In exchange for room and board

When we bought our house, the "outbuilding" was a shed/workshop. I imagine some atv's were stored on one side, and someone worked with wood on the other.

Double doors on the left and smaller doors on the right

A nice little wood burning stove occupied the space along with lots of fluorescent lighting, a huge workbench, and a laundry sink (do you need water when building? When fixing your riding toys? Perhaps my theory is incorrect). Anyway, we don't need a toy garage, nor do we need a wood working shop (actually, it sounds fun, but I haven't the time nor the tools at this point...).

We decided the building would make a pretty good guest house, or mother-in-law quarters.  After all, it already had electricity and water. We drew up some plans and filed them away. It became a storage shed as our mothers are not in need of quarters.

Then we bought a sauna. So the guest house plans were modified to include a sauna room. Dean built a wall separating the space into two, installed an interior door, and wired the sauna into the corner of one of the rooms.

Then a friend of ours needed a place to stay for the school year.  So it became rustic living quarters (in other words, a roof over a young guy's head).  Dean added real exterior doors and a window.

guest room on the left, sauna room on the right

Then we found out that we were going to have a guest for the summer. So we decided to make it a little less rustic by finishing the electrical work and texturing/painting the walls.

And what a good thing it was to finish that room!

well...finished except for the floor

It was used by Tiina for the summer.

We said goodbye to her a week and a half ago, and we miss her dearly already.

But the room is still getting plenty of use.  I crawl out there when I can no longer keep my eyes open and need a quiet place to nap. My sister and her boys as well as my mother-in-law (hey, what do you know?! It's a MIL quarters after all!) have, and plan to, put it to good use.

I'm hoping it will see lots of use in the coming months and years!

What a blessing friends and family are! I don't know what we'd do without their help and support right now.
(And no, helping out is not a requirement for use of our guest house!
Wait, maybe that would be a good idea after all...)

If you know how to run a sewage drain line, welcome up to our beautiful mountain town!
We'll let you stay in our guest room while you work! ;)