The Great Pumphouse Makeover

In going back over my old posts, I realized that I never showed you a BIG project we did last summer.  How could I have missed it?!  I showed you my front porch makeover, the little deck makeover and when we fixed up the back of the house for $25.  But this is probably my favorite project of the year.

We have an old, dumpy building in our backyard.  We call it the pumphouse.  We call it that because it houses our water pump.  We are clever that way.   It has always been an eyesore in the back.  It’s an ugly, drafty, makes-me-crazy building.

It’s so ugly that I never took a picture of it.  James and the kids decided to start the project while I was gone, so we didn’t take any great before pictures.  This is one from when I was taking pictures of the pool (the red building on the left is the horse stall).

Let’s zoom in, shall we?

Both doors are falling off, the roof is rotting, nothing matches, it looked awful!

We couldn’t afford to tear it down and build a better building.  But we needed something to house the pump and all of our animal supplies.  So we decided to reface it and replace the rotting wood.  After they tore off the front James started rebuilding the wall support.  While he built, the kid carried scraps from our wood pile and laid it on the ground in order of size.  That way James could easily grab the length he needed.

We used all recycled wood from old projects or scraps that friends had given us.

Noah and I built new doors.  The only materials we bought new were screws and the metal for the doors.  I wanted to use metal to add another texture.  Otherwise it would have looked like a wood wall.

And here is the finished pumphouse.

It looks SO much better!  I’d been collecting old, rusty tools for a while just waiting for the day I had a place to hang them.  Now they are home on the pumphouse wall.

My goal is to completely cover the wall with old tools.  It’ll be fun to be on the lookout for them at flea markets and junkyards.

The whole project cost less than $100.  Most of that was for screws.  You’ve gotta attach it all together somehow!

I’m completely thrilled with how it turned out.  No longer do I walk out the back door and cringe over the ugly building I see.  It’s charming, simple and cost hardly anything.  If we can’t build a whole new barn….this is the next best thing.

I’m kinda glad I waited 6 months to show you.  This way I can tell you that it still looks great and we are enjoying having such a cute little building in the back instead of the ugliness that used to be there.

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