How To Take One Old Barn and Call It Home

By: Max Alexander, This Old House magazine (Page 4 of 5)

Photo: Russell Kaye

This unrenovated barn is part of an 1849 farmstead in Carlisle, Mass., the site of the current TOH TV show project. Here, it's shown before construction to turn it into living space began last April.

Photo: Russell Kaye

By August, the interior of the barn was nearly gutted, leaving its exposed timber frame and soaring ceiling intact.

A rendering of the finished "living hall" as it will look in February.

Photo: Olson Photographic

The rustic exterior of Roy Reardon and Patricia Hyne's guest house was left intact in its conversion from horse barn to house, which was designed by Robert Dean Architects.

Photo: Olson Photographic

The interior shows off much of the original structure's framework, including old loft beams in the kitchen. The fireplace in the adjacent great room was added in the conversion, mirroring one that already existed in the sleeping quarters.

Photo: Peter Vanderwarker

Gary Fudem turned a 200-year-old hay barn into this ocean-view home with the help of architect Bruce MacNelly. To sheathe the silolike hexagonal addition, he used old barn boards he'd collected from various buildings over the years.

Photo: Peter Vanderwarker

A bathroom in the addition shows off reused posts and beams that had been cut from the roof to make way for the addition. Salvaged barn boards cover the tub surround.

Photo: Ben Stechschulte

Sited to maximize views of the surrounding mountains, fields, and pond, Lindsey and Brian Shea's recreation barn houses a pool downstairs and a home office upstairs. It was designed by Brian, who is an architect

Photo: Ben Stechschulte

The interior of the structure was largely left intact, with windows added on both levels for more light and air.

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Saving a Part of the Past

The carpenters who built these barns would appreciate the care with which renovators like Tom convert these old buildings. (And they would certainly recognize his half-lap scarf joint.) They assumed that the barns — like the surrounding farms — would be around for centuries.

As modernization forces small farms to shut down, leaving their outbuildings to the elements, converting a barn is one way to save a disappearing vernacular form. And by turning these "agricultural cathedrals," as Fossel calls them, into houses, Americans are also preserving their cultural heritage. "They recall a time when small communities gathered together for barn raisings and a self-sufficient farmer's world reached no farther than the town border," he says.

Ken Epworth, of The Barn People, says he is still enthralled each time he throws open the door to one of these relics for the first time and gazes up at the void. "You've got to give your eyes a few minutes to adjust," he says. "But then you start seeing things. You see that beautiful honey color of the wood. You have a structure with integrity. You've got history, mystery, and charm. That's hard to duplicate today."