The Bennington Carriage House: 6 Years Later

I live in The Bennington Carriage House.  Full disclosure, I’m BeamBabe. Seven years ago my husband and I designed our carriage house with the help of the talented staff at Yankee Barn Homes. I did not work for Yankee Barn at the time (that came later). It was an amazing experience and I’m still in awe of what the staff at YBH can do “walking you through your home” before one post or beam has been cut.

Today I want to talk about what it’s like to actually live in a Yankee Barn. Simply stated, it’s wonderful! Other than the new everything one always experiences when moving into a just-built home, a Yankee Barn offers things other houses might not have, features that delight over and over, year after year. The gorgeous architectural eye candy each post and beam offers always makes me smile. The energy efficient insulation keeps the house evenly heated in winter and completely cooled in summer. Our large thermal paned windows afford expansive views. I particularity enjoy star gazing through our bedroom wall-of-windows from the comfort of my warm bed. All of these things impress on day one and continue to do so as the days and months stretch into years.

The uniqueness of our carriage house has not gotten old. Chances are you’ll be the only one in your neighborhood (or town, for that matter) with such an unusual home. People in our community know us as the couple who live in “that beautiful red barn”. The house has become something of an internet sensation on Houzz, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram.  Fun Story: One day while scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, up popped a picture of our house. Posted by someone I didn’t know ( a friend of a friend of a friend…), she commented that our Yankee Barn was her dream house. How many of you see your home pictured on social media as someone’s dream home???? I was ridiculously pleased!

The photos accompanying this article were not professionally shot (as you can plainly tell). I took them this past weekend in order to show you what it’s like around our house on any given day (this one happened to be  very cold). As the years have progressed and the grounds have matured, we find living here to be darn near perfect. The house has withstood a hurricane (Irene), a flood (seriously, our little brook was over it’s banks), a small earthquake and numerous high wind thunder and snow storms. This place is a R.O.C.K. We live in northern New England, an area known for a storm called the Nor’Easter. Wild winds and heavy snow are the norm around here. Over the past few years, heavy snow has collapsed more than one roof in our town. I’ve seen snow measured in feet on ours. No problem – not one! The house is a little barn fortress. During these storms we like to turn all the outside lights on, the inside lights off,  and watch the snow swirl around us (with a glass of wine, of course). While others are sweating out wild weather, we are safe and sound, toasty-warm from the radiant heat in our floors, watching the snow fly by.  Life is Good!

If you’d like to see interior photos and/or floor plans of our home, please visit The Bennington Carriage House page.