Renovation of a 19th Century Farmhouse
A derelict old 1830s farm house in Buckland, MA was the perfect project to restore and renovate into a modern high efficiency home with all the charm and feel of 19th century New England homestead. This is an ongoing project with the owner as he wanted to take his time and be involved with the project hands on as much as his busy work schedule allowed.
When purchased, the house was indeed in sad shape and much of the first year was spent simply cleaning out piles of trash, deconstructing anything that could not be saved and evaluating what could be saved. It was decided that the back addition needed to come down, but that meant it could be replaced with a new post and beam two story addition to give the original 2 bed room house a third bedroom and 4 bathrooms (one for each bedroom and one on the first floor) to allow for use as a bed and breakfast. The original main house was structural solid, but need the foundation repaired, sills replaced, chimneys rebuilt, windows replaced and exterior walls thickened for super insulating.
Tearing down the old addition also made it easier to dig a new basement and lower the old basement floor in the main house. This gave the entire house a full useable basement with 8’ ceilings and insulated walls. The home owner also wanted to make this a community project as much as possible, so friends were invited to cut beams and shave pegs and one cold fall day to raise the structure by hand, complete with pot luck food, live traditional fiddle music, and fires going in the restored fireplaces.
Once the new addition was closed for the winter work began inside. In keeping with the traditional feel the walls and ceilings are hand plastered and the interior door trim has a matching 1/4 round molding on all the new doors to match the old door frames still found in the main house. Wide pine wood floors grace the new kitchen and master bedroom. Heated tile floors make sure your feet are warm in the mudroom and bathrooms. The downstairs bathroom has zero threshold shower and waterproof floors.
When purchased, the house was indeed in sad shape and much of the first year was spent simply cleaning out piles of trash, deconstructing anything that could not be saved and evaluating what could be saved. It was decided that the back addition needed to come down, but that meant it could be replaced with a new post and beam two story addition to give the original 2 bed room house a third bedroom and 4 bathrooms (one for each bedroom and one on the first floor) to allow for use as a bed and breakfast. The original main house was structural solid, but need the foundation repaired, sills replaced, chimneys rebuilt, windows replaced and exterior walls thickened for super insulating.
Tearing down the old addition also made it easier to dig a new basement and lower the old basement floor in the main house. This gave the entire house a full useable basement with 8’ ceilings and insulated walls. The home owner also wanted to make this a community project as much as possible, so friends were invited to cut beams and shave pegs and one cold fall day to raise the structure by hand, complete with pot luck food, live traditional fiddle music, and fires going in the restored fireplaces.
Once the new addition was closed for the winter work began inside. In keeping with the traditional feel the walls and ceilings are hand plastered and the interior door trim has a matching 1/4 round molding on all the new doors to match the old door frames still found in the main house. Wide pine wood floors grace the new kitchen and master bedroom. Heated tile floors make sure your feet are warm in the mudroom and bathrooms. The downstairs bathroom has zero threshold shower and waterproof floors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Village Carpentry
|
|
