I’m a fan of the Home and Garden Television (HGTV) channel, and one of the things I enjoy most is seeing the “before” views of homes needing renovations and the often dramatic “after” views of them with all their new features.
I sometimes wonder what kind of changes those interior designers would recommend for our farmhouse, but I must confess I like it just the way it is.
These days, everything is “open floor plan” — when you walk into a modern home you can almost see every room from the front door. Old farmhouses are quite the opposite — every room has a door on it, and each space is separate.
It makes for less versatile spaces, which can’t be easily combined together. However, on the plus side, this setup provides greater privacy, allows hiding an area that might not be ready for visitors and also makes for a better heating and cooling situation if some rooms are not in regular use.
I admit there are times when an open floor plan is an asset, especially for entertaining. It’s nice when everyone can be in the same space munching and conversing, instead of sectioned off from each other.
That open space dilemma had me buffaloed for a long time. My parents had never done much large-scale entertaining. Most of our guests arrived one family at a time, to see our Christmas gifts or play dominoes on a Sunday night or drop by to visit Sunday afternoons.
Those visitors were ushered into our double living rooms — where my parents had widened the doorway between them to create an “archway” — and sank into a comfy chair or couch. Meanwhile, my mother hurriedly set up a card table in preparation for sharing the snacks she would rush out to the kitchen to prepare.
The biggest gatherings our home hosted previously were when it was my mother’s turn to entertain her Farm Women’s Group No. 13 at our farm. There were 15 or 20 ladies attending, which considerably exceeded the seating capacity of our double living rooms. My recollection is dad borrowed some wooden folding chairs from the fire company and my mother borrowed a second folding card table from my grandmother.
Most of the other farm women also lived in farmhouses with non-open floor plans. No one had a table or island big enough to gather around for refreshments, so the group had purchased pretty trays to balance on their laps. It wasn’t ideal, but those trays made the rounds to whomever’s turn it was to play hostess. They also circulated a box with song books to each meeting’s site. I still have a copy of the ”Sing Sociability Songs for Camps, Homes, Communities and Schools” they used.
When I remodeled our farmhouse a number of years ago, I added an island to the kitchen and also turned what had been a seasonally used summer kitchen into a dining room. Those two adjacent rooms now work well for most of the gatherings Dennis and I host here on occasion. However, there have been times when they’re not quite big enough either.
Our annual Pasture Pals Party, for 30 or so friends and neighbors of our beef cattle operation, were held during warmer weather months, with the porch and patio serving as an extension of our indoor space. “But what if it rains?” I always worried. I also felt bad I’d never hosted my book club due to not having any space large enough for a discussion group.
I started solving both problems two years ago using our farm’s ultimate “open floor plan” — the upstairs of our barn. It not only has plenty of space, but folks seemed to like the idea immediately.
Cleaning up the second floor of a barn on a working farm presented quite a challenge. I wish I’d taken a “before” photo, to better appreciate the task at hand. Lots of odds and ends can accumulate in a barn over the years. There was also plenty of dust and dirt that needed to go.
I recalled, back in 2013 when Dennis and I got married, we used the upper level of the barn to host a pig roast provided to us as a wedding present by some good friends.
It was held the night after our wedding as a “farewell party” for the many friends and family who attended from out of the area. We’d only needed to clean up a relatively small portion of the barn that time, since folks sat out on the barn hill in their lawn chairs.
Our 2022 barn cleanup was a bigger undertaking, but with a better payoff. Not only was it a hit with our September 2022 Pasture Pals, but 2023’s pre-party cleaning went much quicker. (And being indoors was necessary, since it poured the day of the party!) I also got double duty by using it for a book club meeting in fall 2023.
Our beef cattle have now been back in the lower level of the barn since November. With the upstairs of the barn being used to dispense hay, straw and feed, I wonder what our earlier guests might think.
Their “before” was a rustic, but relatively clean space. However, no one would be rushing to meet at our barn’s upstairs in its current “after” condition.
