A Barn Floor: Watching the Village Barn transform…

From the moment we first laid eyes on what we have come to call the “village barn”, we knew it had potential to become something special. It was a diamond in the rough. Most of the “rough” was enormous amounts of junk, clutter, and filth that often take over a country barn. But it had great bones and was located in a central space. Over the past 18 months it has become the “watering hole” of the Iona House Village.

This week, the barn took a huge leap forward. It got a floor! We had a donor come forward who was willing to sponsor the floor and yesterday the concrete got poured. It turned out beautiful. The project was more complicated than we thought - involving jack-hammering out unhelpful old stem-walls, replacing rotting posts, setting new concrete bases, and much more. But now this space is incredibly usable. Timing couldn’t be better as rain is predicted next week!

Here are some pictures showing the barn transformation over time… (there’s still a lot more to do. Anyone want to sponsor new windows?!)

The barn as we found it when we purchased the land.

Full of lots of old, dusty stuff... much of it of no use to us.

Adding gravel to the barn floor to address the dust and mud

The volunteer crew from Holy Trinity Church in Silicon Valley

New paint and new front stained glass (the old window is now inside the barn featured with a light box)

getting ready for concrete