Home 2014
by Mary Beth Schwartz
There is nothing like New England in spring. The forsythia, fragrant lilacs, meadows, and trees are all in bloom. The wildlife comes out to explore after a long winter. Locals celebrate the season shopping for antiques, starting their gardens, visiting historic sites, and playing outdoors--taking scenic bike or car rides to take in the region’s architecture. Here in Bucks County, it is possible to have a piece of New England on your property with a post & beam outbuilding from Country Carpenters, Inc., or a period home from Early New England Homes.
Founded in 1974 by the Barrett family, Country Carpenters, Inc. offers New England style country barns, as well as garden sheds and carriage houses. “The buildings are designed to maintain the structural and architectural integrity of its historical inspiration, and they meet the lifestyle of today’s owner. We use only the highest quality materials. All of the timbers that we use in our post and beam buildings are stamped and graded timbers. All of the siding is a premium grade kiln dried. Using those high quality materials allows us to carry an engineer’s seal on our plans, which allows us to work in so many states throughout the country. We build to a national building code,” says Owner Roger Barrett.
Shipped nationwide, even overseas, these buildings come as prepackaged kits. Customers buy directly from Country Carpenters, Inc. and have a local contractor obtain permits and assemble the kit. Within a range of their facility, the firm also offers on-site construction services. “The entire frame is precut and color coded. All of the framing components are color-coded. A local contractor does not need post and beam experience. We offer an extremely comprehensive support package in the assembling of the building—color coded plans, step-by-step instructions, and customer service on the phone six days a week,” Barrett says.
According to Barrett, the average building from Country Carpenters, Inc. takes about three weeks to put up. Customers can select from several plans. There is the 22-foot Saltbox carriage house, available with one to five bays or more. The 24-foot Saltbox carriage house has room for a loft. The one-and-one-half-story Saltbox carriage house is designed for use as a workshop, art studio, garage, or home office. Country barns can be one-story, 24-feet deep; one-story, 26-feet deep; or one-story, 28-feet deep. There are Gambrel style barns, as well as a gentleman’s horse barn. Country barns also can be one-and-one-half-story, 18-feet deep, 20-feet deep, 22-feet deep, 24-feet deep, or 26-feet deep, at any length in 6-foot increments and with optional lean-tos. “We offer a wide variety of options for our buildings, such as custom hand forged hinges and door fasteners, decorative cupolas, dormers, copper weathervanes,
For those who want smaller buildings for a pool house or garden shed, Country Carpenters, Inc. offers a wide variety of styles. The Even Pitch is a scaled down barn for the weekend gardener or hobbyist. The Country Cabin with open porch is suited for a backyard office or weekend getaway. The Saltbox garden shed is another smaller version of the carriage house.
If you envision a 1750s New England style home for your property, there is the sister company of Country Carpenters, Inc., Early New England Homes. Started in 2006, also by the Barrett family, Early New England Homes has engineered a unique, open architecture, timbered ceiling system that works with conventionally framed walls, allowing many of the charming characteristics of early New England along with modern amenities to be incorporated into your newly built home. The massive center chimney is an integral part of the design and promotes the concept of a gathering place for family and friends. The system allows flexibility in the placement of interior walls so you can build a home with a floor plan that meets your individual needs. “Building one of our homes, you are not getting materials that you can just go to a lumberyard and pick up. All the wall paneling is hand planed. When you walk into the house you have a structural timbered ceiling with huge exposed summer beams. The precut building package is ready for your local contractor to assemble this building in an efficient manner. Again, we include a very comprehensive support package,” Barrett says.
The process at Early New England Homes begins with a tour of the model home. “Then the customer would sit down with the sales staff and design the floor plan within one of our standard style homes. A quote would be developed based on selected options and engineered building plans would be generated so that working with your local builder permits can be obtained and construction can begin. The average home takes six months to a year, typical with conventional framing,” Barrett says.
Designed after authentic 18th century homes, Early New England Homes offers plans for a 1,400-square-foot up to a 4,000-square-foot classic Cape, Saltbox, Gambrel, or Early New England Colonial. An optional Wing and Ell with Farmer’s Porch also are available. Just like Country Carpenters, Inc., all materials—doors, hardware, timber—are produced in house by craftsmen. A home can have several types of hand-forged period hardware—hinges, latches, pulls, decorative nails, S hooks, a beehive oven door, or a fireplace crane and trammel. Wood specifics include 12-17 inch-wide board flooring, fireplace mantle, custom baseboards and capped chair rail, beaded door and window trim, wide ceiling boards, handmade interior and exterior doors, beaded hand-planed wainscoting, cabinets & closets, early New England stairs, vertical bead board and exterior cedar water table boards and beaded corner boards.
You can contact Early American Homes at 860-643-1148. They are headquartered at 26 West Street, Bolton, CT 06043. Visit them on Facebook or their Website: www.earlynewenglandhomes.com. Country Carpenters, Inc. is located at 326 Gilead Street, Hebron, CT 06248. Their phone number is 860-228-2276. If you are planning a trip to New England to visit the companies, Country Carpenters, Inc. sponsors the Hebron Maple Festival in March and the Hebron Colonial Day in September.
Mary Beth Schwartz is a freelance editor who frequently contributes to regional publications.