Neener-neener (or, the Taj Mahal of Tackrooms)

Growing up, I dreamed of one day having The Perfect Barn. I doodled barn layouts in the margins of my schoolwork, and planned exactly how everything would be organized. In my early 20s, I moved around quite a lot with Cash, and took notes about what I liked at each barn. So when we actually bought this property and it became apparent that I would actually get to build my own dream barn, here's what I had in mind:

This gorgeous hunk of barn is from BeamBarns.com. Alas, it is not my barn.

And then I brought the boys home and reality sank in. Horses prefer being out 24/7, with access to a big run-in shed, to living in stalls. I really didn't want to get into mucking 2x/day (I do have a full-time job after all). And we also have this pesky Impervious Cover rule, which greatly limited the size of the structure we could build.

So I sadly ditched the idea of The Perfect Barn.

However, I refused to let go of The Perfect Tackroom. The one with wood-paneled walls and a tile floor. With a sink and a nice bench to sit on while you put on your boots, and maybe even a rug in the center to make it just that much more plush. With all the saddles neatly on their racks, and bridles perfectly lined up and not a sweaty saddle pad to be seen. With faded ribbons from past victories hung on the walls next to shiny new ribbons from last month, and photographs of competitions from years ago to remind us of What Once Was and How Far We've Come.

Yeah, you know the tackroom I'm talking about, don't you?

Well, I'm not quite there yet, but last weekend brought us one step closer. We finally got the saddle racks built and hung, and I covered them with fabric and organized all the saddles:

Yep, this is pretty close to what I had in mind, wood paneling and tile floor included. There's even an enormous antique armoire for storing all those clean saddle pads!

So maybe I don't have The Perfect Barn (or maybe it is actually the perfect barn - for the boys, even if it's not what I had in mind!), but I am nearly done with The Taj Mahal of Tackrooms. More pictures will be forthcoming as we finish it!