You could post a picture here. Many people on this forum are whizzes at deciphering styles. Most likely, though you have already hit the nail on the head by describing it as a farmhouse. Be sure to say generally what part of the country you are in as styles migrated westward at different rates.

Your title (especially if it is a nice long chain) will open doors to discovering more about the property's history of subdivsion, ownership, usage, and in some cases - but not all - the date of the bulding construction. Some of the most productive information will be the listing of who owned it, because then you can begin to piece together who they were using tax, census, farm production data, (and even how many dogs they kept). Chaining a title back to the earliest records in you area almost always offers insights you can't get anywhere else. It's not hard to learn how to do and in most cases the records are available to the public. If the recording clerks can't help you figure out how to go about doing the chain, there are books to learn from, and sometimes your local historical society may be a good resource for further info.

Before you launch yourselves into major re-dos of the house I suggest you learn as much about its history as you can. That will help you avoid unknowingly destroying or dmaging some important piece of the puzzle simply because you weren't aware of its existence. Houses are entirely human-driven artifacts, so knowing the who and why of a place will tell you the "what" you are looking to learn about.

Molly~

Many thanks for the info! I will post a photo but have to go elsewhere to upload it - only have dialup here - will do shortly.

/FS