My new gazebo

Those who know me personally, know that I love to re-purpose, recycle, and give new life to existing items that have outlived their usefulness. When I bought my house 28 years ago, I was a newly divorced mother of three little girls. We didn't have enough money to pay basic expenses, let alone buy things to make our house or yard more inviting. I had to be creative. When I see things that appeal to me, I figure out how I can create something similar using "junk" and little or zero money.

A couple years ago I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to find an old corncrib to convert into a gazebo for my yard. Her husband is a farmer and knew of one that needed to be torn down. But then I went to europe for the summer (for work) and didn't get it. She said they were going to tear it down.

My friend’s husband called me one night last week. He said he had a corncrib for me, and wanted me to come look at it. I went and looked at the corncrib Saturday afternoon. It was about 20' tall, and he wanted to keep the bottom half. So we decided we would cut if off just above the doorway, and I would take the top. Don't you know he called me Saturday night, said he had it cut apart, loaded on a hay wagon, and wanted to deliver it Sunday morning. I said you're kidding! I thought you were going to call when you were ready to work on it....

So, Sunday morning the corncrib arrived. My friend's husband's father followed him pulling a trailer with a tractor.

They had to trim my 129 year old weeping willow tree in order to get the crib under it. Darn it. :) That thing has been plaguing me with several low hanging dead limbs for a couple years and our chain saw never wants to run when I get in the mood to trim it. So, don't you know, the dad who is late 70's - early 80's has his chainsaw with him, and HE goes up on the forks and trims large limbs out of the willow. While, all the youngsters stand BACK and watch. He was amazing.

They had trouble maneuvering the tractor around my trees, so we ended up pushing the wagon across the yard, then a couple people pulled the wagon out while the rest of us picked up the corncrib and sat it on the ground. Thanks to my daughters, their men, my sister, her husband & my nephew, we had a large crew and were prepared to "man" handle the corncrib as needed.

I felt like it was Christmas thanks to my friend’s husband, his father, and my friend’s son. I can’t thank them enough for taking the time, and spending their day so I could finally have my unique gazebo.
I'll post more pics in the coming weeks as we level it, repair the roof, install some sort of flooring (either stone, brick, gravel or wood) and start enjoying it as a functional gazebo.

I’d love to hear what you think of my idea, and welcome any ideas you have for finishing it. I can always use ideas.

Oh yeah, these are our found object birds. Soon they will be knee deep in hosta and ferns. They look really cute then.