Living the Post and Beam Dream: The Summer Of 2010 Part I

My first blog entry for Post and Beam Living was titled: Building the Post and Beam Dream.  Nearly four years into living in our Yankee Barn Homes carriage house, the dream has not lessened one bit. For my husband and me – a pair of empty nesters – living in such a beautiful structure has afforded us many wonderful experiences which have enriched our lives immeasurably. What follows are some of the more memorable moments which took place over the course of the summer of 2010, in and around our gorgeous Yankee Barn carriage house.

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The Photo Shoot

Two years ago was the summer of perpetual chaos, in a good way, but none-the-less chaos. Events began in June with a photo shoot of the carriage house, Zen garden and tea house, for which the photos would be used by Yankee Barn Homes, several magazines, advertisements and pamphlets. One day out of your life is truly not much, but when you’re expecting to get back into your home by 3 in the afternoon after the shoot has begun before 8 a.m., and you’re not back in until after 8 p.m., it feels like an eternity. Add two energetic young Boxer pups to this scenario and it’s extremely tiring. Had I known ahead of time the shoot would take so long, I’d have put the dogs in day care. Oh well, once I saw the pictures that crazy day was quickly forgotten.

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The Magazine Shoot

One month later came the shoot for yet another magazine. New Hampshire Home wanted to use their own photographer, hence an entirely new shoot needed to be done. At this point I should mention the house, the tea house and the gardens needed to be prepped again as none of the a fore mentioned stayed clean and/or in “photo ready” shape since the first shoot; think of the previously mentioned two Boxers and you’ll begin to understand why! Also, I’ve not yet mentioned the stealth pack of marauding deer which ate the leaves off of every single Hosta (a total of somewhere around 100 plants) in our gardens two days before the shoot! We had all new Hosta installed, at unbelievably high prices due to the need for mature plants, one day before the shoot!

I know none of this sounds earth-shaking, but there is a phenomenal amount of time, effort and MONEY (particularly in garden prep, including but not limited to, the Hosta episode) involved in getting ready for a two day photo shoot. This time around my husband and I added to the expense by sending the dogs to the kennel and ourselves to Bermuda.

I have yet to mention the rather large wedding we were planning for my daughter, which was to take place the second week in September. A GARDEN WEDDING that included the use of every inch of our home, the gardens and tea house, and a newly installed expansive lawn, complete with a gorgeous stone retaining wall, for a very large tent! There will be much more on the wedding in Part II of this post.

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The Garage Bay Conversion

Due to a need for guest space as part of the upcoming nuptials, our lower garage bays were pressed into service. The conversion of what had been two car park spaces was a DIY project; we were already spending a king’s ransom between the two photo shoot preps and the upcoming wedding. We were figuratively hemorrhaging money at this point, so I did the conversion myself on a shoe-string budget. To this day, I thank my husband’s foresight at the need for a three-quarter bath which had been installed in the first bay during the construction of our carriage house. Also,  Kudos to both me and my husband for having radiant heat put in the cement floors of all three of our garage bays!

All things considered, I was extremely pleased with the results of the garage conversion. The only things I purchased for the change-over were paint, a closet pole and some curtain rings. All the other “stuff” you’ll see in the following pictures we already owned.

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Please check back later this week as I will give an account and pictures of the wedding and our everyday world as we live our version of the Post & Beam Dream.

The wedding tent on a gorgeous September evening. Our carriage house can just be seen in the distance on the left side of this photo.

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