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| Design your own floor plan by visiting our layout section. Think through aspects of laying our your new home. |
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| "Yankee
Barn is so flexible to work with. They came up with
what we wanted and made it work on our site. We marvel
every time we go in our house. This is just what we
wanted our home to be." |
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Richard and Christine had lived in various places around the world
during their careers. Planning for retirement, they purchased a three-acre
site on Martha's Vineyard. Five years later, with Richard taking early
retirement and Christine working through a three-year commitment in
London, they started to think about building their dream home. Richard
and Christine designed a separate wing using a Carolina frame for
a large master bedroom with sitting area, bath, library, walk-in closet,
and laundry room.
"I came across Yankee Barn in a magazine. I looked at all the
post and beam companies. I liked the look of the barn," said
Richard. He ordered the Design Guide through the Yankee Barn Web site
and spent several months working his ideas. "I had fun working
with the designs, trying to get the spaces we wanted." During
a visit back in the states, Richard and Christine stayed at the Yankee
Barn model home in Grantham, New Hampshire, and met with Bruce Parsons,
one of the Yankee Barn designers. |
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"Yankee Barn had the refinements Christine wanted, and the openness and
charm I wanted," said Richard. Christine agreed, "I liked
the combination of old and new. I wanted a contemporary house with
all the modern conveniences, plus the beautiful beams to hold it
all together and give us the vaulted, open space."
Richard and Christine knew what they wanted inside: an open floor
plan for the kitchen, dining area, and Great Room; a large master
bedroom suite to escape to; and guestrooms for family and friends.
"We gave Bruce what I thought was an impossible task,"
said Richard. "I knew what I wanted on the inside. I knew what
I didn't want on the outside. He listened and came up with what
we wanted both inside and out." |
Richard and Christine designed a separate wing using a Carolina frame for a large master bedroom with sitting area, bath, library, walk-in closet, and laundry room. |
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By adding a granary to the gable end of the Mark I frame, Richard and Christine gained extra light in the kitchen, along with floor space for an informal dining area. |
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The starting point was the Mark I frame to enclose
the Great Room with cathedral ceiling and large window wall, a dining
room, and large country kitchen. For added space and light in the
kitchen and breakfast area, a granary was added on the gable end.
On one end of the granary, Christine created a tiled potting room
with access outside, making it easy to bring plants in and out.
Upstairs in the Mark I, a study doubles as a guestroom and the balcony
serves as an office with a view.
For a private master bedroom suite, a Carolina frame was added
to one side of the main living area. This encloses the bedroom,
bath, library, sitting area, walk-in closet, and laundry room.
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For guests, a Horse Barn frame was added to the opposite side of the main
living area with a garage on the first level and guestrooms, bath, and a
sitting area upstairs.
"This is a great house to entertain in. We have a sense of space inside
for dinner parties. For large parties, we open the house up to the deck
and terrace," said Christine. "Our children and grandchildren
have one side of the house, while we have maximum privacy and quiet on
the other side."
| "Working with the folks at Yankee
Barn was easy, even from the distance," said Christine who
continued to work in London and Virginia during the design and construction
process.
"Logistics and construction went smoothly. Multiple shipments
came in on the ferry during the peak summer season. Everything fit
together perfectly," said Richard. "The quality of materials
and craftsmanship is first rate, and there was good communication
between Yankee Barn and the builder."
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The main living area flows from the kitchen
through the dining room into the Great Room with views over
the rolling hills of the wooded site. |
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"Having lived and breathed the layout, the final house is so
close to my first drawings," said Richard. "When I stand
in a room, I remember what I was thinking when I envisioned it. That's
just the way it turned out. I couldn't be happier in the house or
with the house."
"We ask ourselves if we would do anything differently,"
said Christine. "I can't say we would. Our house is roomy and
comfortable. I'm very happy with it. It's unique, not the norm, yet
it fits in to the environment."
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Using the flexible frames from
Yankee Barn, Richard and Christine's
home tucks in between two knolls on
the property preserving a beech tree
and creating a courtyard to enjoy the
natural area.
A Yankee Barn, like a traditional home, can be greatly enhanced with
proper siting on the land. The selection and placement of Yankee Barn
frames provide flexibility to fit both the desired floor plan and
the landscape. With the help of a Yankee Barn designer, homeowners
choose from several basic frames varying the length and adding frame
extensions or dormers to meet width, height, layout, or site requirements.
"We knew what we wanted for the basic size and location of our
rooms on one floor of living space," said Christine. "But,
our ideas didn't work with the land. Yankee Barn was flexible and
made it work."
The natural features of the land presented a design challenge. To
overcome the obstacle, Richard and Christine, with the help of Bruce,
one of the Yankee Barn designers, took a bird's eye view of the land.
"We had the ideal layout, but what we wanted didn't work on the
steep hill," said Richard. "Bruce turned the design around,
preserved everything we wanted, and made it work with the challenging
topography."
On the entrance side of the three-acre site, a knob of land created
a natural barrier from the road. Richard and Christine wanted to keep
this sense of privacy. To complicate the placement of the home, they
wanted to preserve a second knoll with a beech tree into the landscaping.
The house tucks into the spot on the height of the land, wrapping
around the two knolls.
"The house sits beautifully on the land and takes full advantage
of the natural environment," said Christine. "With our hilly
lot, the exposure is right for the rooms."
Just to keep life interesting, Richard and Christine faced one more
obstacle. "We also had height restrictions and were right at
the limit. Yankee Barn made changes at the last minute to take the
house down several inches," said Richard.
Lowering the roofline had the added benefit of creating a cozier feeling
inside the home. "I wanted the house to feel comfortable and
warm," said Christine.
"The Vineyard has an incredible environment. We wanted to put
something beautiful on the property," continued Christine. "The
design fits in with the wild area around the house. We positioned
the house to save an old beech tree. I like to sit under the tree
and look at our house."
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Room by Room is the premier tool for building a timber
frame home. The newly published Schiffer Design Book has been created
by Tina Skinner and Tony Hanslin, Chairman and CEO of Yankee Barn
Homes. Previously, the pair collaborated on another design book
published in 2001 called Barn Style Homes: Design Ideas for
Timber Frame Homes.
Room by Room: Designing Your Timber Frame Home walks step-by-step
through the basic decisions that go into creating a custom-built
barn style home. The book offers information about home essentials,
such as windows, doors, and fireplaces, and illustrates the possibilities
for the look and feel of a home and its living spaces. Pages of
photos offer examples to help make decisions on dimensions, configurations,
and décor. Twenty floor plans are presented for study along
with advice for crafting the living space.
Published in workbook style, the book is intended to be a tool to
write ideas and make notes during the design process. Room by
Room will be available beginning in May 2004 through bookstores
for a retail price of $19.95. Yankee Barn Homes will sell the book
direct by phone, mail, or through the Web site for a discounted
price of $13 plus shipping ($2 domestic/$5 Canada and Mexico/$8
international).
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Many people tour the Yankee Barn show home in Grantham, New Hampshire,
for ideas and inspiration. Yankee Barn Homes encourages potential
homeowners to spend the night in the model home and meet with a
designer the next morning. Soon, our southern neighbors can visit
a Yankee Barn and work with a designer a little closer to home.
In July 2004, Yankee Barn plans to open a new model home and design
office in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
"We have built quite a few Yankee Barns in Virginia, Maryland,
and Pennsylvania," said Rob Knight, Vice President of Yankee
Barn Homes. "We wanted to make it easier for people to see
a Yankee Barn, and get to know us, without traveling to New Hampshire.
We also wanted to give more people the opportunity to stay overnight
in the model without a long waiting list."
The Brandywine Yankee Barn has an updated country theme with a traditional
exterior to fit into the Pennsylvania neighborhood setting. The
design starts with the Anderson frame to enclose the main living
area. To take advantage of the view, the frame was sited with the
long eave side facing the view. Adding a bump out dormer created
height for the center Great Room cathedral ceiling and window wall.
An ell was added to enclose a large master bedroom suite on the
first floor. By using a guesthouse frame with connector for the
garage, the design provides for a bonus room upstairs.
Upon completion, the model home will be featured in a Yankee Barn
Homeowners Newsletter and in the winter issue of House Beautiful
Home Building, expected on newsstands in late December 2004.
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Photographs: Suki Coughlin, Stylist: Paula McFarland
©2004 Yankee Barn Homes, Tony Hanslin, Chairman and CEO
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