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"I grew up on the 85-acre farm where I always wanted to build a house. As a child, I would go into the massive hay barn on the farm and I was fascinated by its posts and beams and openness," explained Janet.

When the time came to build on her parent's farm outside of Washington, DC, she contacted Yankee Barn Homes. With a vacation home in the Eastman community in Grantham, New Hampshire, she had become familiar with several Yankee Barns built in the community. "I liked the Yankee Barn style."

If the truth be told and Janet had her way, she would have built a glass house. "I relish wide open spaces throughout the house. Then I can stand anywhere and catch the panoramic views. The woods on one side, the back pasture, the hay fields. The land is so beautiful; it beckons to come inside. When I'm inside the house, I want to remain in touch with the exterior environment."

To begin the design of a wide open Yankee Barn, Janet worked with Bruce Parsons, a designer at Yankee Barn Homes.

"Before we started the design, I invited Bruce to walk the land. I wanted to share with him the land that was important to me. I showed him the fence row that grew over the fences my father and brothers built, the back meadow and how the building site eased down to the creek bed about 300 feet away," said Janet.

"The siting of the house is perfect. It fits snugly into the crest of the hill."

"Bruce easily guided me as we considered various possibilities. Bruce kept me on course," said Janet.

Janet designed the first floor living room with a flat, raised ceiling reserving the space upstairs for a large master bedroom suite with a cathedral ceiling and sweeping views.

She also worked closely with Russ Prudhomme, Design and Engineering Officer. "Bruce and Russ took my ideas and converted them into my Yankee Barn."

First Janet selected the Yankee Barn Hampton frame to enclose the three stories of living space, including a full-size third floor loft.

Next, she designed a place in her home for her concert grand piano. This piano traveled from one room to another, luckily all on paper, during the design.

Originally Janet envisioned a separate room in an ell off the side of the main house.

"The separate room didn't balance with the rest of the house I wanted." So she moved the grand piano back into the main house. She briefly considered interior walls between the music, living and dining areas, but decided the space would be too cramped.

"I realized how nice it would be to have the three areas set as one wide open space. I took out all the interior doors and walls between the areas," said Janet. "With a Yankee Barn, you have flexibility. You can plan a wall and then choose to build it or exclude it since the post and beam frame carries the weight."

The wide open spaces Janet created were ideal for entertaining. Part of her design plan focused on people easily flowing throughout the house, onto the three-sided screen porch, the deck or onto the wraparound front porch.

Instead of the soaring cathedral ceiling used in other Yankee Barn living rooms, Janet wanted the space on the second level for a large master bedroom, sitting area, and master bath. "I wanted to enjoy the views from upstairs," she said. For added height on the first floor, she raised the ceiling by a foot. She has a cathedral ceiling in the foyer and in the master bedroom.

With views to the meadow and woods, the dining room is open to the living room and the kitchen, as well as the deck.

The upper windows in the master bedroom also allow Janet to see the full moon on cloudless nights. "It is as if I am sleeping under the stars."

"I wanted my home to look as if it had been built in the late 1800s resembling other local homes," said Janet. With a dormer over the main entrance, a wrap around porch, and clapboard siding, Janet created the look of an 1800s farmhouse. "As my guests enter my ‘circa 1870' home, they instead are introduced to a design layout that only Yankee Barn can create for today's lifestyle."

In the final design plan for the main living area, the large kitchen and gathering room were walled off. As the home was being built, the styling of the center stairs with landing offered sufficient privacy.

"The Yankee Barn folks were just marvelous. They hung in there with me throughout the design and build especially during the local permitting process. Everyone was pleasant and dedicated. Russ stepped in and provided technical information regarding the structure of a Yankee Barn to the county permitting department." "At the end of the day, I wouldn't consider any other type of construction," commented Janet.

"Yankee Barn offered me the special ability to create a distinctive home on a distinctive property."

David Ely was all smiles in February when the camera crew from the National Association of Home Builders Production Group arrived to film the raising of his Yankee Barn in Eastman in Grantham, New Hampshire. The crew taped the barn raising for the Do-It-Yourself network's new show, Assembly Required.

The camera watched the builder's crew from Millstream Structures of Newport, New Hampshire assemble the frame and wall and roof panels. In addition to interviews with Ely and the home's Yankee Barn designer, Bruce Parsons, the production crew toured the Yankee Barn factory and visited Paul and Sherry DeFlavio's completed Yankee Barn in Vermont and interviewed this home's Yankee Barn designer, Bob Mahoney.

"Yankee Barn brings in all the light I had hoped for. My other design goal was to incorporate passive solar attributes," said Janet. "I could achieve this because Yankee Barn constructs each panel with specific insulation and top of the line windows and doors."

With the additions of a wrap-around front porch on the south side and a three-sided screen porch on the north, the house itself is buffered year-round, Janet explained. By installing at least two walls with windows in every room, she can enjoy the cross breezes three seasons of the year.

Yankee Barn Homes offers barn kits for storage, animals, and to meet the needs of the gentlemen farmer and equestrian enthusiast. These barns have been created to provide customers a unique structure combining the authenticity of century-old post and beam barns with the design and construction to meet today's building codes.

The design of the barn begins with a choice of three frames: 24 x 36 frame with hay loft, 36 x 48 story-and- a-half frame, and a gambrel-style frame with second floor storage. Barn owners can choose various lengths of the barn and barn door sizes, along with design options including gable dormers for eave doors, horse stalls, cupolas, and loft ladders.

Standard barn kits include rough-sawn Eastern White pine for the frame with Douglas Fir available as an option. The wall panels arrive complete with pre-stained 1x10 shiplap and Eastern White pine wall purlins. Other siding and trim options are available. Roof panels consist of 2x8 hemlock and 1x8 Eastern White pine roof boards.

Barn owners can expect the benefits of a manufactured barn including ease and speed of construction and the quality of materials. Much like a Yankee Barn home, the barn kit will arrive at the site on a flat bed tractor trailer. The barn will be raised on site by a builder's crew with the frame erected, wall panels attached, second floor assembled, and roof panels set. An independent Yankee Barn Homes certified installer is available for additional guidance in erecting the barn.

For more information, contact the Yankee Barn Homes office at info@yankeebarnhomes.com or 800-258-9786.

Photographs: Suki Coughlin, Stylist: Paula McFarland
©2005 Yankee Barn Homes, Tony Hanslin, Chairman and CEO