Converted Barn Home

♡So.Fabulous♡

My favorite feature is the sliding barn door shutters. This clever design has one cutout so you can still see outside when they are closed. I also like the enclosed steps and railings leading to the front door. I spy a screened porch too. There are many other barn homes to view here but this one is my favorite by far. Have a great Sunday. xo

Repurposed Office Door Hung On Barn Sliders

By now you know how much I love sliding interior doors hung barn style. I would never have thought of using an old office door outside a bathroom but I love this idea, don't you. This treatment was used in an Alabama log cabin.

Have a fun weekend.




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The Ultimate Sliding Barn Door

Let's find this place and have our July 4th picnic in front of the Flag Door.

Sliding Barn Doors in A House Nearby

I am still fascinated by sliding barn doors inside a home.

The door with the handle slides open to reveal stairs up to the attic and a large storage area for suitcases. So nice!

Nice Family Entrance

I can't see the door but it's probably solid so I like the full side light. There is probably another one on the other side for symmetry, right? I forgot to tell you I took Webster to an open house I was hosting on Sunday and he was absolutely miserable. The house had no place for him to sit and look outside. Here at the cottage, he has 2 French doors and 2 very low windows in the living room. One of the windows is over his bed. In the attic he has a bed in front of one of the eyebrow windows that is almost at floor level. When he goes downstairs with me to do laundry, he can  sit in front of a sliding glass door so he is covered on all levels. He couldn't understand how anyone could live otherwise. When he finally got home he ran to his bed and just collapsed. He usually loves going to other people's houses with me but the one on Sunday did NOT get his seal of approval. via

Surprise Salmon Dahlia

What a nice surprise today.

All of my other tubers turned out to be dark red.

Today I got one dahlia in salmon.

Isn't it beautiful?

September is over today and I have moved mountains.

Yesterday I washed all my outside windows on the lower level as well as the storm door and the main entrance. I did the sliding glass door a while back. I found more things to put outside for the annual trash pickup. Everything was supposed to be collected Monday but it hasn't happened yet. Most of the stuff I put outside was picked up by people driving by. I got several things myself from my neighbors' piles. I got a fabulous large step-on stainless steel garbage can for my downstairs kitchen. It cleaned up perfectly and I can't imagine why my neighbors were getting rid of it. I really needed it too. It doesn't take much to make me happy, does it? I've been cleaning out the loft over my garage too. It's just dry storage for stuff I don't need. I have slowly been weeding it out for a long time and it's looking better each day. Will I ever finish? I doubt it! I keep tweeking arrangements I've already done but that's the fun part. See you tomorrow. xo

Nice Laundry Room w/ Sliding Barn Door

I really, really like this laundry room!

Garrison Hullinger Interior Design in Portland Oregon via

Purple Ornamental Kale: Replacing my Geraniums Outside

I put three of these in planters in my front garden after digging up and replanting my red geraniums to overwinter in front of the sliding glass door downstairs. When the long curtains are closed, that area becomes a greenhouse and the geraniums love it. I have always preferred ornamental kale to mums outside in the fall because they are cold tolerant and are still going strong long after the first hard frost zaps the mums. 

xo

The Sitting Room Downstairs + Geraniums

I still haven't vacuumed downstairs but I will before the weekend is over. I have been busy digging up Dahlia beds and storing them for next spring. The ground hasn't frozen yet but the foliage is all black so today was the day for that chore.

This is the view of the easy chair with the ottoman.

My mother and I got this wonderful hanging shelf at a garage sale and I painted it long ago. It turned out to be the perfect thing to hang over the radiator with a thick piece of glass on top. 

The geraniums love this sunny spot in front of the sliding glass door. Yes, that's a draft dodger behind the tray designed for wet boots. It is the perfect size and catches any overflow when watering the plants.

I got plenty of exercise pulling and hauling and dumping dahlia stalks and cleaning up. The tubers are stored for the winter now. xo

UPDATE: There is a better photo of the easy chair and long chest with 16 drawers in one of my old posts below.

https://contentinacottage.blogspot.com/2021/04/new-acquisition-with-16-drawers.html

Plant Stand with Geraniums

I have had the black antique plant stand forever and I could never find the right place for it until last Sunday when I discovered it would fit perfectly between the sliding glass door and the window on the lower level. I already had the geraniums on the top. I picked up four more today at the grocery store, repotted them in terracotta pots, and I am thrilled.

I got the pair of aluminum chairs on the Nextdoor App over the winter the day after I got plowed out when we had 24 inches of snow on the ground. I love them in this setting. Isn't it funny when things come together after years of being in limbo? 

Morning shadows. I love the chair shadows on Wednesday morning at 10:00, looking down from my balcony.♡

Tabitha Grazes without Getting Her Paws Wet

Tabitha has a morning routine she follows each day without fail. She goes outside with me when I take my mom her morning coffee and open the curtains on the sliding glass door. She loves to eat a bite or two of some tough grass that grows on the edge of the deck. She hates to get her paws wet from the morning dew or overnight rain so she hangs over.

She is giving me a silent message to leave this spot long the next time I mow. Maybe I will and maybe I won't. When it's short all over she is forced to touch the ground. She avoids all outdoor exercise as you can see from her round form. When we go for a walk to the way back I usually have to carry her down there so she has to walk back.
People are always asking about Tabitha. I usually have on my pajamas when we go through this early morning ritual but today I had on my jeans and my iPhone was in my pocket.

Blue and White Checked Curtains.

I love blue and white checks. The fabric for these curtains has been made and remade 5 times since 1972. They started out life in a New York City walkup on West 74th Street. They covered a large sliding glass door that opened on to a deck. They are currently on a tension rod that fits inside the casement. They are still going strong. Never lined. This woven fabric is only a little faded on the reverse side. I wish I had more for the great price I paid on the Lower East Side. I am always shocked when I see the prices for designer fabric. So I shall be content with what I have!

Sliding Barn Door on Bathroom

I love the brick wall. via

Nine Photos on Last Day of November 2023

I took this photo maybe three years ago and it's a favorite of one of my mourning doves sitting in the snow on my balcony.

This juvenile cardinal on my balcony railing is a summer photo.

My favorite of Missy, now departed🐾♡🐾

One of my peonies.

I copied the photo from a book and added the text myself.

A nook in my kitchen. This recessed space is under my attic stairs.

A wall in my downstairs sitting room near the sliding glass doors with the red and white draperies I put up recently to keep the room warmer.

The draperies look wonderful in person. Much better than in this photo. I have pots of geraniums lined up behind them right now to overwinter.

A night photo of my cottage. I had my back door light on by accident and got a great shot of my red barn garage too.

Most of you will be reading this November 30th post on December 1st so WELCOME DECEMBER. xo

A Lost Goose

Webster and I were sitting in the living room, minding our own business, when we heard honking outside.

When we looked out the window we saw Canada geese walking down the road and on the bank across from us.

They were trying to stay together on foot, without using their wings.

The honking continued because one of the flock was missing. This one was behind my house trying to find the rest of the family. I don't think I have ever had webbed footprints here at the cottage but the snow out back is full of them. They would have puzzled me if I hadn't seen this lost goose. He/she even went up to the sliding glass door downstairs trying to find the others out front.

Tracks leaving the back entrance photographed from my balcony.

Together at last and then they were gone. This was our excitement yesterday.

Outside Sliding Barn Door in Red

Charming, isn't it? I would dearly love to look inside, wouldn't you?

image

My Bedroom Curtains Drying in The Sun

I washed my bedroom curtains today in the tub and put them on a drying rack in the sun to drip dry on this windy day. Ironing was a snap and they look so nice and fresh in my room.

They are hanging wrong side out on the rack and the back sides are somewhat faded in places. The fronts are still bright as new. I made curtains for a big double sliding glass door in 1972 and have remade curtains from that fabric for every place I have lived ever since. There is still a lot of life left in these curtains made from 46 year old fabric. It is woven with no right or wrong side. If it were a printed design, they wouldn't have lasted this long. Blue and white checks forever.

I am shadow waving hello to all of you and hope you have a nice weekend. They won't look at my car until Monday. xo

Plants Wintering Over Downstairs

I brought in the geranium and the flowering nasturtiums over a week ago and they are both very happy downstairs looking out of the sliding glass door that gets the morning sun. I dug up the geranium that was planted in a large metal urn. The nasturtiums were grown from seeds in the center pot while the pot on the far right contains nasturtium plants I dug out of pots in my front garden on Sunday. They are still in recovery mode. I have never tried overwintering annuals but I read online that nasturtiums are a good plant to try. We shall see.

These pots are too large to display anywhere else in my cottage. Every available spot is already taken on my main floor and in the attic with smaller pots of rosemary, thyme, geraniums, lavender, and more nasturtiums. I like indoor gardening and tending plants rather than leaving them outside to freeze and die. They are very beneficial for the indoor air quality too. 

I have been very busy washing all my sweaters and mending tiny holes here and there. I started out washing two by hand in the kitchen sink. Then I noticed for the first time there was a setting for knits on my 15 year old front loading washer. I decided to try it with 4 dark sweaters turned inside out. I was thrilled with the results. My washer spins everything almost dry and the sweaters dried quickly on drying racks in my furnace room. The mending is another story. I'm so glad I have so much thread but none of it is wool. I matched the colors perfectly and took little made-up darning stitches and mended the holes almost invisibly. Nobody else will even notice and I will have a fresh wardrobe of my favorite sweaters looking brand new in a few more days.

I posted these two photos on Instagram this morning. I usually don't blog using the same pics but they will be new to those of you who don't do social media.

xo

Cat Chair for Tabitha

Tabitha found a new spot for grooming herself this morning. I was sitting on the opposing chair removing my boots and she hopped up on hers. This photo gives you a closer look at one of my light fixtures bringing in more color. Does that rust spot on the bluestone disturb me? Yes, it does but I'm way too busy to obsess over it the way I did about my paint color. I have to wash all of my outside windows starting today and through the weekend. The gutter guy is coming later this morning to run a long strip of bent copper under my roof shingles so my half round gutters won't overflow from behind and rot my cottage again. He is adding one more downspout to a long run in the back that becomes Niagara Falls during a downpour beside the sliding glass door to my mother's old bedroom and sitting room. Water is definitely the enemy of any house, right? I hope this is the solution I'm hoping for. See you later.

Great Cabin

I think I have posted this photo once before. I just ran across it on my computer and noticed for the first time that it has a concealed sliding barn door with windows! The deck is built around a tall tree too! It looks very cozy inside, doesn't it? Wish we could see more.