Annually before the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, a Guy named Joseph Wheadon built a Small, one-room house in New Milford, Connecticut. Wheadon cut the lumber by hand and also scavenged base stones from the surrounding property. Following his premature death, a Greek Revival wing was constructed, followed by other less-distinctive additions.
Over 235 years after Wheadon first wielded his ax, a Greenwich lady discovered the property whilst trying to find a weekend retreat. By this time, the house was obsolete and failed, with programs that had outlived their usefulness. “It had been my duty to the community to keep and uphold the architectural history of the house,” says the homeowner, a former pupil of historical preservation, currently making a doctorate in environmental coverage. “But on the bottom of the house, I wished to bring nature in and to connect the house to its environment.”
at a Glance
Who lives here: This home is a retreat to get a neighborhood family of five
Location: New Milford, Connecticut
Size: 2,700 square feet; 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
That is interesting: The old foundation stones have been utilized to construct a labyrinth behind the house.
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Working with Mark Goodwin of Beinfield Architecture, and Jim Blansfield of Blansfield Builders, the proprietor remodeled and expanded the house, opening the interior spaces into each other and the perspective.
The new column-lined entryway across from the garage pays homage to the 19th-century Greek Revival facade in front. The wing to the right was recently constructed, and the whole house was covered in standing-seam metal roof, which is both simple to keep and environmentally responsible — a thought that drove much of the undertaking.
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“You venture into a different world when you venture inside,” observes Goodwin, who heeded the proprietor’s request to reduce every element to its simplest components.
The living-dining place is dominated by an original fireplace, covered in reclaimed wood that’s been treated to some charcoal grey finish. “We attempted to reuse up to the timber as we could,” says Goodwin, who left some of the hand-hewn beams exposed and utilized one to make a sublimely understated mantel.
While the house feels just like a radical departure from its Revolutionary ago, the proprietor doesn’t see the two as incompatible. “If you look at the interiors, they are modern in terms of being nominal,” she states. “But really, those are the same materials that could have been used by the original builders. Rather than making it a relic of the past, we revived it and gave it a whole new identity.”
The living room sectional was custom made from Northern white pine, although the Andrianna Shamaris java table was fashioned from a tree stump. The engineered-wood floors (Castle Combe’s Worcester pattern) are made from oak, textured and handled to look like ancient reclaimed wood.
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The neutral decor defers into the perspective. The garden room is visible through the doorway in the rear.
Before Photo
After the owner bought the house, the kitchen had barely been updated since the 1950s and sported its classic metal cabinets.
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AFTER. “The owner wanted the house to be as simple as it might be,” says Goodwin, who conjured a distance as elegant as a Donald Judd sculpture. The owner did not want any upper cupboards cluttering the room, so Goodwin supplied the most minimal of shelving. Vermont marble covers the counters and island — a part of an effort to use only local materials.
The cabinets have been treated using a high-gloss painted finish. The proprietor commissioned the rustic-simple table and picked out the dangling lights — once again opting for something as understated as possible.
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The contractor attempted to preserve the initial master wing, but it was too fragile and needed to be reconstructed. The mattress currently backs up to a wall coated with reclaimed wood from the old property.
The pub wall provides opinions of 350-year-old maples, in which the proprietor has detected falcons and owls roosting. “You really feel like you’re in nature, but you’re not interrupting it,” she states.
Before Photo
After the owner bought the house, the interiors were obsolete, as evidenced by this pink-and-aqua toilet — the only one on the primary floor.
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AFTER. A new master bath was added behind the timber walls in the bedroom. (These will be the exact same transom windows visible over the mattress.) The vanity includes old barn wood, although the mirror over was drilled to accommodate both the faucets and the wall sconces — a task that took a few tries to master.
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A wing was added to balance the master bedroom wing, creating a U-shaped floor plan with a patio. The new space, designed for meditation or yoga, includes garage doors which slide open to reveal storage or to shut off the entry, in the right.
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Radiant heating warms the whole house, for example, yoga room. The proprietor has had as many as 14 people exercising in the space simultaneously.
Although the property is not large, it’s surrounded on three sides with a 220-acre agricultural preserve, so its perimeter appears to be boundless.
Architect Mark Goodwin tucked a frequent room outside the upstairs bedrooms, offering a much more private retreat than a traditional family room. Glossy white paint updates the floors and leaves the low-ceiling room feel more spacious.
Goodwin expanded the upstairs bedrooms into the roofline — a trick that enabled him to keep the perimeter walls so the new second floor would not surpass the initial one-story structures.
Before Photo
The Greek Revival wing was added after the original house was constructed — likely around 1820. “We wanted to keep that absolutely undamaged, and use that as a reference point for all of the proportions and materials and style of the remainder of the house,” says the proprietor.
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AFTER. Goodwin utilized a variety of architectural tricks to keep the second floor as much as possible, from deference to the Greek Revival facade. The old shutters were not authentic or original, or so the owner opted to eliminate them.
To keep the remodel environmentally responsible, the team reused everything they could from the old house and recycled the remainder. They utilized cellulose insulation in the walls and ceiling, water-based adhesives, formaldehyde-free materials, non- or no-VOC paints, and an efficient-energy recovery ventilator.
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The rear of the house isn’t visible to the public, so the proprietor felt more comfy updating it with walls of glass. The yoga studio, at left, was added to form a U that embraces the fundamental terrace.
The backyard opens atop a former terrace. While digging up the concrete slab, the construction team discovered an old tombstone lying face-down from the dirt. It had been the gravestone of the original proprietor, Joseph Wheadon, who died soon after the house was finished.
While his remains were not found, the tombstone was retained in the place where it had been discovered — currently preserved in an illuminated glass case and secured behind doorways in the backyard.