Yankee Barn Homes 1-800-258-9786
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  HOMEOWNERS NEWSLETTER Spring 2002  
 


We have all the goodies we wanted from the model home in about 1/2 the size.




To learn how you can design your own barn home, Order the Design Guide. The Yankee Barn Design Guide includes a three-ring binder with 175 pages of design ideas, color photographs, interviews with homeowners and custom plans.
"We knew what we wanted. We had been looking at post and beam homes for 10 years. We had checked out the different companies and designs," said David. He and his wife Cheryl started their design process long before they had decided where to live when David retired. Their introduction to Yankee Barn included an overnight stay at the model home and a meeting the next morning with one of Yankee Barn's designers, Bruce Parsons.

"We latched on to Yankee Barn after our first visit to the model and our meeting with Bruce. The overnight in the model was as advertised, a friendly visit with no pressure, no obligation. We just got to know each other."

David and Cheryl fashioned the layout
of their Great Room and their kitchen
after the Show Home using a smaller
footprint.

For ideas, David and Cheryl looked through the plans in the Yankee Barn design guide. Two plans caught their eye and met their layout needs, The Weaver and The Knight Yankee Barns. The plans are two of a thousand variations on the original Mark I frame Yankee Barn designed and built in 1969. The Mark I is still a popular frame, known for its two floors of living space, Great Room soaring to a cathedral ceiling, cozy balcony overlooking the Great Room, and bedrooms on the second floor. This efficient floor plan long pre-dated the movement in home design "that quality should come before quantity" popularized by architect Sarah Susanka in her 1998 book, The Not So Big House.

"We looked at every single plan in the Design Guide. We liked both the Knight and the Weaver plans," said David. The Knight Yankee Barn was designed and built by Rob Knight, President of Yankee Barn Homes, and his wife Audrey. When they built their home over 15 years ago, Rob tried hard to better the original Mark I layout.

"Our design ended up to be quite similar to the original layout, as developed by the Hanslins 30 years ago," said Rob. "I fooled around a lot with the design, but kept coming back to the tried and true."

The layout of the original Mark I met David and Cheryl's priorities for their first floor with a central kitchen, Great Room, and master bedroom suite. They bumped out the plan with a granary to enclose a large kitchen with sunroom and mudroom like the model home. They used ideas from the Weaver plan for the first floor hallway and powder room and the second floor layout with two guest bedrooms and larger balcony.

"We showed Bruce what we liked and he pulled it all together for us. He would turn around sketches quickly. He thought about what we hadn't, and guided us through the design," said David. "The plan evolved for us. We worked on the design as if we were standing in the floor plan."
The roundtop window on the gable end of the Great Room and stacked windows on the eave wall create a feeling of space.
The original Mark I frame designed and built in 1969 is still a popular frame and the starting point of a thousand variations, including David and Cheryl's Yankee Barn.
 David and Cheryl asked themselves the simple questions of day-to-day life. Where will they spend their time? How will they bring the groceries into the house? Would they use a dining room? How often will they have friends or family visiting? Their answers created a "not so big" Yankee Barn with the right priorities.

"If you have unlimited resources, you can include lots of living spaces that may not even get used. It's important to get the spaces right, especially in a small house. We decided not to include a space if we weren't going to use it."
David and Cheryl wanted a big, central kitchen like the Show Home without the island breaking up the traffic flow. They decided they wouldn't have much use for a formal dining room. Instead, they wanted a dining area in a sunroom, similar to the Show Home. Instead of a sunroom, Bruce suggested adding a granary, with skylights in the ceiling, along the side of the Mark I frame. This created a kitchen with the same footprint as the much larger Show Home.

With primarily just the two of them using the living area, they designed a Great Room with less square footage. The room doesn't feel small with the cathedral ceiling and large roundtop window.
A granary added along the side of the Mark I frame provides width for a larger kitchen and space for a dining area.

"I call it a Yankee window. We can look through the window out to the edge of the woods," said David. "We have a 70-foot-long Great Room, thanks to the window."

David and Cheryl's Yankee Barn was constructed using a partial post and beam frame. The Great Room with cathedral ceiling, large window, and open space was best constructed using a post and beam frame. The bedroom area was framed using a hybrid of conventional framing and post and beam. Decorative posts and beams were installed to tie the look of the entire house together.


David and Cheryl designed a first floor master bedroom and bathroom in the back of their home framed using a hybrid of conventional framing and post and beam construction.
 "We used the post and beam where we needed it. With the decorative beams, it all ties in and looks like a full post and beam frame," said David.

"The people at Yankee Barn were available at all the important points in the process. Bruce was a valuable resource beyond the original layout. He helped us evaluate lots, site the house when we decided on a lot, and select the finishing touches like flooring and placing the decorative beams."

"I spent a lot of time imagining living here, now I am, and I love it," said David. "I can't think of what I would do differently."










The next time you are in the area, stop by for a tour of the Yankee Barn Show Home on a Saturday or Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. or by appointment. You may be greeted at the door by David, one of the Yankee Barn hosts.

"Staying in the models helped us design our Yankee Barn. I'm glad to show the house and answer questions for others," said David. During their multi-year design process, David and Cheryl stayed in the previous model, as well as the Show Home. David enjoyed spending the evening in the Great Room looking at photographs and plans. "The meeting with the designer in the morning is relaxed. It's just a get-to-know-you visit."

The current model home was created in collaboration with HOME magazine and featured in the February, 1997 issue. The Show Home was awarded first place in the Model Home category by The Sales and Marketing Council of the New Hampshire Home Builders Association in 1997.

Located just up the road from the Yankee Barn shop in Grantham, New Hampshire, the Show Home is just minutes from Interstate 89, an easy two hour drive from Boston, or five hours from New York City. If you are traveling, and the home is available, you are invited to spend the night. If you live outside New England, fly in to Boston, Manchester, or nearby Lebanon, New Hampshire, and we'll reimburse airfare for two if you buy a Yankee Barn. To schedule your visit, call 1-800-258-9786.


Yankee Barn's website is a recognized resource for information about "barn" homes and recently won an award from the Building Systems Council of the National Association of Homebuilders.

One resource for potential homeowners is the House Plans section. addition to the plans David and Cheryl relied on from the Design Guide, many other plans are available on line for browsing.

A number of books about barns, barn-style homes, and related subjects are listed in the Books section. These include Barn Style Homes, Design Ideas for Timber Frame Houses by Tina Skinner and Tony Hanslin, Yankee Barn Homes' CEO, and The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. Barn Style Homes can be purchased on-line at a special price.
Homeowners David and Cheryl were first timers when it came to building a Yankee Barn. Their builder, Doug O'Clair of Mill Stream Structures, Inc. in Goshen, New Hampshire, has built so many Yankee Barns that he has lost count.

Here is his seasoned advice to future barn builders:
"I've been working on Yankee Barns since 1976, and started this company in 1987. We worked on several dozen over the years, three just last year. Yankee Barn is builder-friendly. Their engineering work is precise which eliminates on-site adjustments. The package goes together easily. If there's a problem on the site, it is taken care of quickly.

Their product is superior in quality and energy efficiency. Over the years, they have continued to improve their product, and have added trim, finishes and options such as dormers.

The Yankee Barn designer helps the customer during the bidding process. Once selected, the builder takes it from there and works with the customer. I've never built a house that doesn't have changes. It's hard to visualize from a blueprint to the finished product. With the post and beam frame, the inside is flexible. We can make changes for the customer as we go.

Yankee Barn provides a pre-construction estimate of how much time it will take to build the shell. They do a good job in their estimate. You can trust their estimate when you price. We also use their construction guide for estimating. The foreman has one with him at all times on site.

It's important to keep it square, plumb and level as you go. We use a lot of bracing to be sure. Compared to stick-built, the vaulted ceilings take a little more time. It's not difficult, you just need a little extra time. Because of working around the beams, there is more work for the subs.

This barn was a hybrid with about 3 /4 post and beam frame and 1 /4 open studded wall panels. The advantage is cost plus it's easier to wire and plumb.

My crew enjoys doing Yankee Barns. It's a break from the routine of stick-built. The house goes up quickly and we're working in an open space, under cover."
Photographs: Suki Coughlin, Stylist: Paula McFarland
©2002 Yankee Barn Homes, Tony Hanslin, Chairman and CEO