From Chicken Shed to Picnic Shelter, continued

In the previous post I told our story of the chicken shed becoming a picnic shelter and how it was time to move R.H.'s grilling station out of it so that it could become the outdoor dining pavilion I had envisioned. 

After years of my nagging he finally did it this spring! After working on it himself for a few hot days he enlisted the help of son Gurn and grandson Drake.

On went the roof.

Drake helped supply R.H. with old bricks for edging the floor.

Otis wanted to help too.

At last R.H. got to move his grilling equipment into his new cooking shed--and out of the picnic shelter. Hurrah!

Then everything went out of the picnic shelter where Drake could power wash it all.

So nice not to have R.H.'s cooking stuff crowding the food serving station.

I love the old washing machine. We used to fill it up with ice and water for parties to chill drinks but it was so much trouble to drain. Now we use it to hold garbage bags and other things that aren't so pretty.

Everything was ready for my Texan to start grilling.

We launched it on Memorial Day weekend when Christy and Bryan were home to visit.

This week we dressed it up a little with banners that are actually curtain panels bought at the Goodwill store.

They're heavy canvas material with what looks to be hand-painted fruit on it.

Brown Eyes is enjoying the shade they provide and two fans pointed at him. R.H. wondered what in the world I'd ever do with those weird curtain panels when I grabbed them at Goodwill but I believe that sooner or later there's a use for anything you love.

The table was set...

with more odds and ends from Goodwill plus the enamel spatter ware plates from Texas that I have a stack of for outdoor meals.

I starched and ironed another Goodwill find for the table. The old white cutwork cloth has buttonholes around all four sides. I wonder what it was once buttoned to?

Here's a view to the other end of the picnic shelter, and yes, it probably still looks like a Cracker Barrel wall but you wouldn't believe how much stuff I got rid of.

This old screen door from a grocery store is the better of two doors we lugged around through every move we made. I was astounded to see American Pickers pay a small fortune for the Holsum Bread sign alone. Wonder what they would pay for the whole door?

Here's Defee standing in front of it in our living room 20 years ago. Do you think he's trying to sign--"Live long and prosper"?

So there you are, from chicken shed to picnic shelter.

R.H. has other touches he wants to add. There is an old white farm sink that's been in the barn for years. It would be nice to wash our hands outside, even if it was only cold water. Now if I could just get him to move his mowing equipment out of the other side of the building we could put a fridge in there and maybe a bed and never have to go inside. Well, we might have to build an outhouse somewhere near. 

There's always something that needs doing at Valley View, and it's always a family affair.

From Chicken Shed to Picnic Shelter

There it was, a gloomy chicken shed and us with no chickens. Not only that, it blocked our view to the valley behind it. Since there already was a barn, a stone garage, a root cellar, and a smokehouse, in addition to our house, R.H. said the chicken shed simply had to go.

I wanted a view to the valley too but couldn't bear to tear down any outbuilding on this old hillside farm and so begged for it to be a simple dining pavilion, nothing but posts, roof, floor.

The old white siding and nail-ridden poplar boards underneath came down not long after we bought Valley View in 1990. (I see Bertha, our last Keeshond there.)

And there it sat, once the walls were down, a project stalled. Ever had one of those? For 8 years it stayed like this:

We had a view to the valley then but framed through an eyesore. At last the only pretty thing about the building collapsed during an ice storm, the corral that the original farmer used to run cattle through, for inoculations I assume. Not sure if he ran the pigs through it, but the smokehouse had been used for years of curing hams and sausage.

Here is my favorite picture of the corral with Tex, the corgi, and Jake, who sometimes thought he was a corgi, posing prettily:

Another corgi came to live with us, beautiful Dallas. When she was 4 years old she died within two weeks of something being terribly wrong and many trips to the doctor who tried to figure out just why she had a badly swollen neck.

It hit us hard. We mourned that little dog deeply. The only thing that seemed to help R.H. was losing himself in the old neglected project. At last we were going to get the dining pavilion, or what came to be known as the family picnic shelter.

These pictures were taken when it was finished in time for Zack's 18th birthday party. The photos were the old panoramic ones that were so much fun back then so I couldn't get the best quality from them, but the picnic shelter was a beauty.

It has given us many years of pleasure.

It's been a focal point behind the house.

It's been the scene of many family parties, cookouts and chili suppers.

But over the years it began to be a little too shabby for my taste and a little too cluttered, like it was a bad imitation of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Any old thing we came across found a home on those walls. 

And R.H. using his grill and smoker inside it added to the grime. I fussed and I fumed and I behaved in the way that wives figure finally gets something done.

I nagged and nagged and nagged.

I didn't see any reason why my smart contractor husband couldn't figure out how to move his cooking equipment out of the picnic shelter so that it could finally become the dining pavilion I wanted. 

It had been nice….

but it was time for a few changes. This spring I got what I wanted. Guess who likes it the best? Yep, R.H. does. He is so proud of the new addition to the picnic shelter and I am so proud of him for doing it.

I'll show you the pictures of his hard work in my next post.

[To be continued!]