Barn Homes and Beyond Blog

The Ascutney floor plan is no stranger to this blog. With its natural siding and blue doors that look especially striking against the snow, this Vermont ski home has provided some of our most used pictures. However, we recently realized that although we’re in love with this timber frame home, we’ve never actually featured the plan itself. Since this ski home has a great plan for everyday living, and an open plan suited for holiday entertaining, now seemed like a great time to explore the Ascutney in more depth.

With the holidays upon us, our homes are brimming not only with good cheer but also valued guests. Coupling these guests with the lowest groundwater temperatures of the year, however, can certainly stress out your water heater. Since an average tank water heater only lasts around ten years, maybe it’s time to upgrade now before the guests arrive. Since there are more choices than ever when replacing a water heater, here are a few things to consider.

The dimensions of the rooms in a home are very important in determining how the rooms function and feel. We usually only consider the horizontal dimensions, and discuss rooms and floor plans in terms of square footage. This consideration ignores the vertical dimensions, which are actually a very important consideration when designing a room. While low ceilings are still plenty high enough even for tall people to stand up straight, the mood of the room will differ from one with a tall ceiling. So, what is the ideal height?  

Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and most of us are very much engrossed in planning for the holiday. And while most of us know the story of the Pilgrims’ journey to Plymouth and the first Thanksgiving the following fall, the details of the months in between may be less well known. Needless to say, shelter was the first priority for the settlers upon their arrival.

For the majority of the country, and world for that matter, home heating is much more energy intensive than cooling in the summer months. While we can appreciate insulation keeping a home cool in the summer, it is much more important that it keeps the home warm in winter. Thankfully, once installed insulation products are essentially maintenance-free. While loose insulation may settle over time, this is a concern over time spans of decades. Each fall, however, you should check on the following items to help maintain your homes tight envelope.  

We are now back on standard time, and our bodies are adjusting to the change. With more daylight in the morning, but less in the evening, it may seem as if morning tasks are easier while evening tasks have become more difficult. For many, as the daylight hours grow shorter maintaining productivity becomes even harder. If you’re looking for ways to keep your productivity up, here are a few ways your home’s design can help.

The pantry is making quite the comeback these days, after decades of relative absence from most homes. About 85% of potential home buyers list a walk-in pantry as a “desirable” or “essential” feature. This great increase in the demand for a pantry is driven by the changing nature of entertaining and kitchen use. Let’s take a look at the history and modern developments of the pantry. 

As the days grow shorter, many of us desire an increased amount of sleep to accompany the longer nights. This occurs because your body produces more melatonin when it is dark, and melatonin causes drowsiness. Centuries ago, people did sleep longer in the winter months. With the advent of artificial lighting, however, people sleep less in the winter. This makes it all the more important to make the sleep you do get as effective as possible. Here are a few design choices in the bedroom that will help you consistently have a great night’s sleep.

Last Week, we highlighted all of the many materials that go into the Timberpeg Package. One of the big choices that a homeowner has to make when specing out their package is deciding on a roof assembly. The two systems we use for the roof assembly are a structural insulated panel (SIP) system or our Wrap & Strap system. While each is an excellent choice for a great roof, we thought a post comparing the two would help you understand the difference between the two.

The process of building a new home is comprised of many steps. At the beginning you have the initial planning and design work, followed by manufacturing and construction, and at the end you have a finished home. All of these topics are great to write about here, since the blueprints and pictures of the building process and completed homes make great visual content for a blog. Today, however, we’ve decided to talk about the materials that go into a Timberpeg home package. Since our homes go up so quickly, we usually don’t have too many photographs highlighting the materials. We hope this post, and its accompanying video, help demonstrate all you get when you buy from Timberpeg.