Capt Benjamin Freeman House c. 1835

This property had three buildings on it when I first looked at it. One was the Main House, a Greek Revival Circa. 1835, the second was an old carriage house/barn Circa. 1850 in very poor condition structurally and in many other ways, and the third was a one car garage at the front of the property closer to Main St. Circa. 1960s.

The new owners approached me after the purchase of the property in 2009 and asked me about several projects on each of the buildings including adding another large building to park three cars in and to use as his shop. My understanding was he had spoken to other builders regarding the salvaging of the carriage house. He was told to take it down and build a new house in the same location. He asked me if I could save the building and turn it into a three-bedroom house. My response was, absolutely! I had a vast amount of experience working on old and antique houses approximately 30 plus years at the time.

We contracted to work on the two-car garage first, repairing the trim, replacing the windows, replacing the clapboards and custom building two insulated swinging garage doors and one entry door from red cedar. We also finished the interior. This was the start of a friendship and relationship that has lasted all these years.

I did all of the necessary drawings for the carriage house restoration and the new 30×40 three bay garage and had the engineer check and stamp them. The main house had a cross gable so I designed the new garage with a crossed gable cupola. The garage’s first and second floors are completely finished inside.

The carriage house has been structurally restored and has not moved a fraction of and inch. This was a major undertaking that required bracing and jacking up both levels, and shifting the building several inches with winches and lateral pressure and new timbers replacing many of the old ones. Building shear walls, and inserting steel rods and plates morticed into beams, a structural ridge beam and gussets in the roof system. The building has all new exterior trim, windows and clapboards. It has a large deck on the rear of the building facing the pond in back of the property. The building now has heating and air-conditioning. It has all new electricity and has been insulated. We used reclaimed heart pine 5×7 beams in the now kitchen and dining room. A custom kitchen was built, a laundry room with our custom-made cabinetry, a pantry and three bathrooms. There is a working fireplace too. The old flooring was removed and salvaged. We thickness planed, straightened and ship lapped each board to install on the second floor as a finish floor. It was worth the effort!

In the main house we built a custom library, custom kitchen, walk in pantry and rebuilt the laundry room with our custom cabinetry.

We have worked on this property and maintained it ever since. There have been multiple smaller projects over the years for this client. To list them it would take forever! On the interior of the carriage house mounted on the first-floor wall, the client has attached a bronze plaque with my name on it as a testimony to the quality of our team’s work.