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Photo: Lisa Hubbard
Photo: Courtesy of Sean B. Nutley and Gregory Triana
Photo: Courtesy of Sean B. Nutley and Gregory Triana
Photo: Lisa Hubbard
Photo: Courtesy of Sean B. Nutleyand Gregory Triana
Photo: Lisa Hubbard
Photo: Courtesy of Sean B. Nutleyand Gregory Triana
Photo: Lisa Hubbard
Photo: Courtesy of Sean B. Nutleyand Gregory Triana
Photo: Lisa Hubbard
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First make sure the foundation is solid. Next ensure the stability of ALL weight bearing walls. Then take care of the roof. (Don't know how many times we have come in on partial 'restorations' that started at the top and it had to be ripped apart to repair structural issues. Can the roof be done first? Yes. But it will cost so much more in the end........)
After you've dealt with the structure BOTTOM to top, windows doors and siding. Then work on the interior.
360-degree farmhouse makeover
By Deborah Baldwin of This Old House
Refreshed facade
First things first, right? When a house looks like a geriatric case, you want to dive right into fixing up its facade, gladdening the hearts of passers-by. But decades of water damage dictated that this home's owners begin in back, even though the only eyes that fell on the racked lawn and rotting foundation belonged to the deer and an occasional bear.
"The backyard was sloped, so rainwater came rushing up to the house and moisture was eating away at the foundation," says homeowner Sean B. Nutley. And yet when Nutley and his partner, Gregory Triana, first saw the farmhouse in Accord, N.Y., it was the site they fell for. "The lay of the land won me over," Triana says. "The house was on a country road, on a corner, with amazing light that traveled around it."
When it was finally time to think about the front, their luck continued in finding local contractor David Wyncoop, known in the area for his work on antique houses. Nutley made a rough sketch to guide Wyncoop, giving the hodgepodge facade a more unified, symmetrical look with new two-over-two windows and a wide, deep porch topped with standing-seam metal. After jacking up the front to bolster the original stone foundation, Wyncoop worked his way around, replacing asbestos siding with painted cedar and drafty windows with energy-efficient models. He built a deck on one side of the house, a shed entrance on the other and a seven-columned porch to frame the off-center door out front.
Today there's no sight more gratifying than driving up and seeing the transformed exterior, Triana says. And with a porch, a deck and a patio all hugging the house, there's a vantage point to enjoy the outdoors, whatever the weather. "Whether it's a sunny day or a night of stars or snow is coming down, we can sit outside and watch it all and enjoy."
Shown: New painted cedar clapboards, a rebuilt porch and a double row of clipped chartreuse barberry bushes reinforce the geometric lines of the house.
Paint: Carrington Beige (siding) and Rosemary Sprig (trim) by Benjamin Moore
- This Old House: Best whole house before and afters of 2011
- Video: Check out an 'Extreme Makeover' renovation
- Bing Cube: View more remodeled farmhouses
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Facade: Before
Nutley and Triana were running a business in New York City, but after 17 years of apartment life, they longed for the chance to sit outside on summer evenings and watch the blink of lightning bugs, not traffic lights. They found their house 100 miles north, in tiny Accord, after a year of looking. They were so charmed by its history — mud-mortared log interior walls and a bluestone-lined basement date the early 1830s — that they moved right in. "Then we sat for a year, listening to the house," as Nutley puts it.
Once they were ready to dig in, the first order of business was to divert that runoff. "There was a lot of engineering the land," Triana says. "We were lucky to find a surgeon with a backhoe." A landscape crew dug a French drain to send water away from the house to the side yard and topped the regraded area with a bluestone patio. Then another crew had to lift up the back of the house long enough to get under it and repair the foundation. "We had to work from the outside in so that the house could live another 100 years," Triana says.
Shown: Once the sloping front yard was regraded, there was no buffer between the road and the asbestos-sided house's sagging front porch.
- Listed: Home for sale near Pilgrim landing site
- MSN Lifestyle: 10 ways accessories can transform a room
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Main entry before
The old entry had a haphazard look, with mismatched paint colors and a worn door and steps.
- This Old House: Best whole house before and afters of 2011
- Video: Check out an 'Extreme Makeover' renovation
- Bing Cube: View more remodeled farmhouses
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Main entry after
The entry gained vintage farmhouse style with a new bead-board panel door and wide steps with recycled bluestone treads. Sconces on either side of the door help reinforce the symmetry established by the pair of flanking porch columns.
Door: Jeld-Wen
Sconces: Hadco
- Listed: Home for sale near Pilgrim landing site
- MSN Lifestyle: 10 ways accessories can transform a room
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Back before
The sloped backyard needed to be regraded to flatten it out and divert rainwater away from the house. A French drain was dug to funnel runoff to the side yard.
- This Old House: Best whole house before and afters of 2011
- Video: Check out an 'Extreme Makeover' renovation
- Bing Cube: View more remodeled farmhouses
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Back after
Small casements and a big picture window on the first floor were replaced with banks of double-hungs to match those elsewhere on the house. The catchall space in back became a welcoming gathering spot with a bluestone patio that meets the side deck, inviting guests to walk around.
- Listed: Home for sale near Pilgrim landing site
- MSN Lifestyle: 10 ways accessories can transform a room
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Chimney side before
Part of a circa-1940 gabled addition, the chimney side of the house had a rudimentary look. The chimney was framed by pairs of windows.
- This Old House: Best whole house before and afters of 2011
- Video: Check out an 'Extreme Makeover' renovation
- Bing Cube: View more remodeled farmhouses
360-degree farmhouse makeover
The chimney side after
The owners changed out the first-floor windows for French doors that lead from the living room to the new cedar deck. The added glass makes the house feel larger by opening up the view from inside.
The deck leads the eye — and visitors — to a lush garden. Bat houses installed on either side of the new second-floor windows encourage the mosquito eaters to stick around.
The cement-block chimney got a handsome upgrade with cultured-stone veneer. Put up with no visible mortar, it mimics the look of the stacked-stone foundation. The veneer's rough, mottled surface contrasts with the sleek, steel-cable balustrade capped with a cedar rail clear-coated with a nontoxic varnish. Nutley designed the deck, with its horizontal bands of stone, cedar and steel, to reinforce the lines of the house.
- Listed: Home for sale near Pilgrim landing site
- MSN Lifestyle: 10 ways accessories can transform a room
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Side entry before
The old side entry, used for tool storage, looked like an afterthought.
- This Old House: Best whole house before and afters of 2011
- Video: Check out an 'Extreme Makeover' renovation
- Bing Cube: View more remodeled farmhouses
360-degree farmhouse makeover
Side entry after
Its metal-roofed replacement is crowned with a barn light that draws attention to the new, higher gable. The paneled door opens onto original basement stairs carved from solid bluestone.
Door: Jeld-Wen
Light: Chris Bernard
- Listed: Home for sale near Pilgrim landing site
- MSN Lifestyle: 10 ways accessories can transform a room
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