IT TAKES A VILLAGE
There is a reason this old saying is still used today, because it couldn't be more true. We have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time and NONE of it would have been possible without the tremendous amount of help and support we have received from our family and friends. We are extremely grateful for this, and realize how incredibly lucky we are to have our village!
This shot I snuck in during the construction of our new doors. My sister Natalie working an impact? And just look at that little man right there! I couldn't pass that up! Josh and I were at Lowes picking up supplies for this after our son's Halloween parade at school, when my sister called me to say she was dropping by. So as any good sister would do, I dropped a few subtle hints about our big plans for the day, and needing to show her our shop progress. (After she made her nephew squeal with delight over the surprise of her picking him up of course, insert evil laugh) Hey, don't judge! Josh needed a builders assistant other than me! Seriously though, my sister is a trooper and always down for anything. She did an amazing job building these doors and I am so proud! And shes no stranger to my ploys either, she does have over 20 years of experience with them.
This door was well over 30 years old. Its been around since this barn was used for tobacco stripping. (more on that in another post) As with everything on this farm, Josh's pap constructed it by hand with materials he had here. Seeing all that work fall to the ground was a little saddening, but it had to happen and we plan to deconstruct these and recycle them for a custom family furniture piece to keep it all going. I'm telling you guys, all the history within these acres! It amazes me, and is why I love it so much. Is hard sometimes when you're "under construction", to look past all the work that needs to be done and really appreciate everything that has come before you. But every time we take something apart, we learn something new. His pap is always there with a story to tell, and then I end up hoarding a lot of extras. Now, this also means that sometimes a 30 minute job will take an hour haha. And sometimes I'm standing there really trying to be present and embrace the story hes telling, while shoving my 50 item to do list and self imposed time crunch out of my mind.
I remember when we completely cleared this building out. We had my dad down to help, and our plan was to clean it all out (for the last time) and then lay down our gravel for the concrete. I was a little overwhelmed. I just kept looking at the feat in front of us and felt stuck. We had a friend coming down to give us an estimate on painting the new (to us) tin we plan to re-wrap the exterior with and he was going to see the (then) mess of a room that we were so proud of. I have to assume that when he came down and saw that we had clearly bit off more than we could chew that day he felt pity and decided to help. But in all honesty, I know he stayed because that's just what you do in a small town. You help. And because hes a Dunlap, and if any of you know the Dunlaps you know that they're about the most loyal and helpful people around. Anyway, before I knew it we had a whole crew working. And Paps story telling about everything we pulled out inspired the breaks and comic relief those guys needed. There's that village people, even in the most unexpected of ways.
^ More construction pics and were done! Scroll on over to PART2 to see how the rest of our day went with a surprise reveal!