I hear you on the looks. I love the old hipped roofed barns up here, ours was built in 1945 after a fire wiped out the cattle barn and sheep barn. They had to build it the old fashioned way with pegged post and beam due to the wartime lack of nails. It is as pretty inside as out when you consider the structure. The new part that Stan put on doesn't have any loft space at all and the walls are curtained to catch the west wind.
It is going to be nice for you to have a milking stall - cows become quite attached to their places in the barn.
