Preserving Tradition:
Barry and Chrysoula Keep the Past Unchanged with their new Yankee Barn
“This Should Not Be Disturbed”
— A Careful Commitment to Tradition
Barry and Chrysoula Expand Their Classic Farmhouse with a New Yankee Barn
When Barry and Chrys found their 1700’s farmhouse in central New Hampshire, they knew it was their “dream come true. We were drawn to this house,” Barry said. Settled on 90 rural acres, the property had 10 acres of open fields, a barn, three horse paddocks, classic white fencing and miles of fieldstone walls. Their only visible neighbor was a matching cape across the road, which the local bank had on display as a portrait in their lobby. “I thought to myself, ‘A person could travel this stretch of road over the past 200 years, and notice so little difference.’”
Respect for tradition, structural requirements, matching the interior styling and finish, and a host of other considerations ... the details of Yankee Barn’s addition to this 1700’s cape made all the difference in preserving its classic look and feel.
What the farmhouse didn’t have was brought home to Barry in discussion with a relative. “After looking over the kitchen he said, ‘Where’s the dishwasher?’ My wife and I shrugged our shoulders and pointed to each other.”
Although the cape was restored in the late 1980s and had original exposed beams, handmade cabinets and wide pine floors, it also had all the issues of an old house. “All the charm of ‘old New England,’” Barry smiled, “and all the drawbacks. It was small (only1600 sq. ft.) and had none of the amenities. All those little rooms, which were easy to close off during a cold winter, made things difficult for entertaining and watching kids. When I tried to explain it in terms my relative would understand, like classic cars, he replied, “I think Model T’s are cool but I wouldn’t drive one to work every day!”
Charlie, Barry, Elena, Maria and Chrys at the fence in front of their Yankee Barn addition.
Changing Priorities And New Plans
Four years and two children later, Barry and Chrys knew they had to consider an addition, and they quickly decided their overriding priority was maintaining and preserving the character of the original house. “Whatever we did, it would have to match the style and feel of the farmhouse exactly. A pair of matching 200-year-old white capes, with nothing but stone walls, woods and hay fields as far as the eye can see should not be disturbed.”
After meeting with architects and builders they found their simple priority not at all simple to execute. The challenges in opening up and adding to a classic house resulted in cost estimates of over 75% of market value, to gain only 33% more space ... “a huge disappointment.”
An Old Scrapbook Provides The Solution
“We didn’t know what to do until our neighbor showed us some original pictures of the house. There in the photo was a beautiful barn attached to the ell, which the previous owner had torn down. We were giddy!” Barry said. “There was the solution ... it wouldn’t upset the rustic look of our surroundings, and it gave us all the square footage we could want.”
A fireplace made from fieldstone gathered from their land highlights the Yankee Barn great room.
After discarding numerous floorplans Chrys came up with the simple idea of converting the living room of the old house into the master bedroom, turning all the ‘little rooms’ into closets and bathrooms ... “and suddenly the downstairs became one big master suite, and the plans were complete.”
Barry and Chrys chose Yankee Barn Homes for their project for reasons that were simple and straightforward “... they were local, they promoted work they did with other additions, they had a model house we could stay in, they offered the services of a designer ... and they looked like ‘Yankee barns!’”
In fact, Yankee Barn Homes has a long tradition of successfully planning and building additions to classic structures. The flexibility and tradition of the YBH post-and-beam frame and panelized wall and roof systems provide the ideal platform from which to design an addition to a classic building (see the “Design Notes” sidebar for the special challenges in this addition). “We could increase our square footage by almost 200%—a much better return on investment,” Barry said.
The design goal was “to keep it simple and open. We looked at countless other barn homes and noticed many tended to be overdone ... so much so that the charm and simplicity was lost.” Barry and Chrys chose a 28’ x 40’ floor plan, with half the barn dedicated to the great room left open to the ceiling, and two lofts above for offices, baths and guest quarters.
The view across the great room showing one of the most interesting architectural details—copper stair balusters.
YBH designers maintained the sense of ‘old New England charm’ between the original cape and the addition by using Doug Fir timbers which the YBH shop worked to match the original beams. Rough-sawn ceilings, 12” pine board flooring and a novel use of copper balusters on the balconies (“like the bars inside a horse barn”) further enhanced the effect.
“We used the moss-covered stones gathered on our property for the fireplace, and we kept the hand-made cabinets for the kitchen ... but we added a soapstone countertop, a 6-burner range and, yes, a dishwasher!”
Barry remembers when his relative returned to the house after the Yankee Barn was complete. “He said, ‘Hey! You have a dishwasher, welcome to the 21st century!’ Then he paused and, even though he’s not a person given to complements, finally admitted, ‘You know, now this house has it all.’”
Floor Plan
square footage: 2,250
First Floor
Second Floor
Design Notes:
A Seamless Fit Between Traditional Values and Contemporary Living
When Barry and Chrysoula met with Yankee Barn, their strong respect for traditional values was a clear indication of how important attention-to-detail would be in this project.
The Yankee Barn had to meld with the existing house and land in more ways than one. Barry and Chrys wanted the windows on the addition to look very ‘barn-y’, so as not to take away from the structure’s classic barn style. However, legally the windows had to be of a certain size to allow for emergency service access.
They wanted the posts and beams in the addition to match closely to the original 200-year-old beams. The YBH shop lightly ‘skip-planed’ and stained the beams to match the hand-hewn character of the originals.
But even more important was the fact that a new structure, on a full modern foundation, was going up right next to a traditional fieldstone-foundation farmhouse ... which, over 200 years, has ‘shifted’ in every possible dimension!
In situations like this YBH usually leaves the panels between buildings 18” short, and the builder creates the connecting elements. But in this case the addition was a ‘direct-connect’, requiring walls and rooflines between the structures to match up almost perfectly.
‘Old-to-new’ additions tend to be more expensive because of the difficulty in joining two buildings. The goal is to make a minimal impact on the existing structure, so that it can be lived in while the addition is being built.
Yankee Barns are uniquely suited to this because they go up so quickly—a frame can be built and enclosed within days. The disruption to the original home is minimal, and contractors can finish their tasks comfortably in the Yankee Barn shell.