Building a New England Connected Farmhouse Addition - Spring 2024

The Story

For years, we imagined expanding the Homestead — not just for extra space, but to fulfill a long-held dream: creating a multigenerational living arrangement like the one I grew up in. My childhood was spent in a lakeside cabin where grandparents and parents lived together, sharing meals, holidays, and the rhythms of daily life. I wanted to recreate that same sense of continuity and belonging here on our land.

In late 2023, we finally broke ground on what would become a 1,500-square-foot, two-story New England connected farmhouse addition — a large garage and workshop below, and a fully independent apartment above. It would serve as a home for family members (starting with my son returning from the Navy), a guest retreat, and eventually a potential income-producing Airbnb.

I designed every inch of it myself.

Designing the Vision

From the beginning, I knew I did not want a generic extension grafted onto the house. I wanted a connected farmhouse, inspired by my trips to New England and the historic homes that dot the landscape there — the kind of architectural lineage where houses grow gracefully over generations.

So we made a bold design decision:

• The exterior: a barn.
  Board-and-batten siding, matching paint, matching windows, shutters, trim — all tied together so the new structure felt historically “meant to be” with the original house.

• The interior: simpler, more modern, almost like a real converted barn.
  Clean lines, calm neutral palettes, and an intentional contrast with the main home’s classic style.

This fusion — the traditional barn exterior with a streamlined loft-style interior — became the soul of the project.

Crisis #1 — The Town Forces a Redesign

We originally planned the garage on the north end of the property. This would have provided the best flow from parking to mudroom to office and kitchen. The town shut it down: too close to the ravine and creek. After months of planning, we had to start over.

I had to rehire the architect, rework the entire layout, and relocate the structure to the south side — not ideal for the flow of the home, but the only permitted location.

That was our first real heartbreak.

Crisis #2 — The Wrong Trusses

I showed the contractor the cathedral ceiling in our family room. I wanted the same scissor trusses upstairs in the apartment.

He ordered attic trusses instead.

Panic when seeing the custom trusses - the wrong design.

By the time I caught it, they had been delivered and staged on site. Returning them and reordering scissor trusses would have cost $50,000 and delayed the wedding.

So we pivoted — and I grieved the lost cathedral ceiling quietly while choosing to move forward with an 8-foot flat ceiling instead.

Crisis #3 — The Foundation Fails Inspection

This was the moment I truly thought I might lose my mind.

The building inspector halted the entire project. The foundation did not pass. Everything stopped.

Pumping the foundation

I was working from home, dealing with nonstop contractor questions and financial decisions, and then suddenly faced the possibility that the entire structure might need major remediation.

Our contractor ended up negotiating with the town, bringing in engineers, and eventually resolving the issue with the addition of rebar.

But it was, without question, my lowest point — the moment I wondered if we had made a gigantic mistake.

Financing the Dream — and the Stress

We paid for the entire project in cash to avoid debt.

This meant:

• careful tax planning

• strategic withdrawals

• managing multiple accounts

• dealing with surprise invoices

• and a thousand small financial decisions

All while also managing the design, construction, timelines, and workflow.
The stress was relentless.

The Wedding Deadline

The wedding was scheduled at our home 11 months after construction began.

Not only did the addition have to be complete, but the entire yard — torn apart by heavy equipment — had to be restored, landscaped, and guest-ready.

A hard deadline, no extensions.

And incredibly…

We made it.

The finishing touches were completed just two days before the wedding in October 2024.

The High Point — Family Arrives

The emotional high arrived the week before the wedding. My family was here, helping:

• place furniture

• hang art

• arrange décor

• style the bedrooms

• make the apartment feel like a real home

For the first time, all the chaos and stress crystallized into meaning.
It wasn’t about the construction.
It was about the life that would happen inside these walls.

The Meaning

This addition became more than square footage.

It became:

• a fulfillment of a long-term dream

• a continuation of the multigenerational living I was raised in

• an investment in my family’s future

• a physical expression of stability, love, and belonging

• a structure designed to outlive me and serve generations

This was not just construction.
This was legacy-building — one decision, one crisis, one triumph at a time.