#old barn

Enduring Dawn

Like a weathered barn, Her paint is worn and frayed, the colors of Old Glory dim in time's sharp blade; but strong, unshaken beams hold fast against the gale, a testament of strength when lesser structures fail. As the sun dips below, a long light’s closing hour, two hundred fifty years dissolve, but not Her freedom and power. From this red, splintered wall, the golden light of dusk is but a promise of the dawn that’s yet to pass. For every setting sun, there comes a rising new, and for the next two-fifty, America stands true...

Pataskala, Ohio. June 20, 2024.

Happy 250! 🇺🇸 Happy Independence Day! 🎉🎆

Barn Reborn is available for download at mod.io: clickie!

A side-project to all the other side-projects, this is a quick-ish build using the "Old barn" property to get a gold star from Layla Farah. I kept the original barn shell, changed the insider floorplan, and put in the addition for a garage and sauna. The finished build yoinked that lovely gold star immediately upon auction, which is good because I wasn't sure the roof-walled rooms would count as sealed. It appears they do! Good to know.

Layla already got a full-blown special build before gold stars existed, and while I could have cheeseballed this one, I gave it a decent stab even though I lazied out a bit on decor and definitely phoned in the landscaping. But I also felt like working at least semi-seriously in the forest on something that wasn't Georgiana's mansion, so here we are. I'm aware the second floor windows are one brick off from being perfectly centered... and if you hadn't noticed, now you can't unsee it either. There's a wall in the way of perfect alignment, so we're just gonna have to deal. We can do it. I know we can.

Let's forget about the windows and peek inside the first floor, for a tour through the living room, eat-in kitchen, and the new addition with its cozy sauna and airy garage.

On our way upstairs, we'll hit the last first-floor room, aka the office. This one actually registered, I've had issues getting the "office" room designation lately. Maybe it has something to do with using the Homefront brand office chair specifically, as I didn't really change anything else notable (this one uses two Loftly desks, a laptop, printer, two of the small rolling file cabinets, a wall phone, and a pencil organizer with pencils and a pen stuck in it). Once we've peeped the office, we'll check out the tiny-ass bathroom at one end of the upstairs hall, then the gym with balcony access at the opposite end of the hall (and the gym didn't actually register, sigh).

Lastly we'll visit the bedrooms, which I decorated with similar furnishings but switched the green shades (predominant in the guest room) with the light red tones (master bedroom) indicated by Layla's mood board. You'll have to ask past-me what I thought I was doing with the wallpaper, as I'm not entirely sure anymore. Probably another case of "this looks odd, but is kinda working in a weird way... you know the rule... double down."

Those off-kilter windows look so much nicer from the inside, don't they? If the game had easier ways to edit brick walls after they're built in career mode, I might have tried harder to fix the alignment issues when viewed from outside but meh, that poor hallway is cramped enough as it is. Poor windows... stand proud, you let light in and only nitpicky people care where you are placed. Excuse me while I go nitpick a bit more. Err I mean... here's the sale results from one happy forest-bound chica:

Finished this wood-burning the other night.

There’s something about old barns that feels like stepping into a memory—even if you’ve never been there before.