An Amish Shop-Home-Farmette For Sale (12 Photos)

This might be the most “shop”-looking Amish shop home I’ve seen in quite some time. The location is Mahnomen County in Minnesota, way up in the northern end of the state. According to Wikipedia, this is the only county in the state lying entirely within an Indian reservation (White Earth Indian Reservation). There is a small Amish community – one church district – in the area of Lengby (a town which actually lies just outside county borders). It may be that Amish live in both this and neighboring Polk County.

So let’s have a look at this shop-home, which hardly resembles a standard home, but perhaps for its front screen door with planter, and windows:

This structure looks very utilitarian – basically like a large industrial structure, with windows added. You might recall other shop-homes we’ve had a look at here, including a much smaller one and another large one with even more shop space, both in Kentucky. It’s fairly common that Amish when starting out will build a combination structure like this, and live in part of it until they build a proper home.

The listing also describes this a farmette:

The possibilities are endless on this 31+ acre farmette! Amish craftsmanship is evident throughout the 3,744 square foot shop/woodworking shop/house along with the 1,728 square foot barn with loft. The 31.7 acres is a perfect balance of woods, pasture, tillable and wildlife wetlands. Situated along a paved county highway and only a couple minutes from Island Lake.

Looking first inside the “home” portion, we see it looks just like other Amish homes we’ve seen:

Spacious pantry:

The ceiling here which appears to be the same corrugated metal as on the exterior gives the place a different feel than your typical home.

This room or section looks to be the office. You can see where the shop begins through the glass door and window:

Now in the shop section, a closer look at this space dedicated to some sort of woodworking:

At 3,744 square feet of shop room there is a lot of workspace here. We also see used as buggy storage and what look to be some sort of gourds or pumpkins there on the floor.

There is a nice-looking barn as well:

These shop-homes are interesting as far as selling to an English market – I’m not sure if an English buyer would also see this as a residential opportunity, or look at the structure more as an industrial workplace or storage building on a nice chunk of land.

The price?

This shop-home-farmette is currently on the market at $149,900 (Carol Sollie/Sollie Realty).

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    13 Comments

    1. Bert

      sir my teacher in wisconsin has an apt overlooking the horse arena complete with 2 door entryway stairs kitchen and 2 bedrooms

    2. Terry Berger

      Making good use of old customs

      Here in Pennsylvania there was a similar practice in general on many Pennsylvania German farmsteads. A small utilitarian house was built along with a good sized barn. This house was known as the ‘settler’s cottage’ and would serve the family until the farm was up and running. Later a large home was built and the smaller one shifted in use to a ‘summer kitchen’ or ‘summer house.’

      1. Were the barn and home together as one building? I feel like I’ve seen this before somewhere, possibly in a historical exhibit somewhere.

    3. J.O.B.

      Another nice one.

      One day I may buy a home Eric posts on this site. And if I do, I may have to pay Eric a finders fee.

      1. Heh that’s okay, no finder’s fee needed though I appreciate the thought. Happy to share these and if it helps a sale happen then all the better.

    4. Betty Weir

      Looking for Amish family to set up an off-grid 16c80 manufactured home in exchange for for free rent.

      We have a 16×80 manufactured 3 bedroom on 3 acres that is just sitting there waiting to be set up as an off-grid home. Hoping for a knowledgeable Amish family to set it up to be an Amish type of home in exchange for free rent. Contact to work out details. There is a holding tank and a well right near the home. It is zoned agricultural.

    5. Betty Weir

      Looking for Amish family to set up an off-grid 16c80 manufactured home in exchange for for free rent.

      We have a 16×80 manufactured 3 bedroom on 3 acres that is just sitting there waiting to be set up as an off-grid home. Hoping for a knowledgeable Amish family to set it up to be an Amish type of home in exchange for free rent. Contact to work out details. There is a holding tank and a well right near the home. It is zoned agricultural. It is located 5 miles North of Boyd, WI.

    6. Al in Ky

      I enjoyed looking at these pictures of this homestead for sale. I had never seen a shop/home quite like this one. It’s interesting that there are no pictures of bedrooms. In the shop room, I think the vegetables pictured might be winter squash.

      It’s an interesting area, because there are at least 3 other small Amish settlements (Fertile, Fosston, Clearbrook-Gonvick), within about a 30 mile radius. I’ve been in the area several times but not since the Amish settlements began. Also, there is another reservation, Red Lake Reservation, about 25 miles north of Lengby, and about 30 miles southeast is Lake Itasca, headwaters of the Mississippi River.

      1. If you remember Anne and her son Ed who joined the Amish, Fertile is where he and his wife were living. I haven’t heard much from Anne for a few years now, though I’d like to find out how they are doing.

        1. BH

          I loved Anne’s stories!

          I went back and read through Anne’s stories and they were so intriguing. I hope her and her son’s families are well.

          Living essentially off-grid in Minnesota…Wow. Hats off to all who are able to accomplish that. Our family enjoys the Laura Ingalls Wilder series and a book like The Long Winter makes me understand why someone might just build their house in the shop. One less trip outside during frigid temperatures!

    7. Sharon

      I know where Lengby is. I lived about 10 miles from this place. I have friends in Bejou that is north of the town of Mahnomen.

    8. Aaron

      Barndominium

      That is what we call them in the south. My bride and I had considered building one on our property. I have friends that keep horses that have a nearly 10,000 SF barn with 2,000sf of living quarters on two floors. I know of another in rural western VA that has living quarters built in the middle of an old manufacturing plant.

      Aaron

    9. Reziac

      Those barn-shop-homes are available as kits from several manufacturers of steel buildings. I’ve looked into them myself. Off-the-shelf models range from bachelor bungalows to large-scale barn-and-home affairs. Some have regular foundations, others are actually elaborate pole barns. They’re relatively inexpensive, mostly fireproof, mostly maintenance-free, and can be erected by anyone with barnbuilding experience.