Post and Beam Living

5 Master Bedroom Styles in theYankee Barn Homes Tradition

beambabe — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:25:31 +0000

This post is about master bedroom styles in the Yankee Barn Homes tradition, as there are still people who believe a post & beam bedroom is some sort of mash-up between red gingham, dark wood everywhere, and bear rugs. Not so! Follow me and I’ll show you the many different and unique ways Yankee Barn Homes clients have creatively designed and decorated that very private escape.

The Barn Home Style Master Bedroom

The barn home bedroom style can accommodate many different decor features. From contemporary to classic, to rustic-chic, these master bedrooms are very differently appointed, but equally inviting.

The Farmhouse Style Master Bedroom

A farmhouse style bedroom in a Yankee Barn Home can look a number of different ways. Again, it is far more about the individual owner’s taste and style than it is the style of the home itself, but here a few I found to be outstanding.

The Mountain Style Master Bedroom

The mountain style bedroom in a post and beam Yankee Barn Home can look just as you might envision, or something quite altogether different, yet still maintaining subtle signs of its location.

The Coastal Style Master Bedroom

The coastal style bedroom is light, bright, breezy and appears to have been effortless in it’s creation. Enjoying the sights and sounds of the ocean are second only to the comfort of the room. Soft color pallets and fluffy bedding are a “must”.

The Cottage Style Master Bedroom

The word cottage, or bungalow, is synonymous with cozy, comfy, quaint and cute. As such, the bedroom in these structures should reflect a good many, if not all, of these features somewhere within the room. These Yankee Barn Homes cottages succeeded beautifully.

Hopefully, this post was able to show you the many different and unique styles which are possible when decorating a Yankee Barn Homes post & beam master bedroom. Pleasant Dreams….

Yankee Barn Homes IN THE HAMPTONS!

beambabe — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:31:44 +0000

Not one, but two barn homes are currently under construction by Yankee Barn Homes in The Hamptons. WOW! Just the phrase “The Hamptons” conjures up thoughts of gorgeous homes, expansive stretches of pristine beach, and totally bucolic scenery. Add in the handsome look of two post & beam Yankee Barn Homes, and you’ve got magic.

Both barn homes in East Hampton are the brain-child of Jeffery Rosen of Jeffery Rosen Interior Design, Inc. and his business partner of ten years, Gerard Mingino. Jeffrey is also the current Creative Design Director at Yankee Barn Homes in Grantham, NH. In this post we’d like to take an in-depth look at the first house to go up, hereafter known as 53 Toilsome Lane.

Yankee Barn Homes In The Hamptons

This Yankee Barn home has been designed and built to look like a traditional low-key barn with the exterior sided in a board and baton pattern using a semi-transparent white stain (allowing the wood grain to show through). Let’s take a look at the first and second story floor plans, then delve deeper into where the post & beam barn is today in it’s build process.

The main body of the house has the traditional Yankee Barn Home full height living room with two and one-half stories of glass. There is also a small antique pine-paneled library, a second powder room and master suite on first floor. The second floor has three bedrooms, capturing all the ” barn style” high ceilings with beams showing, two baths, and children’s television/media area.

The basement runs under the entire house with 10 foot high ceilings, over-sized window wells, and a separate walkout entry. It includes a one bedroom guest apartment, a second bedroom, a media room, a second living room with fireplace and a gym. There are two bathrooms in basement – one for the guest apartment and one for the second bedroom. Floors are tumbled grey travertine pavers with radiant heat. Let’s take a look at where this house is in it’s build process.

Construction Begins

Just a few mere weeks ago, the post & beam barn home at 53 Toilsome Lane looked like this.

Ruff-cut roof cedar shingles go on, along with a galvanized steel gutter system while the cupola is already up. Wow, these Yankee Barn Homes in The Hamptons are going up fast!Around the back, the bump-out breakfast nook is visible, as are the openings that will soon contain French doors for both the nook and the dining room.

From the long view down the “street”, we can see the Yankee Barn at 53 Toilsome Lane is nearing completion as another at 51 Toilsome Lane begins it’s own building odyssey, but more on that English style barn home in the next post! Before we go inside for a first-time look, I want to show you the garage which sits smack in front of the house, cut in to the hill that the house sits on, giving the appearance of an old farm root cellar or storage shed. When the property is landscaped, this area is going to be a favorite of mine, I can already tell!

In this next picture, you can see a perfect size courtyard is taking shape between the two back doors. Fabulous!

Interior Pictures

While this house is still a ways from “turn-key” ready for it’s new owners (Yes – this Yankee Barn Homes in The Hamptons is for sale!) fixtures, some furniture and appliances have been installed. Oh, and did I mention this house is smart wired; one system allows you to link audio, alarm, lighting, cameras and the heating system together and control it from anywhere in the house, or remotely. For example: you can be in NH and change the temperature, see who might be around by way of a camera system, and turn the heat up or down. Smart home! The great room begins to get “staged”……then you step down three steps into a beautiful dining room……and through two beautiful sliding barn doors into a stunning post & beam kitchen. WOW!!!

Be sure to check back with Post & Beam Living as these Yankee Barn Homes in The Hamptons are certain to get the full professional photography treatment once completely finished – including landscaping. I guarantee they will be worth the wait!

4 Ways Yankee Barn Homes Are Living Green

beambabe — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:57:13 +0000

While you don’t hear so much about it in some circles lately, we at Yankee Barn Homes understand many people are still concerned with the effects on the environment when building and occupying a new home; they want to be ” living green”. Therefore, we would like to explain how and why we are a green company, without all the fanfare. Here it is, in unadorned plain text:

1. A Small Footprint

It is entirely possible to build a gorgeous post & beam home of whatever style you like, be it a barn home, carriage house, farmhouse, cottage, coastal or mountain, while living green within a smaller footprint. While your space above ground can “live large”, the impact on the earth may be kept to a minimum. Each one of the following homes is either under or just over 2,000 square feet. Take a look:

2. True Roof and Wall Panels

True Panels are custom designed for each Yankee Barn home and include full structural, framed openings for all doors, and most windows are installed. There is a 1 ½” space from the face of the insulation to the inside of the studs leaving very good and easy access for your electrician to run wire without disturbing the insulation. The True Panel System is extremely strong, energy efficient and cost effective, saving you time, money and labor, but best of all, they are extremely efficient at keeping the heat either in or out. They afford less fossil fuel use, hence living green is effortless.

3. The Use Of Douglas Fir Timber From Sustainable Forests

Yankee Barn Homes uses only renewable Douglas Fir for their post & beam frames and supports projects as impressive as The Boreal Deal. Energy Efficiency while living green has been a defining characteristic of Yankee Barn Homes for the past 40 years. A true way for a post & beam building company to support green action.

When looking to build a home with a small environmental footprint, a Yankee Barn home is your energy-efficient answer, as the structure is built with sustainability produced materials by a company that values environmental stewardship.

4. Excellent Passive Solar Gain

In Wikipedia, passive solar gain is described as such: “Solar Gain (also known as solar heat gain or passive solar gain) refers to the increase in temperature in a space, object or structure that results from solar radiation. The amount of solar gain increases with the strength of the sun, and with the ability of any intervening material to transmit or resist the radiation.”

Yankee Barn Homes uses of Low-E4 glass windows by Anderson, yet another way for living green. The new Low-E4™ glass reduces water spots up to 99% and minimizes dirt build-up on the window when activated by sunlight. saves time and money. Andersen Low-E4™ glass dries faster with fewer water spots but most importantly, energy-efficient Low-E4™ glass also adds the thermal protection of Low-E glass to a home.

Passive solar gain at work in Yankee Barn Homes:

So go ahead, contact Yankee Barn Homes; the earth will thank you and you’ll thank yourself!

A Contemporary Barn Home Farmhouse Progresses

beambabe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:00:04 +0000

In a previous post, Follow A Contemporary Barn-Style Farmhouse As It Goes From Design To Completion, I promised to keep you updated on the construction process of this house. As of last week, we find the house has left the drawing board, gone through the building of its components in the Yankee Barn Homes factory, and has arrived on-site in the state of Connecticut. Not only arrived, but is in the process of going up. In this post we’ll take a look at how the building is progressing, as well as the floor plans, so you might better understand the end result. It’s going to be quite special, indeed. First – the floor plans:

Now let’s take a look at how these plans are transforming into the real thing! Intending to be have a contemporary look and feel, the exterior of the farmhouse is already looking fantastic (and all we’re seeing at this point is the “house wrap”, intended as a barrier against air infiltration). Here, we’re looking at the dining room windows and the beginnings of the master bedroom ell.

To the left of the dining room windows is where the media room will be located.

A full shed dormer and bump-out breakfast nook adorn the back side of the home. No connector or carriage barn with guest quarters yet, but we can see the foundation has been poured (in the fore ground of this picture), so we know it’s coming soon!

The beginnings of a contemporary post & beam farmhouse take shape.

From the corner of the pool area, you can already tell this house is going to be spectacular. I can not wait to see it completed!

On the interior, the frame is not only visible but actually commands attention, even amongst all the chaos of construction.

Above is a peek at what will soon be the upper balcony, open to the great room below, along with a guest bath and guest bedrooms. The front left corner seen in this picture will eventually be an office which will have an open view of the great room.

Within a matter of months, this site will go from “construction” to one of occupied home. Check back soon, as I will be posting on this Yankee Barn Homes post & beam farmhouse again, once the exterior and interiors are completed. I can not wait to see this house when it’s finished, as it’s already looking like one spectacular barn home to me!

5 Reasons Why Barn Homes are THE BEST!!!!!

beambabe — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:00:23 +0000

I know what you’re thinking, “she wouldn’t be the managing editor and major contributor to Post & Beam Living if she didn’t believe barn homes were the best”, but they really are, and here’s my proof:

1. A Vast Array of Exterior Styles One might think in order to be a barn home, a structure has to look like a barn – Not True! The following pictures are all barn homes.

2. Gorgeous Interior Exposed Post & Beam Frames In a timber frame home, the post & beam structure takes center stage, but this is not to say it will overpower a decor choice. Just the opposite, actually. A post & beam home gracefully accentuates any interior decorating style.

3. Open Expanses Because the post & beam frame serves as the “internal support skeleton” of the home, walls can be placed (or not) wherever the homeowner desires. This allows for beautifully lofted spaces and soaring cathedral ceilings.

4. Site Adaptability No matter the location or look of a site, a barn home has the uncanny ability to unify the terrain and structure into one complete setting. Bucolic is a word which often comes to mind upon viewing these barn homes.

5. Unique Niche Areas One of my favorite aspects of living in a barn home (many of you may already know I live in a stunning Yankee Barn Homes carriage house) are the different niche areas the post & beam frame creates. Some are larger, others are more a vignette than an actual room. It doesn’t matter, they are all unique and special.