Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Forgot your password?

Lost your password?
We will send you an email with instructions on how you can reset your password.
You will have 10 minutes to reset your password.

Wrong Email!

Back to log-in

Please do not change this field

Error message here!

Error message here!

Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Close
Modern Farmhouse

Nick Churton of the Houlihan Lawrence, London office weighs up the pros and cons of farmhouse living and finds a perfect answer in North Salem, New York.

Most of us love a farmhouse. There is something earthy, natural, comfortable and laidback about them. One can kick off ones shoes and just go with the flow. Farmhouses are also, likely-as-not, to be located in beautiful, rural locations.

But for many there are two big drawbacks to farmhouse living. First, is the farm. Unless one is born to working with the land and has a body clock tuned to the seasons and to the rising and setting of the sun then farms can be a burden.

Second, farmhouses tend to be on the older side with building materials from centuries ago. The things are apt to leak in the rain and creak in the wind. They tend not to have marble bathrooms with rainfall showers. Bits keep falling off these old houses and constant, and often expensive, attention is frequently required.

What’s a buyer to do? The simple answer is to buy a modern farmhouse on 2.75 acres. The perfect example is 23 Baxter Road, North Salem, New York. Here is a traditional farmhouse renovated and extended to the pinnacle of modernity. Somehow it still retains that farmhouse feel but now offers so much more. No pokey, ill-lit rooms here. Instead these are spacious and light-filled. There is flow and continuity. Then there is the maxed-out, five-star specification.

This was all no accident; an owner/designer and architect with a single, clear vision and a talented build team with an exacting brief put it together. No stone has been left unturned. No fixture or fitting is a short cut. As much thought has been put into the landscaping outside the house as to the interior layout.

I thought about this as I sat on the comfortable veranda. The country views seem to go on forever, and certainly over neighbouring 30 acres of conserved land that belongs to someone else. That’s why you can sit back and enjoy the bucolic view with a long, cool drink – because you will never have to be up with the lark to maintain it!