Your house is coming along beautifully. Love all those windows. Can't wait to see it finished.

Wow--it is so incredibly exciting to find someone with a similar vision and aesthetic! My husband and I are building a modern barn-inspired home in northern Vermont and honestly have not yet come across another set of plans/pictures that more closely resembles our own than yours! I couldn't stop smiling as I was reading through your blog...your floor plan and material choices have so much in common with our own. We haven't yet posted our plans because they're still being finalized but you can check out our progress on our blog (link below).

Our number one priority with our build is energy efficiency--we're currently deciding whether to build using SIPs and ICFs or just ICFs. We're leaning toward a full ICF house. We don't find out from our town until March 11th whether we're cleared to build this summer or not so we haven't even broken ground yet. We're still in the design phase. But I think you'll see from the photos on our site that we also favor a clean, barn-like structure with tall ceilings, flowing interior spaces and natural materials. If you don't mind, I'm terribly curious to know more about some of details of your design. Would you be willing to share your exterior dimensions, ceiling heights, roof pitch, etc? And thanks for posting--it's GREAT to see a modern house on this forum!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our blog

Hi Hayes,

Great blog! Where did you find all those modern barn images? When we were looking for inspiration photos, we searched high and low, and I've only seen a few of those images before.

I'm happy to answer any questions so fire away...

The exterior dimensions are about 21 x 72 (21 x 52 on the second floor, with a 20 x 20 deck)

The ceiling height is 9 feet on the first floor, 8 feet on the second. The main room (kitchen/dining/living) is about 20 x 40, and a 9 foot ceiling is perfect. Any taller and it would feel less intimate (not to mention less energy efficient - we share your green intentions).

We actually struggled a bit with the roof pitch, and ultimately went with 9/12. When it first went up, we thought it was a bit steep, but we're now certain that was the right choice.

I noticed that your site has good solar exposure. Have you thought about going down the solar/geothermal route? It's definitely pricey, but you could potentially source all the energy necessary to heat/cool your home from the sun and earth. We originally wanted to employ this technology, but we're in the middle of the woods, and it would have required the clearing of acres of trees. We ultimately opted for a high efficiency propane system and icynene insulation. Should be a pretty tight house.

Hope all goes well on March 11th!

Thanks for posting. Your place is just gorgeous!! Can I ask how they sealed your outdoor deck? What material did they use to waterproof it? And you're doing IPE over that waterproofing? This deck is over living space, right? Just curious...

Thanks for the compliment!

The ipe deck is sealed with timber oil, and it is over living space. It will need to be oiled about once per year to keep the color. The roof under the deck is slanted to allow water to drain (note the gutter in the first picture on the blog). The waterproofing product is from a company called Acrymax - I believe a fabric mesh is laid out, to which an acrylic binds. Two coats were applied, then the sleepers were affixed, then two more coats were applied over the sleepers. The link below shows the waterproof membrane over the sleepers.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1415061}}

Thank you. We have a deck over living space and our builder freaked when he saw it. We ended up putting a rubber membrane roof over the it and we're hoping it keeps the water out, but if that doesn't work I'm thinking something like this system might be a good solution, especially since the builder didn't slant the roof therefore water collects. We could slant the sleepers and solve our problem. Thanks!

Thanks, billyc, for all of the great information! We're currently working with a 24x48 design...but I'm wondering if we should think about a 22x50 to attain that great long, streamlined look you guys have.

I have been collecting pictures of modern barns for as long as I can remember. I should probably cite the sources for the ones I posted on the blog. I'll try to do that at some point. I have a couple of strategies for finding inspirational images...I constantly Google things like "modern barn" just to see what pops up. I also have a few fantastic coffee table books at home that provide information on the architects that designed each of the homes featured...so I then search online for their websites. Here are a couple that I like:

http://www.architecturalpolka.com/houses2.html
http://www.salaarc.com/
http://www.hivemodular.com/
http://www.neilkelly.com/pageview.aspx?menu=3664&id=13377
http://www.pillmaharam.com/
http://www.wintonscott.com/Residential/residential.htm
http://www.bcj.com/
http://www.po-2.com/project/p.htm
http://www.johnstonarchitects.com/residential.php?building=12

And here are some of those great books:

http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Houses-Style-Neill-Heath/dp/0060833297/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203612409&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Good-House-Cheap-Adventures-Extraordinary/dp/1561587524/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203612454&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Country-Style-Nancy-Gent/dp/1423601599/ref=pd_sim_b_img_4

I also seems like Sweden has a lot of great modern barn-like architecture. Granted I can't understand them but I sometimes browse through Swedish architectural firms' sites. I don't think I have any saved at this point. Let's keep in touch--I'm sure I'll think of some more questions to ask you at some point! My email address is hayes8705@yahoo.com. And thanks again for all of the great answers to my questions.

Here are a few more:

http://design.walkerart.org/prefab/Main/BlackBarn
http://weehouse.com/flash/SFWA_index.html
http://www.willanordic.se/sv/

And I should say that I look at websites like dwell.com, livemodern.com, futurehousenow.com and http://materialicio.us/ daily.

Hope this helps!

Love it, love it, love it! Thanks for posting these great pix. Not at all what DH and I built, this is our last house and we didn't have the money, but your home is sure fun to look at. Wonderful!

i can't wait to see the finish. especially those walnut cabs!

Thanks for the compliments. We were up at the house yesterday - the property looked amazing due to the recent snowfall. They've started (and nearly completed) the installation of the clear red cedar ceiling over our second floor deck. Below are a couple of pictures...

There are some additional photos of this week's progress at the link below.

Enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful: House Blog