COTTAGES & GARDENS
Inspired by Styles from Rustic Barn to Classic Colonial, These Homeowners Turned to a Team of Experts to Build a Home That Captures the Best of New England's Vernacular.
Cruising through the picturesque countryside of Washington is like taking a journey back in architectural time. The Georgian, Greek Revival and shingle-style homes often paired with 19th-century barns or mill structures that dot the landscape represent the best of New England’s classic vernacular. Not surprisingly, many people who move there feel an obligation to maintain the status quo, and a Manhattan couple looking to set down part-time roots was no exception.
After determining the circa-1950s ranch plagued by a poor foundation and water problems they purchased five years ago would be more costly to remodel than to tear down, they razed the building and set about enhancing their 4.4-acre property with a pair of structures more appropriate to the surroundings. “We were driven to create a home that felt like it had been on this property for generations,” says the husband. “We imagined it evolving with the families that lived here from an early farmhouse to the addition of the center-hall Colonial that would have been added by later generations.”
