A new outlook

With a wraparound porch and oversize windows that frame the views, an updated rear addition embraces its pastoral setting and readies a well-loved, almost 220-year-old farmhouse for another century of family life

- DEBORAH BALDWIN

Some folks like to joke that an old country house is held together with spit and baling wire. But Chris Colomello, a general contractor in Amenia, New York, doesn't kid around. “We do it all the time," he says, referring to the steel ties his crew tightened overhead in this once-quaking 19th-century house. “It keeps the exterior walls from pushing apart.”

By all outward appearances the post-and-beam, timber-framed antique was fine. But dips in the floors suggested otherwise. “We did some investigating and found sections of floor joists that were cut out at some point to run ductwork," Colomello recalls. “It was a scary thing to find because by no means was this house structurally sound."

Homeowners Brian and Alexandra Tart waited 15 years before figuring the time was ripe to renovate. Their decision sprang less from fears the walls would pull apart and more from a desire to jack up the house's light and efficiency. “We didn't want a different house," Alex says. “Just a better-functioning one." The windows in back hardly captured the view, the kitchen felt dated and cramped, and there were just two bedrooms and a shared bath upstairs for the couple and their twin boys. The house, at 2,140 square feet, wasn't too small exactly, but it was disjointed.