Early Homes: In a Quiet Hamlet, A New Old Bow - 2009

Excerpts from the original article.

Long-time Old-House Interiors reader Randall DiStefano tells us that he and his wife fell in love with the quiet hamlet of Grafton, Vermont, when they came here to put an addition on a client's house. For two decades, Randy's done 18th-century historical reproduction and restoration work all over New England. When the family decided to stay and build a house for themselves, they referred to Stanley Schuler's Old New England Homes.

Construction was a long process." I tried to build it in the same manner a home of its period would have been built," says Randy. " I did almost all the work myself, ground up, with some help from my brother Dave - when he could make the trip up from Tennessee." The house is complete with an 18th-century framing system, a working bake-oven in the back wall of the keeping room, and a slate floor. "My wife and I split the slate by hand at a quarry in Granville, NY."

"I put my heart and soul into this place," Randy says. " I get a kick out of people who ask how old the house is. When I tell them five years old, the look on their faces makes it all worth it."