We’ve got a grooming stall (crazy well lit) plus cross ties. Thankfully the barn is pretty small (10 horses) so the chances of collision are small, but I get you, that used to be such a pain at barns I boarded at before!
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Very good point. Thankfully we’ve got great cell service and I work remotely so with a repeater it might not be too hard to get good service to the tack area. I boarded at a barn without cell or wifi and I was terrified that I’d fall off or get injured somehow and not be able to get help (I wear my Apple Watch to help with fall detection, but that still requires cell service).
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You and me both. As a BO, I can control diets with dry lots. I cannot control them with a grass pasture, and I am PICKY about how I balance their diets. I run everything through FeedXL for every horse here, weigh and measure everything including hay and I have two different types of hay to find the right balance for all of them. I have a pre-cushinoid horse, and many of the boarders we inherited were old horses, so it really has been key.
Unfortunately with the large number of mares we have here I think stallions are out. We’re at almost 50% mares to geldings ratio and even the geldings cause issues with some of our floozies…I mean mares (and I say that in the best most affectionate way) LOL
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I did price one out, it was $350k just for the building, not for the actual construction, and about $10-15k for the footing. I believe our base is just fine, and that’s just the raw materials, we’d have to do the work. All in all, it would likely be half a million. I’m not sure it’s a good financial decision and I am not a heiress, sadly.
The permitting is dubious - we’re zoned residential and grandfathered in. That means that maybe they’d approve it for my personal use, but they might not approve it if it was “just so that I could make more money” (although you and I both know that boarding barn & profit don’t really go together in the same words). I think the covered round pen I might be able to get through, and that’s also a significantly smaller expense.
Regarding the other part, omg - this place had so many broken things when we bought it. We have one gate I’m not in love with regarding open/close (I’d prefer one of those kiwi latches on it, instead it’s a chain latch that fits in the slot - easy enough to do with one hand but not braindead easy, especially when it’s cold) but most things are in good repair or replacement. We took the time to go through every stall, fixing nails and trying to ensure nothing sharp was present. We have no barbed wire, broken hinges, or other nasties out there.
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we are in a city, we are limited in the number of structures and percentage of land covered by structures, along with height restrictions and just what materials can be used on siding and roofing …my last time before one of the boards was OK I will just build Section 8 housing instead…got approval for the barn
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No grass turnout is a hard no from me. My big 17 hand guy needs room. I am currently at a high end barn where they have paddock turn out but if I want the 5 acre solo turn out, I have to bring him in and take him out. I am 6 min from the barn so I’m good with that as I see him every day.
No heated indoor wash stall is also a no unless everything else was perfect.
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I just wandered into this thread and wanted to say re. your point about “dusty barn aisle” I worked at a TB race track, all barn aisles on the back side were dirt but whoa could some of the guys that worked in those barns rake that dirt 'til it looked pretty and you almost hated to walk on it but kind of had to as you patrolled, lol. So, yeah dirt (or stone dust it seems in this case?) may not be the most visually-appealing (or perhaps practical depending on one’s needs) barn aisle floor ever but if you ever somehow have time to really dig in and rake it, you can make it look pretty! 
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The horsey zen garden. I agree. I boarded at a place with stone dust aisles and it was pretty fun to “sweep” (rake) when cleaning up.
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It’s raked every day in a criss cross pattern then watered to keep the dust down. I’m kind of a fanatic about the aisle 
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Oooh criss cross pattern sounds pretty!
The last time I had to rake a barn aisle (don’t have horses in my life at the moment) was probably before the therapeutic riding facility I volunteer at moved to their current location so, 2015ish maybe and I think I just raked in straight-ish lines to get it done.
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Yikes! I can definitely see why the cost–and even the inconvenience of construction–would be a turnoff as the BO.
From your perspective, truthfully, it probably would take some time for a smaller barn to recoup the cost, unless you wanted to substantially raise rates and attract a different type of boarder.
But I do admit that a barn not having an indoor for me would be the only aspect of your barn that would make me think twice. I would never not board at a barn because the tack room was ugly. I don’t even care much about stuff matching, as long as everything is clean and safe, and it sounds like you’ve taken care of that already.
No indoor wash stall? Maybe if I had one of those horses who is prone to abscesses or getting himself into scrapes, I might consider it a small ding, but not a deal-breaker. Ditto with dust flooring–not a deal-breaker, unless I specifically had a horse I was worried might be irritated by the dust.
But your boarders may have different priorities if they don’t ride much over the winter, or in darkness, so the cover and even the footing might not be worth it.
Re: the tack room, would you feel comfortable sharing a photo? Maybe some COTHers have ideas about a cheap and cheerful renovation. One barn I was at "gifted’ the BO a renovated tack room for Christmas (one of the assistant trainers had a husband who was a contractor, and everyone made a donation to pay for it).
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I was taught by a rather…tough…trainer in the UK. She’d be appalled at some of the things in my barn (working on them!!!) but man did she give me an appreciation for a tidy aisle and wickedly clean stalls.
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Sure - I’ll get some pictures this afternoon. It hasn’t been addressed yet at all other than the roof because the previous owner left it…less than desirable and full of tack and junk. The whole barn was left that way. It’s been quite a cleanup job. I still have to rent a dumpster for one of the sheds which he claimed he was going to clean out and never did. I’m still chafed.
There are some other things I’d like to do to cosmetically make the interior of the barn more attractive but may have to wait for summer when the horses can reliably be out for 24 hours (painting the interior of the stalls white, refinishing the stall fronts, removing the “pig wire and 2x4” dividers (which are safe but hideous) and replacing them with something more attractive. We are also expanding the stalls in one half of the barn to be double stalls. The barn itself technically holds 20 horses, but I don’t want 20 here on this land. I really bought the place for me to have my horses close to me, the boarders are here because I like having a community around me.
So, in truth, most of the projects are for me personally, but they have the second aspect of making sure the barn is full if one of our boarders leaves or their horse passes on. We are full now and from what I understand of our area, a TON of barns are closing soon, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
But it does matter to me that I can walk into my barn and feel proud. My BHS background did a number on me Just this morning I walked in and turned all the halters…they were hung the wrong way, drives me batty!
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we went through three 40 yard dumpsters doing the initial clean up here, there were enough car parts to build a few cars
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It sounds like a barn where I used to ride! The tack room was never cleaned (nor were most of the saddle pads) but the floor was littered with old paddock boots and helmets and other things “that might be useful one day.”
Just having people only keep what they need to ride in, in the tack room, can itself make a world of difference! And making sure things are easy to clean and no one keeps open containers of treats in their tack trunks and so forth.
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For sure - and getting rid of tack in general. I think some of the saddles that are here belong to horses that are long gone. It really was “just left”.
Honestly I think it can be really cute once we get it fixed up - but you do need a “creative eye” to see it. 
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I don’t understand how people live like this? Don’t they realize they are going to run out of room to store their crap?
Our guy had chickens and guinea hens. There was a coop. Something got into the coop so they didn’t fix it, they moved the animals to the shed. Then something got in the shed. So instead of fixing it, they moved the animals to a stall. Then they no longer had poultry, so they just abandoned all the stuff in the stall.
That’s 3 places full of “ex-poultry” - feeders, waterers, roosts…all just left.
He did the same thing with tack, feed, shed stuff. A stall got wet, instead of fixing it, he just moved the animal to another stall and filled the wet stall with junk. sigh
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I have the same expectation of barn aisles as OP. Not impressed by matching cupolas with custom weather vanes on designer roofing but a neat well organized aisle and correctly kept stalls get big checks in the plus column in any price range.
The pig wire and 2x4 stall dividers? Perhaps appropriate given the condition of the place when you acquired it? But your target boarders, middle aged, suburban ladies might well be more comfortable with something more conventional. Probably put that on the list after the tack room and indoor wash stall.
How does the place look from the street? Having spent considerable time in areas like this, the better impression your place makes on your non horsey neighbors, the easier time you will have operating a horse business in the midst of them. Cosmetic improvements don’t break the bank. Nice entry, nice sign and in spring maybe a couple of big pots of Wave Petunias or something pretty that needs nothing but the appropriate light level and water. Little things can make a big and lasting first impression.
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arriving late to the opining but agree that footing and arena cover (or not) and lighting are a deal breaker. The rest sounds more cosmetic. The arena can make or break a training program. Footing can stop a horse, uncovered or unlit can stop a rider.
Important factor for my opinion is that I am in the Seattle area where winters are not so very cold but they are dark and it is our wet season
It actually looks ok - not that it can’t be improved, but it’s ok. The Ramm fencing is pretty although it needs a bit of a wash this fall, the sign is a nice sign and it has nice plantings around it. Our neighbors are less impressive. There’s a gnome and whirligig house down the street with a lot of clutter that you have to pass to get to our location, and the guy at the corner makes bird houses out of old license plates and has them mounted all along his fence so that place looks a little odd.
Unfortunately I can’t change their houses.
The stall dividers are on the list as well as the interior & exterior coat of paint plus the refurbishment of the fronts - the doors are kind of neat, but I think with a power washing, sand and shellac they’ll be really pretty. I just have to wait for horses to be able to stay outside in case things take longer to dry or do than expected. I was hoping to get that done this summer, but that didn’t happen.
