Inside A “Charming Farmstead” Amish Home (17 Photos)

Some lovely photos, taken on a crisp autumn day, of an Amish “farmstead” home in Lucas County, Iowa. These look to be fresh photos, as this place has only been listed for a couple of weeks. The county is home to two Amish communities; this one is in the area of Chariton.

Some beautiful aerial shots show the property and surrounding landscape. This location is about an hour outside of Des Moines in south central Iowa.

From the listing:

If your idea of ideal living is a picturesque rural Iowa farmstead, this charming 3.7 acres +/- Hobby Farm in Lucas County may be what you’re looking for because it’s got “charming Iowa farmstead” written all over it but the farmhouse was built in 2002 instead of 1902!

Location is in the country, but only 150 yards from the paved Derby Hwy., and only 10 miles from Chariton for easy drive to all essential services. Home has 2,280 sq ft of living area, covered front porch with sunrise/sunset views, full unfinished basement, 40×24 attached 1 car garage, and insulated shop with concrete floor. Master bedroom and 1 bath on main floor, with 2 unfinished bedrooms upstairs and 2 unfinished rooms upstairs that could be turned into bedrooms, + plumbing for 2nd bath .

Main floor features open kitchen/dining area with walk-in pantry, and very large living room. Outbuildings include: 48×30 barn w/hay loft & concrete floor, 32×22 horse barn w/hay loft, and 42×30 Quonset hoop style building. Garden spot, fruit trees, grape vines, fenced and ready for livestock. Home currently has good water well, rural water is available at the road if desired.

Please note an Amish family lives here and electric is not hooked up but home was wired for electricity when originally built and has outlet and lights/fans locations ready for installation. The 3.7 acres +/- designation is estimated because property is being surveyed. Call or text listing agent if you’re interested in having a private showing.

This listing is emphasizing the picturesque surroundings, the fact that the home is relatively new for a farmstead-style home, and also draws attention to the fact that despite this being an Amish home, it was built with electric installation.

That is pretty common for some Amish – to build their homes with an eye to possibly selling to a non-Amish buyer in future. It’s easier to put in electric while you are in the original building process, and the added value then expands the market appeal, if and when you try to sell it.

So let’s have a look inside this “charming farmstead” home.

Kitchen

This home has a very pleasant and homey kitchen with lots of classic Amish notes.

Those include the black cook stove, curtains and wall decor, and reflective heat shield for lights. Also look at the lower left of this photo – you’ll notice an old-style school desk.

One clue that this group may have gotten a bit more progressive recently is the fact that they are using electric battery lights here, rather than say, a pressurized lamp burning fuel.

Another angle of the kitchen shows us the counter top and water supply. This is definitely not a progressive style of Amish home, but nor is it the plainest.

Here is an extension of the kitchen, the part you see on the back right of the photo above. Back here we have what looks like a kerosene cookstove, a wash-up sink (common in nearly all Amish homes), and a display cabinet.

We can’t see what’s in the cabinet but it’s most likely the family’s finer dishes and place settings, used on special occasions. There’s another smaller stove towards the back window, which might come in handy for canning.

Finally the calendar tells us these photos were most likely taken in October (unless someone forgot to flip it to the next month, which I personally am often guilty of, but most Amish households are probably better about that sort of thing 🙂 ).

Living Area

There are a couple of photos of the main living room, spacious as is typical of the Amish for this room of the home. That allows for larger group gatherings and better dispersion of light.

The couch and recliner are covered with blankets or sheets, another not-uncommon thing in Amish places (keeps it clean when someone in from chores wants to plop down for a rest or nap). I like the attractive wood flooring in this place.

Bedrooms

The home is listed as having four bedrooms, but we get a photo of just the one. This is the parents’ room. The crib and bassinet, and the fact that it is on the ground floor, are the most obvious indicators of this.

Other Spaces

Now, what I wrote above might not be exactly true, if we consider this next room a bedroom, which maybe it is.

But it’s a bit confusing on first look, because on the one hand we see prominently in the foreground a gun cabinet for hunting firearms, as well as some antlers mounted and hung on the wall.

Then towards the back of the space there is a children’s table and a small child-sized bed. There is also the open door which leads to what appears to be a bathroom (the place is listed as having one of them).

And here we have the wash room, with wringer washers in the back corner. The rectangular metal objects are a wood burning water heater (note the blue-handled spigot that you can just make out), and the one behind it appears to be a kerosene-heated oven.

Here are some more exterior shots.

There are several outbuildings, including two barns.

Really a lovely setting here. Not too many neighbors around and, as they say, picturesque.

So what’s the price for this Iowa Amish homestead?

It’s currently listed at $300,000, represented by Joshua T Flournoy of Mid North Realty.

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