Barn Spruce Up Part 3 and Vintage Fels Naphta Soap Crate

We got a late start because we needed to mow the lawn at the other house. But once we arrived back home we started working on the barn.

R worked on folding up the straps that hung down below the wood sheathing on the barn.  At the same time he drove in any protruding nails and added fasteners to pull the sheathing back into place and connect it to the barn framing.  We are guessing that a lot of the loose nails etc came from when they moved the barn, which occur before we purchased the house.

He also replaced 4 small pieces of clapboard that were cracked and broken.  These were located next to the garage door and were only about 5 inches wide.  R was able to use a long piece of old clapboard that we removed from the bottom of the clapboards on the back of the barn.  Luck was on his side and he was able to get 4 good pieces out of the one long broken piece.  He also saved the nails that held the broken pieces in place.  Because the clapboards are face nailed, we felt it was important to face nail the replacement pieces and to use a nail with the same size head.

While R was working on repairing clapboards, I was back to using the heat gun to remove paint.  I was just getting into the groove when the heat gun got real loud and started smoking.  Another heat gun bites the dust.  I usually buy heat guns two at a time, when I go to the store.

I, then moved on to scraping the paint off the glass panes in the barn windows.  When we purchased the house almost all the windows in the barn were broke, missing, or at the very least had broken panes.  We were able to locate the exact size we needed at a salvage place in Grass Lake, MI.  They weren't pretty but they were in whole condition and would keep the snow, rain, and critters out of the barn.

After I finished up with the windows, I started to poke around in the barn.  We have so much stuff (good, bad, and useless) stored in there.  I soon found a old wood crate printed with the words Fels Naphta Soap on the sides.  It had 2 pieces of sheet metal nailed to the  top and was filled with straw, so I am guessing it was used as a nesting box.

I just did a little research and on eBay someone is selling this same crate for $116.10.....Really?