Explore Yankee Barn Homes was a huge success. What is EXPLORE YBH? It’s a fact-finding day for people interested in building with Yankee Barn Homes. Included was a chance to meet the staff, hear in-depth explanations about our process, meet representatives from Marvin Windows, ask questions, see how the plant operates, and tour a current Yankee Barn Home build site. Here are some of the highlights.
10 Steps to a Yankee Barn Home & a Virtual Tour
Once folks had a chance to settle in with coffee and donuts and view a giant display wall of current YBH projects, Kerri Tewilliger, Design Manager, did an in-depth presentation on the Yankee Barn product through the use of Ten Steps to a Yankee Barn Home (see more). The information was specific and touched on all aspects of the build process such as finding land, financing, permitting, contractors, when payments are expected to be made, the cost-per-square-foot of an average YBH build, wall panel construction, types of insulation used, and why certain builds cost more (or less). People were encouraged to ask questions, and Kerri was there with all the facts and figures to answer each and every one. Jon Sevigny, Senior Designer, followed up with a demonstration of our Archicad system, showing people how they’d be able to view every angle of their home and tour it virtually, before one post or beam was cut.
Yankee Barn Factory Tour
Next up was a factory tour. Chris Sevigny, Director of Production & Architecture, and Ryan Avery, Shop Foreman, led the group through the YBH Wall and Panel Shop, explaining the process and answering questions. People had a chance to see several panels under construction, hear how our trademarked panels are an improvement on SIP panels, and examine a cupola being built. Then it was off to the Timber Shop to view our impressive saws and the gorgeous Douglas fir used for all our timber frames. As a bonus, people got to take home pieces of beam ends as a souvenir!
Picnic Lunch & a Construction Site Tour
At noon, Yankee Barn Homes hosted a casual picnic lunch. It was a nice chance to sit and relax, get to know one another and talk all things ‘house-building’. The hour passed quickly and we were off to a YBH current build site located within the community of Eastman. All the mornings explanations and discussions were brought together as folks were able to walk around and step inside an erected Yankee Barn kit home. The Eastman House is a smaller home at 1830 square feet, with 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. As the day came to a close, we were confident people were leaving with a great deal of valuable information about Yankee Barn Homes, our product, our process and most importantly, our highly qualified staff.
