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) 
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)
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!!
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.
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)
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!
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.
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)
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!
