English-ish Garden Entrance In The Making

I had to travel for my other gig this week and came home to discover Joe had decided to RE-RE-landscape the Barn House entrance. I have been told time-and-time again that the “Creative Director’s” ideas flow in this manner. It’s a good thing we only have four and a half short weeks before our opening. There is plenty of time to complete a few brand new projects by May 24th! :o)

So, today we dug holes for the gates and picket fence for the entrance. We purchased the gates from our friend Toree (Narrow Gate Antiques not far from us). She picked these up on her last excursion to England. Saves us a trip! She is having a Spring Clean-Out Sale on April 26th that you probably don’t want to miss. 12404 NE 72nd Avenue in Vancouver – 360-907-5814.
Joe has been a VERY busy shopper this week. Sorry Natalie, I heard he snatched this green chair right from under your nose at the Estate Sale in Camas the other day. If it makes you feel any better, a piece of it fell off when he got it home and now he has another project. HA! At another sale he found four very cool rusty iron chairs that will get burlap or linen-covered seats.
These are some other finds…
And more…
And even more!
After all of that digging today, I think it’s time for a nice, hot bath.

Have a wonderful week!!!

J & J

Hide and Seek!

I guess I haven’t been to the basement in a while, but Joe has been “sneaking” goods into the house and hoarding them down there. From what I can see, there are baskets, linens, pillows, mirrors, frames, beds, pales, dressers, chairs, garden hats and a million unidentified objects in countless totes. No wonder I am starving to death (but somehow not losing any weight)!!!

Stuff is even on the porch! I guess I got home a little too early before these items were transported out of sight. Caught in the act!!


The barn, basement AND yard are filling up for our opening event!!! We even have a few very special featured guests that will be bringing over some amazing items for the sale (to be announced). Good thing we have more property than we know what to do with. But we guess that is what a Flea Market (or two) are good for! Now we just need a mule to haul some of this stuff around for us.

With the beautiful weather this weekend, we were able to work on the back yard a bit. The pergola we built last summer finally got a coat of much needed white paint (3rd most horrible project year-to-date – right after #1 removing the barn ceiling liner and #2 fixing the chicken coops). BUT, this area is “Wisteria Lane” in the making (five purple wisterias and counting) and home of the official Barn House After-Party!! Won’t you join us for a good old fashioned country show-down???

Just try not to stumble onto any of our favorite purple flowers. :o)

Peace, Love and Antiques!

J & J

Barn House Opening - Vintage Garden!

We have been a bit obsessed with getting our garden in order as soon as possible this year. The main reason is because our opening event will be centered on vintage garden treasures. And what better way to enhance the “Barn House Experience” than to offer our guests a garden tour and home-grown veggies!

So here we were in the rain this weekend getting the gates up and planting the first round of Bok Choy, Cabbage, Walla Walla Onions, Garlic, Brussel Sprouts, Kale, Cilantro and an enormous amount of Sweet Peas. Hopefully this week we can get to the green-leafy stuff and some of the flower beds??

Joe has also been roaming the country side looking for other treasures. This week he found some wonderful old iron beds with the original railings AND box springs.

The barn is quickly filling up with all kinds of wonderful one-of-a-kind finds! Please excuse our dust…this is just the beginning of a little “magic” in the making. :o)

If only we could stop hoarding items for ourselves!! This is a picture of one of the corner cabinets in our kitchen. Fortunately, our personal collections for the house are pretty much complete…we promise to save the best of the new finds for Barn House!

Little Did We Know...

Call us naive, but who would have expected HEAVY hail, sleet, and snow after the beautiful Spring weather last weekend??? After the looooong winter, we just knew that it was a good time to get a head start on the garden! Fortunately, we were only able to weed and start preparing the vegetable beds, or else our little seedlings and plants would have most likely not made it.

This is a picture of three, very empty, bird houses near our shade garden. We should probably take note that it's just not quite time yet to plant the veggies...maybe next week???




The crazy weather could not interfere with "Stage 2" of the barn make-over. We rented a lift, bundled up, and started removing the old/crusty ceiling liner. Joe is comfortable climbing to the top of a ladder for any needed project. I, on the other hand, get anxiety even thinking about it. So this project was my worst nightmare. Every once in a while, you just have to take one for the team!

This was not a project we would EVER ask anyone to help us with--it was terrible. We had so much "stuff" in our faces/eyes/noses/mouths...it was ridiculous! But, we had some friends/neighbors who whole-heartedly insisted. Trent, Terri, Jamie and Skylar fell from the sky -- removing debris/other barn junk...Terri even joined us on the lift to cut down the liner. Sometimes we just can't get our heads around how generous people are!!

And after THREE FULL DAYS of working non-stop, we finished...we could barely move last night, but it's done! The the rustic wood beams against the exposed metal roof adds a whole new dimension to the barn.

Joe was so inspired, he made some really cool "lamp shades" out of old picket fencing for some of the lighting, and we hung a couple of bird houses that we bought from a local farm for any little nesters who choose to join our family. This weekend's project was the one of the first major steps in bringing our vision of Barn House to fruition. We hope to please with the end results.


After almost freezing to death (OK, maybe that's a bit dramatic) working on one of our most daunting tasks to date, we were rewarded with the sun and this beautiful rainbow. It was all worth it...without a doubt.

Spring really is around the corner (it HAS to be)!!!

Joe and Jermonne

Easter Weekend Crunch

With the beautiful weather this Saturday, we felt inspired and ambitious in getting a good start on all of the MANY projects on the "Grand Opening" list. First task -- tackling the vegetable garden in hope that it would be completely established, if not producing by May 24th. Well I don't know if we are just a little out of shape after nesting this winter, but we were not moving at our normal summer pace just yet. Fortunately, we were able to weed, fill the beds with a truck load of back-breaking compost/manure, plant several rose bushes and make it to the nursery to buy a million packets of seeds and a few vegetable plants. Considering the weather forecast doesn't show another sunny day for a while, we might just be out there in the rain this week finishing up!

Next on the schedule: Barn Make-Over! After spending two years in our home doing a complete interior remodel, as well as landscaping, landscaping and more landscaping, we would have never imagined what is about to happen to the barn.
This week, we picked out four rustic barn reds to test out for the exterior. Joe's usual motto is “better dead than red,” but somehow I convinced him otherwise on this one. We found some great windows from an old house that we plan on installing to give a little more natural light -- not to mention curb appeal.
And we (finally) finished giving the chicken coops a much needed “touch up” (new fencing and a little paint to cover some awful half-done blue mess from one of the previous owners).


Did we mention the TWENTY new baby chicks (Silkies, Araucanas and Bantams) that Joe brought home this week???? YIKES!!!!

That will bring our total to OVER 40 chickens – not to mention the turkeys and guineas.

Light some candles for us…next weekend’s project is our worst nightmare – removing the old/torn ceiling liner from a 3,000+ square foot barn. Wish us luck!!

Joe and Jermonne

P.S. -- We hope you didn't have turkey for Easter! :o)

Welcome to Barn House!!!

We are on an amazing journey here in the Northwest and have found peace and harmony on our little farm here in Battle Ground (Venersborg), WA. Just a few years back, no one would have imagined we would move from the hustle- and-bustle of Los Angeles to the country…not to mention raising Shetland sheep (Shug Avery, Sophia and Odessa), Nubian goats (Celie and Nettie), a few barn cats (who really think they live on the porch) and countless chickens, turkeys and guinea fowl!! This experience has been something we could only have dreamed, and we truly love sharing it with our friends and family.

During the past couple of years, we have been deeply inspired by the incredible beauty of the NW, as well as by all of the wonderful people we have met. Our 1933 farmhouse is evolving into what we call Barn House – a unique blend of American and European country-style living. Our desire is to create a one-of-a-kind shopping experience…somewhere you come to enjoy the day finding great treasures -- lots of primitives, vintage garden items and cottage-inspired home décor.

Please join us for a beautiful day in the country…shopping, eating delicious home cooked treats and enjoying the company of friends and family!!

Joe and Jermonne