Has anyone converted a barn into a home?

[DreamHomestead]

We are seriously considering a property with existing buildings... but no home. There is a hay barn which can be converted into living quarters and that seems like the best route for us, rather than building from scratch. I was just wondering if anyone else has done something similar - converted a pre-existing farm building into a home? I would love to see pictures! I've looked on Google and all I can find is fancy schmancy "barn houses" that don't even look like they were once operational barns. Mine would have aluminum siding and one level so definitely not fancy over here!

[Sturedman]

We looked into that with ours. The property has a great barn, but the farmhouse went with another parcel sold to someone else lol. Our problem was the expense of building something inside, the cost of heating and cooling the space. Also if we converted the barn into a house, I would have to build a barn somewhere lol. Maybe as a temporary thing it would work, but we just wound up putting a used RV out there for temporary shelter.

[farmerestes]

We rented a house that was converted from a barn. The issues for us all stemmed from the fact that the owner did much of the work himself. The place had a feel of "good enough". If the owner was living in it, he would be proud of his work and look at the inefficiencies as oh well, it's good enough for me. But we were strangers, and parts of it were craziness. Very poor insulation, poor finishing letting the spiders and then scorpions in, unfinished bathrooms, bizzarly positioned outlets and questionable plumbing made living there a memorable experience. I would say it is doable, but please know your limits.