Product Description
If you're dreaming of moving to the country, retiring to a smaller house or just getting away from big home mortgage and maintenance costs, this is a book that you should take a look at. It's a sourcebook and guide to the best small, simple, inexpensive and easy-to-maintain country homes. Seventeen of America's best country architects and designers contributed 86 plans of vernacular-style cottages, cabins, backyard barns, garages and garden sheds. Home sizes range from just over 2,000 square feet for a traditional New England farmhouse and a gracious Southern cottage with a wrap-around porch, to just 144 square feet for a tiny getaway cabin. Addresses, phone numbers and website information will help you reach any of the designers directly to order construction blueprints or to see additional home designs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Nice Pictures, No Other Substance
the book was in great shape, but I was disappointed that there wasn't more design/construction information. If you're looking for pictures to get ideas it is nice.

Truly Simple Designs
The Backroad Home serves as a source book of building plans for all kinds of small buildings. Each of the designs has an illustration along with a floor plan.Text is limited to a few sentences about the design andtheaddressor web site to request catalogs or full plans from. I would haveliked more text.I wanted to know more about the design styles.Many ofthe designs are based on regional architecture like the Amisquam Salt Boxor the Pine Island Cottage.While others could be imagined in a fieldalmost anywhere in the country.There are also plenty of barn andoutbuilding plans.

A lot of the dwellings do not even qualify for theterm house.They are cabins with very small floor plans and only one door. But other plans have three or even four bedrooms and aren't what I wouldcall small.

In the back of the book are even more design sources and aCountry Building Directory containing suppliers for things likeweathervanes, sundials, antique hardware and brass and copper lightingfixtures.There is a convenient index in the back for referring tospecific architectural styles.

I've been searching for plans for smallhouses for several years.This book has given me access to many newsources.I've finally found a house that's the right size for me and Imight even be able to afford it!

First a dream, then a plan
Buying country land is the beginning of a great adventure. During the year that I recommend you observe and inventory natural conditions before you build, you will have time to decide not only where your buildings will beplanted but what their form will be. Here is a book that extols traditionalstyles and connects you to the architects who have adapted those styles tomodern codes. Architect/editor Berg has found seventeen designers who areunabashed proponents of traditional style, most of whom live the countrylife, so they have first-hand appreciation for what works and looks best.Each offers mail-order plans for simple but elegant inexpensive countryhomes and outbuildings. Here are drawings of floor plans and exteriors of86 designs in all, from a 144-square-foot cabin to a farmhouse andSouthern-style cottage with wraparound porch, each of 2,000 square feet.This is a sampler; I checked out the Web sites of the designers and foundthat they offer many more designs. Most offer plan catalogs.

In additionto sourcing working architects' plans, Berg connects the reader toalternate plan sources, including log homes, timber frame, historic,magazine and Cooperative Extension plans, which are hard to find but nearlyfree. There is also a Resources section of building codes, building bookcatalogs and on-line resources, plus other books on country building. TheCountry Building Directory has entries from Acorn Forged Iron to West Coast Weather Vanes. Happy country planning, building and living.

A true beacon in the cookie-cutter fog of home design
If you are a lover of old houses, their uniqueness, wonderful style anddesign... If you live in an old house, maybe want to add on or are going tobe moving into an older home... If you are an architect, designer, builderor contractor... Or, if you are thinking of building and find yourself sickand tired of theplease-not-one-more-cathedral-ceilinged-media-room-approach to homedesign...

Then look no further - Don Berg's "Backroad Home" isthe light at the end of the tunnel.The whole front of this wonderful bookprovides inspiring, right on the mark designs, blueprints and resorces forolder houses, cottages, cabins, backbuildings, barns, sheds and even acharming out-door shower!The back is filled with a perfectly editedcompendium of resources for old house design, building and materialscomplete with addresses, phone #s and yes, when available, email.My copy,and it's sister "American Country Building Designs" bothpurchased just a few months ago, are already dog-eared, marked up, andcoffee cup ringed and we have yet to move into our 1850's farmhouse!Greatreading, great writing and great fun.Thank you Mr. Berg for writing abook for "the rest of us" ... Read more

Product Description
In his widely acclaimed The Pennsylvania Barn, Robert Ensmingerprovided the first comprehensive study of an important piece of American vernaculararchitecture--the forebay bank barn, better known as the Pennsylvania barn or the PennsylvaniaGerman barn. Now, in this revised edition, Ensminger has continued his diligent fieldwork andarchival research into the origins, evolution, and distribution in North America of this significantagricultural structure. Including an entire chapter of new material, 85 new illustrations, andupdates to previous chapters, this edition of Ensminger's classic work will appeal to students andscholars in cultural and historical geography, folklore and vernacular architectural history, andAmerican studies, as well as to general readers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A distinctive and aptly researched study
Now in a revised and expanded second edition, The Pennsylvania Barn: Its Origin, Evolution, And Distribution In North America by Robert F. Ensminger (Professor of Geography, Emeritus, Jutztown University) offers the reader an informative and in-depth study on a characteristic piece of American vernacular architecture - the forebay bank barn, which is also known as the Pennsylvania barn or the Pennsylvania German barn. Black-and-white photographs, diagrams, and a study of the evolution, uses, diffusion, folklore and future of this unique architectural work combine to make The Pennsylvania Barn a distinctive and aptly researched study which is especially recommended to students of American Architectural History. ... Read more

Product Description
A magnificant book of full-color photographs and text show the history, architecture, and beauty of the barn. BARN is a celebration of an ancient symbol of shelter and harvest, with more than two hundred full-color photographs and an informed text by two expert practitioners of the art and craft of barn restoration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

BARN is a great book
BARN is a great book for people that love old barns and the way they were biult with such simple tools.

Best Ever Barn Book
Endersby and fellow authors, using an intelligent combination of pictures, drawings, and text to successfully depict both finished buildings and structural detail, have written the definitive book on barns.They trace the lineage of American barns from their European roots in a lively, readable, informative format.In addition to it's functional qualities, the book is quite handsome, a stunning addition to the library of anyone who likes barns.Quite simply, this is the best book on barns I have ever seen.

Barn, the art of a working building
This book is truely an inspiration... the images and descriptions will bring great memories of Barns to your mind, will bring tears to your eyes if you spent childhood fantasies in "the barn", and might inspireyou to save, build, or restore a barn someday...thank you Elric,Alexander , and David, whoever and wherever you are for presenting such awork...It stays on the table, within easy reach... ... Read more

Product Description
A far-reaching visual survey of farm buildings across the United States, tracing their historical and regional influences.

The first in the Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks series, Barns presents a broad, fresh, and newly informed visual analysis of one of America's fundamental building types. In a nation founded on agrarian principles, with a cultural and physical landscape as vast as it is diverse, the barn has long been recognized as an American icon. Drawn from the vast holdings of the Library of Congress, nearly 1,000 illustrations provide a tour of barns across the United States, from New England to the Great Lakes, the South, the Midwest, and the Far West.

Barns traces geographical and chronological continuities of type, design, and construction, and the Dutch, German, French, and Spanish influence. Captions identify each document and building, and all images are included on a CD-ROM (runs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms, requires Internet access) linked to the Library's high-resolution files. Barns is the first comprehensive visual resource of its kind, an invaluable tool for architects, historians, students-and anyone who loves barns. 1,000 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Barn Research
I am an architect and I bought this book to research barn types for a barn I am renovating. The CD with it was a pleasant bonus, however, I wish the pictures were higher resolution. It is very difficult to ferret out the actual built details on some of these barns--the pictures in the book are small, and the CD wasn't as helpful as I hoped..The history of barn types was very helpful, and nice to see the HABS/HAER program drawings included. It is a fairly comprehensive survey. I wish more barn types had been included in the Northeast section, and of course more structural detailing drawings or photos would have been nice throughout--not just elevations and floor plans. Structural systems for heavy timber framing and distributing lateral loads vary a lot throughout the country, and by barn type, and often inform how the barn is used--there are better books for that.

I especially liked the built farm equipment section (hay cranes), even though that wasn't why I bought it, because I'd never seen pictures of it before. And old hay stack methods before the balers were invented were also interesting. The history of the transverse crib barn was very useful.

The Best Resource on Barns
I highly recommend this book for general readers and researchers interested in relationships between architecture and history.John Vlach has a comprehensive knowledge of architecture, and he insightfully writes about the importance of barns and rural cultural landscapes as resources for studying history.This new volume is an important resource for studies of rural folk culture as it provides studies of a great variety of barns and an array of approaches for learning about vernacular architecture. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A top pick for anyone else fascinated by these monuments to agriculture
Barns have become more than functional buildings, they've become symbols of pride. "Barns of Wisconsin" delves into the history and style of Wisconsin's barns that have been built through the centuries and the reverence they have gained from barn aficionados. With plenty of black and white and full color photography, Jerry and Steve Apps give a fine history of brand and other things, making "Barns of Wisconsin" a top pick for anyone else fascinated by these monuments to agriculture.
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Product Description
Although it harks from a time before power tools, electricity, and gasoline, this book abounds in simple ideas that rural householders still find useful today.Barns, poultry houses, piggeries, corn cribs, ice houses, spring houses, granaries, smokehouses, root cellars and even kennels and birdhouses are included in this fascinating compendium from days gone by. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An American classic
This is a direct reprint of an 1881 classic, with an informative new forward by Castle Freeman. Halstead selected some of the most popular published designs from over two decades of the farm journal, The AmericanAgriculturist.Designs include barns, stables, carriage houses, animalshelters, corn cribs, ice houses, spring houses, dog houses and birdhouses. This book is still an inspiration for country builders.

Good "old-timer" building book
Although this book was quite informative it was not what I was looking for as it is lacking the tecnological side of building barns, sheds etc.It is written with reference to a previous time period--I did not find this bookvery useful for today's building and planning of such structures. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review of Graham Hughes 'Barns of rural Britain'
This book is a brief over view of barns of rural Britain. It begins with chapters on the history of the barns and the agricultural revoloution. It discusses how they havefallen in and out of use and why they should bepreserved as part of British social history. It does not fall into thestudy of architectual analysis but shows how vernacular architecture isdifferent in different areas of Britain. It also gives many prime examplesand where they may be found. The book is filled with many good qualityblack and white photos of the wide ranging barns from graneries tothreshing and tithe barns. In a study area which has been little discussedin literature Hughes book gives a good basis for further study. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Not for the mildly interested
I bought this book after purchasing Building Construction Before Mechanization, which is one of the best books I have ever read, and I highly recommend it.Inspired to read more of John Fitchen's work, I bought this guy, and it is incredibly detailed.If you have specialized interest in New England Dutch barns, this will be a good read for you.If you have a more general interest in timber framed structures, it won't be.

A "Must Have" For All Barn Lovers
As John Fitchen's, "The New World Dutch Barn" has been out of print for so many years and interest in NWDBs has increased over the last few years Gregory Huber's edited 2nd Edition is a much welcomed addition to any barn research library.

Mr. Huber's new material as presented in the chapter Introduction to the Second Edition and in the Appendices C. New Checklist of Dutch Barns and D. Huber's responses to Fitchen's text and the Glossary have made this second edition even more valuable than the first edition to the NWDB enthusiast. The leaving intact of the original edition gives the new barn researcher a chance to own the best of both worlds.

Mr. Huber's description of the five fundamental forms of NWDBs along with all of the exceptions and regional variances may possibly bring to the forefront hitherto undocumented barns.As Mr. Huber points out, there are more altered than unaltered barns and knowing a lot of the possibilities will aid NWDB enthusiasts.

I strongly recommend this second edition as required reading for serious NWDB lovers and barn lovers in general.

Rolland Miner, Director, NWDB Survey 2000

Fitchen is back. bigger and better!
Finally this classic and enduring book on the Dutch Barn is again available, now in an updated version. No one has spent more time going over, first hand, the barns first studied by Fitchen. Now Fitchen's original material is available without having to scour the used book stores. The new material by Huber brings up to date the first field work done by John fitchen in the 1960's. Any one with even the slightest interest in Early American Dutch Architecture must get this book. Not only does this book fully explain the barn , but the reader can easily then understand how the same basic construction procedures apply to the Dutch House. ... Read more

Product Description
Barn is a beautiful photographic record by British basedphotographer Fi McGhee of John Pawson's extraordinary conversion of a17th century Dutch barn in Essex, into a studio and family home. Thebook documents the five year process of deconstruction andreconstruction involved with the building's renovation, and charts theway that Pawson's much documented 'minimalist' philosophy was combinedwith McGhee's own practical needs as aphotographer to produce atruly remarkable working and living space. Designed by North. END ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Define minimalist
Maybe I can only give this one star because it did not meet my expectations. I pictured a documentary-like story via photos of the rebuilding of an old barn into a home. This book is trying to be a little too artsy (for my taste) & takes minimalist to extreme. No writing at all - B & W photos, some blurry. What has a naked toddler to do with any of this? Its a tiny book to boot. If you like extreme artsy stuff with little content beyond what I've described, hey, go for it. I'm returning the book. ... Read more

Product Description
Accompanied by more than 75 of the author's own meticulous sketches, this lovingly written book presents reliable records of such vanishing forms of architecture as the American barn and covered bridge. Delightful anecdotes describe structures as well as the men who built them. Accurate line drawings depict barns attached to houses, an "open" log barn in Virginia, a "top hat" barn in North Carolina, a bridge with a pedestrian walkway in rural New York state, a 2,088-foot covered bridge at Clark's Ferry, Pennsylvania, and more. Written with "warmth and astonishing comprehension," said the New York Herald Tribune Book Review, this priceless and highly readable tribute to a bygone era will delight Americana enthusiasts and lovers of these traditional symbols of early American life. Over 75 black-and-white illustrations.
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Customer Reviews (1)

American Barns and Covered Bridges
A great book if you are into bridges ... Read more

Product Description
The North Fork is the roughly sixty-mile-long spit of New York's Long Island that runs from Riverhead to Orient Point. With the fairly well protected Long Island Sound on the North and Peconic Bay on the South, it was a logical place for some of the earliest English immigrants to settle and build barns. It is still home to more working farms than any other part of the island. And from the timber-frame barns of the British farmers of the seventeenth century to the pole barns of the twentieth, the variety is stunning.

In a survey sponsored by the Old House Society in Cutchogue, Mary Ann Spencer spent the last few years making a comprehensive inventory and photographing more than six hundred barns on the North Fork. Two hundred of them are still in use, although their fate is by no means certain. Here in their glory (and sometimes less than that) are the most interesting barns,which reveal, among other things, their functional development, their often haphazard fenestration, their soft patina of age, and their fit in the landscape. Spencer's complete survey forms a second part of this book, which provokes feelings of nostalgia and raises our fears for the future of these wonderful structures. More than 150 color photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Love Barns?
Nice book is you or someone you know loves barns and the North Fork of Long Island.

Confrontational Barns
There is something in the American psyche that makes us believe in barns.Perhaps it's the feeling that somehow, we are still an agrarian society, or perhaps it's nostalgia for things that never were.But even if we haven't actually gone looking for these farm buildings, many of us somehow have a special place for them in our hearts.

The author of "Barns of the North Fork" was commissioned to do an inventory of existing barns on the spit of land that sticks out from the main body of Long Island.Even though just a few hours from New York City, farming is still a major occupation and of the 734 barns inventoried over half of them are still in agricultural use.

Other than a brief introduction and list of the inventoried barns, the book consists of about 90 color photographs of barns, with rather spare descriptions of the location of the barn, and occasionally a brief remark on some significant feature.The style is more in keeping with record keeping rather then a search for aesthetic significance, so that it is almost confrontational.Many of the buildings are photographed head-on without a trace of any sidewalls, as if the building were merely a stage set.Occasionally a structure is photographed from an angle but I often felt that that was because there was no other place for the photographer to stand.A few photographs show the environment of the structure, such as a barn in Southold about which the author asks "When we envision barns, do we see the structure or do we see the structure in its setting?"Unfortunately, more often than not, the author saw the structure.There are no detail photographs.

There is also a curious drabness about these barns, probably due to the fact that most pictures seem to have been taken on overcast days, with leaden skies.When the reader finally encounters a picture with the full range of light, the eye is surprised.

Perhaps I'm being overly critical because I've traveled North Fork roads and seen these same barns, and felt that they offered an opportunity for aesthetic work.But these pictures seem to have been created for another purpose.

Lovers of barns, and there are many, will enjoy this book.So will those who care for the North Fork.Photographers, on the other hand, may feel that there are missed opportunities.For them, I might recommend a little book published by the University of Iowa called "Harker's Barns: Visions of an American Icon" by Michael P. Harker.

An Extraordinary Evocation of American Life
This is one of the most interesting and beautiful cultural studies I have ever read.It was fascinating to discover such a wealth and density of human experience, as memorialized in these unassuming yet proud utilitarian structures of our past, in an area of the country I knew nothing about.Looking at these barns, imagining the work and imagination it took to make them, and their centrality in the lives of those who used them, it felt as though a way into lives past had been opened to me.I can only hope these photos awaken a climate of respect and caring which will have these barns, and other structures like them, survive for many years to come.

Amazing - a must have
The Barns of the North Fork is truly amazing. The book is the perfect blend of art and history, and one can truly see how much passion and effort the author has put in to make it so comprehensive. Since I've had it, it is the first book reached for on my coffee table and the one I've heard the most positive feedback about. For an enchanting portrayal of part of America's history, and culture you will not be dissapointed. It is truly unique and is most definitely a must have. ... Read more

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125 color photos/illus. 10 1/2 x 12 1/4. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Barns
I purchased this book for my sister as a Christmas gift, and the entire family enjoyed it.We were raised on a farm, and barns hold special memories for all of us.

This book, "Barns", has wonderful full-color pictures of all types of barns.Its author has captured the very essence and personality of each barn.It is a wonderful addition to anyone's library. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Great book if you have an interest in the subject.
Having chased down a fair amount of these barns over the years, I can say with some authority that Mr. Simmonds has done a fine job in both choosing his subjects and explaining the history of the subject matter.He provides a nice variety of barns, and while the book isn't as detailed on the Mail Pouch and Rock City barns as some books dedicated to those subjects, he provides enough for the reader to have a working knowledge by book's end.He even managed to find one barn that I spent much of 2004 looking for.I had given up and written it off as gone, but now I'm convinced that it still stands.Now I need to find a day when I can go hunting again. ... Read more

Product Description
Barns are the enduring symbols of a vibrant rural tradition as well as the heart and soul of a new generation of imaginative country houses.Architects are now using and rethinking these alluring and escapist structures, employing design principles that ensure they continue to complement the natural landscape in which they are set. Barns examines the architecture and design of barn conversions and a new generation of contemporary barn houses and illustrates a wide variety of ways to approach such spaces. Each chapter focuses on a key theme -- Landscape, Architecture, Materials, Light, Open Spaces and Private Spaces -- and features detailed case studies. All of the locations are part of a new wave of conversions or new-builds, spurred on by the growing exodus of city dwellers to the countryside.

The country equivalent of the urban loft, barns offer similar opportunities for open-plan flexible living. The open spaces and high ceilings give them a fluidity that allows multifunctional spaces for eating, relaxing and entertaining, making them the home of choice for those wanting to combine rural traditions and natural landscape with new architecture and unconventional layouts. As well as celebrating the new innovations in dividing and ordering space and experimenting with unexpected materials within such traditional structures, Barns also explores the attractions of vernacular architecture that encourages so many architects and homeowners to look again at the traditional barn materials like thatch, wood, mud and straw. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

I hated this book
If you have an old barn and want to get some ideas and inspiration for making a lovely living space without sacrificing the integrity and charm of the original, this book is not for you.I wish I had seen the review that appears before mine before I bought it.Soulless says it all.And most of the barns pictured are in Europe, to boot, except for one in Charlottesville that is so over the top, I thought I was looking at a cardboard model at first. This would be a great book if you have an airplane hangar you want to convert, but spare the barns.

Barns: Living in Converted and Reinvented Spaces
Lovely pictures of completely souless houses. Almost without fail, the buildings depicted started as gorgeous rustic barns, were stripped of every bit of character (with the exception of some beam-work), and populated with cold modern furniture. There is no warmth, character, coziness, or sense of home in any of them. They are carefully sanitized, and devoid of any sense of history. I can assure you that if I get to do a barn conversion, it would look nothing like any of the barns in this book. This book is inspirational--it tells me what NOT to do.

Renovation
Excellent - very informative but not too 'interior designed'!
My son is doing up an old house in Michigan and together we found some very good and sensible ideas to think about.

Barns Living in Converted and Reinvented Spaces
Good book overall if your intentions are to learn what architects and builders have done to old barns in converting them into modern and contemporary homes. Or a modern day interpretation of old barn design using todays style and building practices. Thankfully for most of the barn renovations mentioned, the authors did a good job in marrying the fine attributes that the old buildings possess with the modern styles and comforts that is required to make them habitable. All the pictures are exquisite, sharp and in good detail. I found the book an excellent idea source for my own pending barn renovation. ... Read more