Back to their Roots
A Creative Addition to the Family Home
A Passion
For Art— Sharon and Jean-Yves bring a wide-open interior space into the family home
Fifty-six years ago, Sharon’s dad set out to build a modest house, a compact three-bedroom cape, in their small Massachusetts town. “My dad built the house himself in 1941 as our family home. We decided to purchase the house and move in, because I had such wonderful memories of growing up here.”
Although they greatly valued the experience of living in the family home, Sharon found she needed much more space to further her passion for photography and the fine arts. “I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted in the addition, and we had some very particular requirements. 
I needed high ceilings to accommodate the rigging for the photographic lighting I use, and I wanted lots of windows with plenty of natural light for my artwork. I also needed a great deal of open floor space, with no posts or other supports—whatever we settled on, it had to be a wide-open interior.”
Sharon and Jean-Yves came to architect Anne Snelling Lee to begin the design process. Because of the site characteristics they ended up expanding the design somewhat beyond their original plans. “We made the addition a bit bigger at Anne’s suggestion, allowing us to add a two car drive-under garage beneath the studio. It was a very efficient use of the new space ... and believe me, in this climate it’s a wonderful thing to have during the winter!”
The Importance Of A Perfect Fit
Sharon was also initially concerned about how the addition would ‘fit’ with the existing house. “We had to eliminate a room because of town septic requirements, and I also wanted to be sure the floors matched up perfectly between the old and new construction.” They came up with the idea of re-building the extra room into a connector between the two structures, satisfying the town and, at the same time, simplifying the construction process.
“When Anne originally did the plans, we first considered post and beam,” Sharon said. “We also looked into conventional construction, but we quickly decided on going with Yankee Barn Homes. We looked at a bunch of other post and beam companies, but we really liked the YBH product—the finish was much nicer, less ‘blocky-looking’ than the other plans ... the others just didn’t look as polished.”
Old and new from the back—Sharon’s family home showing a graceful transition into the Yankee Barn.
They chose G.M. Bergeron Inc. as their builder. Sharon felt they had an excellent experience with them, which she credits to an effective partnership between a responsive builder and Yankee Barn’s site supervisor, Ricky Bressette. “The workmanship of the structure was beautiful, amazingly nicely done, and with his knowledge of the YBH building system, Ricky was a real benefit to leading the team.”
“I feel like the whole experience truly exceeded my expectations,” Sharon said, “and I guess it comes down to three things ... great materials, great workmanship and a great supervisor ... a wonderful partnership throughout the whole experience.”
Above:The connector room opening into the addition— note the smooth integration between the structures. Below: Anne Snelling Lee’s original drawing of the house and Yankee Barn addition.
total living square footage of addition: 864 sq. ft.
Floor Plan
First Floor
Second Floor
Basement/Garage
