The Mountain Shack
The original building, shown here, was a Depression-era home sited in a 10-acre cow pasture 25 minutes west of Boone in the Blue Ridge Mountains, most likely built for a farm hand working on larger fields down the road. The home had been abandoned for decades before North Carolina architect Chad Everhart's client hired him for its re-design.
Chad Everhart
The Re-Shack Envisioned
The architect called for enclosing the original structure in bands of hemlock painted bright white, to celebrate its abandonment, and make it architecturally interesting. He also added a new roof and gutters, and salvaged the stone foundation and chimney.
Chad Everhart
Floor Plan
Everhart reorganized the floor plan on two levels, creating a loft out of two tiny bedrooms above, and a living room, kitchen, dining area, bath and laundry below. Originally 1,000 square feet, the home was reduced to 850 square feet, though the porch was expanded and a deck added.
Chad Everhart
Exterior Elements
Everhart was drawn to the home’s unusual fieldstone foundation and chimney, which lack clean grout lines or cut stone. The hemlock skeleton, bridges the divide between old and new and provides a striking visual in the rural North Carolina countryside.
David Shatzman
Great Room
The fireplace in the living room was replaced with a propane gas stove that vents up through the original chimney, and heats the entire house. By reconfiguring the second floor into an open loft area, the space is made light, airy and expansive.
Interior Details
The horizontal hemlock slat-siding detail is repeated inside, painted bright white in contrast to gray-painted drywall and exposed ceiling joists. The exposed structural elements are a common design theme inside and out.
David Shatzman
Bathroom
The Porch
The porch, expanded from its original foot print, uses the hemlock slats to create a side wall complete with mock window. A rear deck was added to provide additional outdoor living space.
Chad Everhart
Re-Imagined for Living
For More...
For more on the Mountain Re-Shack, click here. For other house tours, consider:
New Look (and Life) for a 1950s Cape
An 18th-Century Stone Farmhouse Reborn
Don't Miss!
If you have the money to hire a handyman for every household woe, go ahead. But if you want to hang on to your cash and exercise some self-sufficiency, check out these clever products that solve a million and one little problems around the house. Go now!