This farmhouse renovation takes some insensitive additions and some new construction and blends them in with the original historic Greek Revival style.
For over 150 years, this late nineteenth century Greek Revival farmhouse has been owned by the original family. They were pioneers who traveled from New York to Minnesota in 1858 as first settlers.
What’s special about the current generation of these settlers is that they understand and appreciate the history and architecture of their family homestead.
Historic photo showing porch side of house and part of front to the right.
Over the years additions were built with designs that were not compatible with the historic portion of the house. Now more space is needed.
The goal is to create more living space and renovate the additions to fit in with the original historic part of the house. All sides of the house should be in harmony with the historic Greek Revival farmhouse.
Farmhouse Renovation – Front View
All four sides of the farmhouse received a makeover. Let’s begin with the front of the house. In the historic photo above, the front of the house is partially visible on the far right.
Front view of original home and garage addition.
The original house you see is a basic 1 1/2 story farmhouse. The garage section to the side was added on in the 1990’s and has a ranch style appearance as it is low and wide. The original house has vertical lines but the garage section is horizontal and conflicts with the overall feel.
We need to increase living space, correct bad renovations, and preserve historic integrity.
The original house must remain intact. If an addition were added here it would harm the house’s historic integrity. Normally, additions would be at the rear of the house but this was not possible because of the interior layout and other plans for the rear, as you will see later.
The best solution for this farmhouse renovation is to convert the garage into living space and construct a new garage in front of the existing garage. Since this is a farmhouse and there are 80 acres with a barn and out buildings, the most natural and historic design would be for the house to have a connected barn.
Many nineteenth century farmhouses had a large main house with an extension on the side leading to a barn or farm buildings. Here we have the perfect layout. The current garage, converted to living space, will be designed as a barn extension. A new barn will built in front and used as a garage.
The original historic section must maintain hierarchy. Since this section is small already, all additions must be smaller, being careful not to overpower the house.
Farmhouse makeover shows main house with attached barn area.
Here is the proposed design for the farmhouse renovation. The opening in the center, which is the side entrance to the main house, was changed to look like a barn entrance. I would have liked to make the garage-barn larger but it would then overpower the house. The house must show hierarchy.
The windows in the main house are replaced with two-over-two window sash with working wood shutters . A new entrance is added in the Greek Revival style to match the house. The original chimney was removed at one time and although the fireplace is not working, a fake chimney is installed for appearance.
This side of the house you see was really the last phase of the project. That’s why it has new colors and shutters while the earlier phases that you will see next do not.
Below we have the same image you see above modified to be a Christmas card. Click to enlarge.
Farmhouse renovation Christmas Scene.
Side View
Side view before addition.
Here you see the side of the original house to the left and the current side of the garage to the right.
Side view. New garage addition on left with shed.
Since the proposed garage could not be enlarged without overpowering the house, a shed is attached for additional space. A barn door provides entrance into the garage.
Opposite Side of Farmhouse
Side view of house. The porch is a later addition.
This view is similar to the historic photo at the top of the page. This is actually the left side of the house. The original house is the gabled portion to the right. The porch and everything behind it is an old addition.
As you see there is a beautiful large porch that needs to be opened up. The issue here which is more visible from the rear, is the porch roof. To the left there is a large portion that is virtually flat. Extending the top floor not only corrects that problem but improves the aesthetics of the rear of the house.
Porch opened up. Top floor extended.
Top floor is extended and a second fake chimney is restored to its original location. Porch roof is replaced with a standing seam metal roof. Original wood columns stored in a barn are put back where they were. A brick porch skirt with vents is used for a small space under the porch.
Farmhouse renovation with landscaping.
Although the porch looks nice as it is, since it’s low, one may be inclined to just hop on to the porch from the side. Landscaping helps direct you to the steps.
Rear of Farmhouse
Rear view shows earlier additions and renovations insensitive to the historic design.
Here we now have the rear view. The larger left portion that looks like a ranch house is the rear of the current garage. On the far right you see part of the enclosed porch. The porch roof extends to the left and back to the gabled top floor of the main house. The roof here is flat and covers a large area that awkwardly meets the other roofs surrounding it.
Farmhouse renovation with sun parlor.
In this image the garage is now converted to living space. From the left we now have a new bay window with a metal roof. From the new family roof inside, french doors lead you to the sun parlor. Click to enlarge for a better view. A ceiling fan is located at the peak.
All of the windows are in keeping with the late 19th century period. The gable to the right is the top floor that is extended to the existing rear wall of the house, creating a simple facade.
The 1960’s kitchen window is replaced. The opening size was not changed but two-over-two style casement windows were installed to provide vertical lines to maintain the rhythm of the house.
To the far right you see the side of the porch opened up.
The upside down barrel is covering a water pump.
History of the Anderson Homestead
Born in 1838, Abram J. Anderson had but brief opportunities for education. He left home in New York state at twenty to secure a home in the west. In August 1858, after a long travel by train, he arrived in Zumbro Minnesota where he bought a preemption right to 160 acres of property.
In 1861 he bought an additional 80 acres, built a cabin, and later built the current home. He was known as a cattle broker.
The country was then wild, and though white settlers were coming in, there were as yet few cultivated farms. There was a good deal of timber and the Indians were numerous; so also were deer and wolves and various sorts of wild game. Mr. Anderson, like all the pioneer settlers, had to put up with more or less hardship and privation, but he made gradual progress in developing a farm, and became a little better off. At different times his total land possessions in the three states amounted to 800 acres.
Mr. Anderson was first united in marriage on February 1858, to Angeline Dennison of New York state, who after 14 years of married life died September 12, 1872. She left four children.
Mr. Anderson was married secondly in 1873, to Melvina Mitchell, a native of the state of Maine. By her he has had eight children.
For those familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder , “Little House on the Prairie” , and her series of books – her family lived nearby for a short time in 1876.
Today, 157 years later, the homestead and 80 acres remain. Abram’s great-grand daughter and her husband reside in the house and the farmland is rented out for crop farming. Many family members still live locally.
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Noticing how close the windmill was to the original house! I’m thinking that is where the current water pump is located. Nice looking restoration!
Yes, the windmill for the well was taken down and an electric pump replaced it in the 70’s.
Wish the windmill were still there – plenty of wind out there to make it run!
Enclosing a porch, that practice haunts me. My 1863 built house fell victim to this by a previous owner and how I’d love to reverse that.
Everything about it is done poorly, not just the facade and covering up of the architectural details and posts and gingerbread but failing to add insulation below the floor. Totally ridiculous.
If driving without a seatbelt is illegal, then so should be this.
Hi – please email me and send me a photo of your home. Thanks, Ken
I bought on old farm house and want to side it with wood so it can be painted.
I live 20 minutes south of Erie PA. Snowbelt is not even close to the amount of lake effect snow we get.
A town called Edinboro PA.
Any suggestions on the type of wood siding I should use?
Thank you,
Lorie Bearfield
I recommend Western Red Cedar but not sure if that is good for your area. Assuming you have aluminum or vinyl siding, once that is removed I am sure the original siding can be sanded and painted.
This reminds me of what happened to my great great great grandfather’s house near Goddard, KS. It hasn’t been in the family for 40 years now, but I have a photo from 1910 of it in all it’s original glory. When I was using Google street view to see if it was still standing, I was disturbed by the sight I saw. It was still standing but drastically altered sometime in the 1960’s or 1970’s. There was a small inset porch originally on the second floor that is now walled over flush. All of the original gingerbread is gone. There is a large room added on to the front of the house. And it is fully encased in a brownish grey putty colored siding (some super wide board, probably like the material that pegboard is made from). It looks so hideous and depressing. Sadly as I said, no one in the family owns it anymore, thus not much I can do about it. Perhaps some day I could find the funds to purchase it, restore it, and perhaps have it listed as historic since it is one of the early farm houses in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
My apologies for the long post.
I understand what you mean. It’s sad to see what happens to houses over the years.
We have several solid pine doors c.1890, which we’ve been using in our 1890s home in NJ. for 30 years, after having stripped, sanded, and matte varnished them. The are in excellent condition, and come with working hardware and original knobs, painstakingly cleaned & restored by my husband.
We are moving to a home in TN where we can’t use them, and want to make sure they don’t get thrown out. (We fear our great old-style house will be razed and replaced with a 2 or 3 family, as we live in a city.) We feel the same way about our claw foot tub, original to the house, and still in great shape. I’m hoping you can tell us who might be interested in acquiring these for an old house renovation, either in NJ or eastern PA, and/or where should we be looking for someone who renovates. Thanks !
If you have an old house you need to protect it. Read this: http://www.oldhouseguy.com/homeowners-undo-historic-restoration/
As for your doors, put an ad on Craigs list. Good luck!
How would one find a contractor that “gets it”? We have had many, many contractors come to our 1850ish farmhouse and suggest plastic doors, etc. I don’t know how to find someone who is NOT suggesting the cheapest, fastest, and completely wrong thing to do. Any suggestions about how to find someone who understands at least the beauty and workmanship of old house?
You are not the only one that suffers with this problem. I have a listing of window restorers and some of them also do other work or can refer you. You can also try getting a refer from a Historic Preservation architect. Read more here: http://www.oldhouseguy.com/window-restorers/
How would I go about finding paint colors for an 1880 Stone farmhouse? I’d like to keep the shutters burgundy(they match the barn). However, I need to paint the small front porch and large back porch. Right now it looks too gingerbread with several colors.
Oh – several color is way too many. People always want to make their house into a Painted Lady and they and their painter accent everything they can and almost always it turns into a trashy mess. I really need to write a blog about this. Please email me a good photo of your house and I will give you a critique.
Hi there,
We bought a small 1/2 storey home on an acre of land with hopes to add on an addition to make living more functional. Looking at the front of the home, there is a septic system to the right so we want to build on the left as our property is wider than it is deep.
Would a 10 x 27 single floor addition on the left make sense? We would make a master bed and mudroom/ laundry. The master would be 10 x 17 and the mud room 10×10. There is already a single floor addition on the back from 96 where our kitchen resides.
Furthermore, we’d like to do shed dormers upstairs as the slope of our roof significantly affects living space.
This is plan #4 for as a double storey addition is out of our budget plus makes tearing the place down and building anew more feasible.
Any insight is appreciated.
Kolby
Really can’t tell. Please send pics via the contact us and I will have a better idea.
Ken
I’d love your opinion and advice. I own a small circa 1900 cottage (I currently rent it to others short term) and would love to add a dog trot/breezeway that connects to a new barndominium. The goal is to add living space without compromising the original cottage’s structural integrity. I want to make it my forever home. Photos and details can be seen on my website.
You can add onto the rear, however you will still be sacrificing some of the design. Not an easy thing to explain here without seeing it or a drawing.