received a coat of primer and will be painted tomorrow AND the merchandise is almost all priced.
This is a VERY rough shot of what we have been up to this week. Slowly but surely, we are making progress. Joe and I put up siding from an old farm house as the "back drop" to our little country store. I should really say that it will be MY back drop behind the counter as Joe has made it clear that he will be in the store "answering questions and helping customers" (aka, socializing and partying while I am sweating bullets behind the counter).
Natalie and Lynn (Sparrow) came by and brought a truck load of goods today! I don't know where they find their primitives, but Joe and I plan on stalking them (mildly, of course) and following them to their source. EVERYthing they brought we want to keep for our house!! We are sure to be broke if they bring anything else. Exhaustion is upon us from carrying everything from the Barn to the house to try to find a place for it...when we should have been doing other stuff. This old farm table they brought back from Canton, Texas is hopefully going in our office (if we can get it up our narrow staircase--old houses are not always practical for getting large pieces in and out)!! Fortunately (for our bank account), our house is pretty full already and we can honestly say that almost all of their treasures will be part of the sale. DARNIT!!!!

We must have been Gandhi-like in our former lives, because folks from all over have been reaching out to lend a helping hand to help us get ready for our opening event. Could it be the look of panic in our eyes or the shake in our voices???!!! This is Nancy Schroeder who lives all the way in Mt. Hood helping us price today...while I was walking around aimlessly wondering where to start (a "condition" I have). We met Nancy last year when we were fellow Willow Nest Flea Market vendors. She is really one of the nicest people you will ever meet. AND her husband Art (a really great guy) owns a Painting/Remodeling business...he was here also today painting for us. Thank goodness for Willow Nest (www.willownest.net) and all of the wonderful people we met last summer, or we might be in a mess of trouble! And thank you Miss Linda and Ludmil for The Willow Nest Experience. We miss you and wish you were here to share this moment with us!!!

Thanks to everyone for helping us make this dream come true! Your generosity, creativity, blogs, warm comments and friendship keep us inspired and moving in the right direction!!

We hope to see you Saturday!! It's f-r-e-e AND we are serving up one of our favorite country goodies -- BUCKLE, BUCKLE, BUCKLE (ask us if you don't know about "The Joy of Buckle")!! Someone once said, "It will make you jump up and slap yo' Mama!" Figuratively...that is.

Barn House Grand Opening
May 24th - 8 am to 3 pm

J & J
Barn House

Pricing, Pricing, Pricing...

Just a little preview of what we have been up to the past couple of days...Sorry, Joe is trying to kill me...no time to chat!!! He has been working me, Sylvi, Natalie (Sparrow) to death this week. We haven't even made it to the basement yet. YIKES!



This is a preview of what Sylvi (Little Cottage) is bringing. She probably hasn't had time to start pricing her own stuff with all of the help she has been giving us. Some people just give until it hurts. Her Barn House Angel Wings are aching. Poor thing!

On a sad/happy note, we decided to part with our guinea fowl. Our neighbors are probably jumping for joy, as well as our chickens, turkeys, sheep and goats. They have the most beautiful feathers, but are quite the drama queens ... good thing Joe got a couple of handfuls of those feathers trying to catch them last night. We will have plenty of feathers and a permanent echo in our ears as a token of appreciation of the time they spent with us. Fortunately, they went to the wonderful home of an English woman who plans to "breed" them and sell their offspring. Uh Huh.

More to come,

J / J

Such a Pretty Mess

Two weeks to go and STILL LOTS of work to get done before the opening! This weekend we spent hauling a million wheel barrel loads full of gravel into the Barn and garden entrance. Now that this is done, we can begin putting the core structures in place and start on all of the "projects" that need to get done (like painting the armour in this picture).
Our baby chicks seem to be in love with the Barn House entrance now that everything is coming together! They will most likely be there to greet you if you plan on coming on the 24th. :o) The picket fence is about 90% complete. The Barn was power-washed and is ready to be painted this week. We WILL be ready...we W-I-L-L definitely be ready!!! Light a candle for us, please. :o)
Of course, we also got a little side-tracked. Some how, we made it to the farthest place from the Barn to start on a completely different project -- the shade garden. Who knows how this happened, but we even ended up making a little creek AND digging a pond (for some unknown reason). Yes, it's crazy...we know. We WILL still be ready!
The Queen of Tarte (aka Cindy Dockins) www.queenoftarte.blogspot.com will be a featured guest at our opening!!! She is an amazing artist, designer and friend. She plans on bringing her famous dyed ribbon, lots of garden items, ironstone, french gilded mirrors and candelabras, and linen aprons/pillows (just to name a few). Please check out her blog for more pictures of items that will be part of the event.

Cindy came by a couple of weeks ago and gave Joe a lesson making slip covers. This is one that she whipped together for us that will also be part of the sale. I just hope this inspires Joe to actually use his fancy new sewing machine finally -- hint hint!! ;o)

We will also be featuring Sylvi (Little Cottage), Toree (Narrow Gate Antiques), Susan (Fancies on 4th) -- and a couple of new-comers to this crazy world, Katie Ahrens and the amazing photography of Rob Kennedy!!! You may already know these incredible women (and Rob), but if not, you don't want to miss the treasures they are bringing! Photos to come.


OMG--there are a million of these gigantic totes of "smalls" to open and price!! One down and 999,999 to go. Because these dolls scared me (Jermonne), I can't be in charge of opening anymore totes...just in case there are more lurking around (LOL). Have you started lighting candles for us yet???

J & J

Three Weeks and Counting!

Lately, we have been up to a little bit of everything. Finishing off the vegetable garden, weeding, transporting flowers here-and-there, planting 30+ trees, and a whole lot of other "really fun" stuff.

Of course, in the back of our minds we knew that we should really be focusing on the Barn (inside and out) for our opening event...but it was very easy to justify playing in the dirt now that Spring is finally here. I think we had a bit of a wake up call last week when a few friends stopped by for a visit and saw the extraordinary amount of stuff in the barn/basement/studio/porch/driveway that needed to be cleaned and priced -- not to mention all of the incomplete "projects." Toree (Narrow Gate Antiques) said, "OMG, I would be in tears if I had all of this to do!" The response from Joe was classic. Without blinking an eye he said, "I can't even go there." Meaning..."I can't go there or I might have a river of tears running through the Barn, BUT, did you see my pretty flowers??"

Soooo, after pulling our heads out of our "purple flowers," we came to the realization that there were only a few weeks left and it was time to shift gears (just a little). The gardens will be lovely and all, but the store needs some TLC too! Fortunately, we work very well under pressure. Whether it's completing a home-renovation or some other daunting task, we always pull through (without killing each other in the process).

But sometimes, we have to accept a helping hand. So in came the Barn House Angels to save the day! Katie came to help with the picket fence for the entrance, Wade came for the much needed electrical over-haul, Sylvi picked up a tote of treasures to price AND our dear friend Brenda flew in from New Mexico to lend a helping hand this week. Are y'all worried about us or something??? ;o)
Focus,Focus, Hocus-Pocus! Voila...the lighting is done, the entrance garden is planted with Poppies, Dahlias, Irises, and much more! The fencing would have been complete if we didn't run out of pickets (BUT, our picket-making process is in place). The gates are up! This week the barn will be painted (if weather permits) and the windows will be installed. The gravel will hopefully make it in this week too. Magic is upon us!
Magic AND purple flowers!

J & J

Oh, later this week we are going to post some great pictures of items from the featured guests for our opening event. Visit us again soon!