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 "We
liked our post and beam home but we wanted more space," said Joni.
She and her husband, Daniel, were expecting their first child and decided
to add on to their home. Joni's cousin had built a Yankee Barn in the
Eastman community in Grantham, New Hampshire. After visiting the Yankee
Barn show home and meeting with one of the Yankee Barn designers, the
plans for the addition quickly took shape.
"We told the designer
what we wanted. He was easy going and easy to work with," said
Joni. "The challenge was how to fit the two parts together to
flow as one house. He came up with ideas, and figured out an entry
from the old space to the new."
"The original home and the Yankee Barn match well. Everything
flows from one space to another," said Daniel.
"People
don't even notice this is an addition," added Joni. "From
the outside, you might think the Yankee Barn is the original home."
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Joni and
Daniel borrowed a few ideas from the Yankee Barn show home including
the centerpiece of a three-story fireplace open to both the Great
Room and the dining room. |
To both complement
and blend with
the rustic finish of post and beam
frame in the original home, Joni and
Daniel chose planed beams for their
Yankee Barn addition.
"We like the traditional style of a post and beam.
Our post and beam had its limitations. We couldn't just move or remove a
beam to add on," said Joni. "The Yankee Barn post and beam didn't
have so many limitations. The new design needed to fit together with the
original house and work with the lay of the land."
A Yankee
Barn sunroom added along the existing structure helped tie the flow
from the new Great Room into the original kitchen. |
"As recommended, we hired
a supervisor that had erected Yankee Barns to guide our builder. He
was worth his weight in gold," said Joni. "The Yankee Barn
addition has given us the new space we needed and blended nicely with
the space we had." |
A Yankee
Barn sunroom added along the existing structure helped tie the flow
from the new Great Room into the original kitchen. |
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The kid-friendly
design has an
open layout so the family can
be together plus cozy spaces
including a clubhouse under the
stairs that can be converted to
closet space.
"We wanted to add all the things that were missing
in our home," said Andrea. With a growing family, Andrea and
 David
wanted to gather the family in a large Great Room, double the size
of the kitchen, add a master bedroom and bath with stone tile shower,
and include a play area for the children.
"We had a
post and beam and wanted the addition to match," said David.
After looking at many timber frame companies, Andrea and David met
with Bruce Parsons, one of the Yankee Barn designers.
"He
sold us. He was phenomenal. He described in detail how the addition
could work," said David. "We told him our ideas, and the
constraints of our existing house and the site. He took it from there."
Andrea and
David were impressed
with the "breathtaking" fireplace
in the Yankee Barn show home
and imitated the design in their
Great Room.
"Bruce patiently addressed
all of our initial questions and demonstrated a true knowledge of
design and building. In that short amount of time, he was able to
paint a real image of how a Yankee Barn addition could work for us."
"The original house felt open, and we continued this in
the Yankee Barn. We made the layout open so the family could be together,"
said Andrea.
From the new kitchen, the couple
can be part of the activity in the Great Room, as well as in
the children's play area. David has a catering business and
the couple often entertains extended family and friends.
"You just can't do this amount of open space with
conventional construction," said David. "We like the
timber frame, and the Yankee Barn addition, from top to bottom.
The transitions from old to new couldn't be done any smoother." |
The
main living level does not have any walls to define rooms. Activity
in the Great Room and in the play area can be viewed from the
kitchen. |
The kitchen
has been doubled in
size and connects the existing
structure to the new addition.
"It doesn't feel like two houses," said Andrea.
"The new addition looks splendid and has joined with our 'old'
house perfectly."
"Maybe someday we'll build a
second home. We wouldn't hesitate for a minute to call upon Yankee
Barn." |
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In the Yankee Barn addition, Joni and Daniel added the living space they
wanted including a Great Room, dining room, offices, and bedrooms. Their
existing structure with kitchen, family room, and master bedroom was left
untouched with transitions from old to new through the dining room and new
sunroom.
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Andrea and David's renovated kitchen creates a seamless transition from
the old structure to the new Yankee Barn addition. In the addition, they
created an open living space and the features their old home lacked, including
a Great Room, play area, laundry, office, and master bedroom suite. |
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From the renovated
kitchen, the
existing structure transitions
through the dining room into
the new Great Room.
A Yankee Barn addition has the flexibility to blend in with the
original house or ramble on as a separate structure in the tradition of
"New England Extended Architecture."
In an ideal world, the design and placement of the addition would be based
on personal preference for movement and sight lines within the home, as
well as curb appeal. In the real world, the original structure and the site
may be limiting factors. The design must work with the existing ceiling
heights, window placement, roof pitch, and framing. Site characteristics
must also be considered, including setbacks, the slope of the land, and
the location of utilities, wells, and septic.
Joni and Daniel wanted their addition to blend with the existing house.
The large Yankee Barn addition appears to be the dominant wing. Porches
wrap the structure to tie the old to the new. A sunroom placed along the
side of the existing house creates a transition from the old kitchen to
the new Great Room.
The goal in Andrea and David's addition was to allow the existing structure
to continue to be a traditional farmhouse with the addition attached like
a New England barn. Using stone veneer and barn doors on the lower level
with small windows above creates the barn façade. Inside, the renovated
kitchen in the existing structure is the transition point to the new Great
Room and play area.
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Gary Tipson of Dulverton Homes Inc. in West Newbury, Massachusetts,
has built custom homes since 1979. Andrea and David's addition was his first
Yankee Barn project. Here's his advice to future barn builders:"
A Yankee Barn project, since it is a bit unusual, might look daunting when
you first look at it, but it all worked out well.
We had a Yankee Barn supervisor to help raise the frame and put on the panels.
It was helpful when building the first one. We didn't need a supervisor
after going through the process once. We knew what to do by the second Yankee
Barn.
The frame went together very fast in four or five days, then the crane arrived
for the panels. My framing crew had never done a post and beam, but building
a Yankee Barn is intuitive. It wasn't intimidating. A Yankee Barn goes up
and is tight to the weather really fast.
The crew enjoyed doing the Yankee Barn and wanted to know when we would
do another one. In late fall, we did another Yankee Barn on a tough site
along the shores of a lake. This added some difficulty in moving around
the site, but we worked through it.
The people at Yankee Barn are flexible and easy to get along with. When
we call with a question, they answer right away. The plans give you what
you need. All the information is there. The handbook is great. I read through
it before we started the first one, and kept it on site. It walks you through
the process. We didn't need it as much for the second Yankee Barn, but we
referred to it as needed, and it helped us with the Yankee Barn stairs and
railings. We hope to do more Yankee Barns in the future." |
