Inside A 5,500 1,840 ??-Square-Foot Amish Home (23 Photos)
Update 2: Scratch the below update, I should not have stated it so confidently. I have no idea how large this home is, but now on third look I would say it is larger than 1,840 square feet and maybe the first number was in fact correct. I’ll add something further I learned on basements as that was part of the discussion (source):
Below grade spaces (basements, dens, etc.) do not usually count toward a home’s square footage. Even a finished basement can’t be counted toward a home’s Gross Living Area (GLA) but it can be noted separately in the listings total area.
But even without the large basement space it looks like an above-average-sized home. I will step away from the residential square footage guesstimation game now, as it is clearly not my forte 😀 Thanks for your comments on this, including from KimH.
Update 1: My hunch was correct. Going by two seemingly more accurate sources, this home is nowhere near the square footage listed in the realtor.com listing. The actual size looks to be 1,840 square feet. That is interesting, considering that half the home’s floor space would be taken up by the large “great room” mentioned in the listing I cited (though perhaps those dimensions are questionable as well). Regardless, the room is undoubtedly large going by the photos below. This does reflect a tendency of Amish to build homes with large open spaces. Both Trulia and Zillow report this home was sold in May for $235,000.
For this week’s look inside an Amish home we visit Ohio. The last two weeks we’ve seen rather plain houses, including a $45,000 Wisconsin home, and another plain one in northwest Pennsylvania. This one is not so plain by Amish standards.
This home, found in Harrison County (Scio), which lies east of the greater Holmes County settlement. I’ve driven through this county but never sought out the Amish settlement there.
The home itself has an odd exterior design to it.
Inside we can see it is quite spacious. It’s listed as having 5,520 square feet. I am not a good judge of square footage of homes just by looking at exterior and even interior photos. If you just showed me the photos of the exterior, I would say that yes it is big, but wouldn’t guess nearly so large. They do list 7 bedrooms, and at least this one is quite spacious:
We also see a very large main room. If I’m reading the listing correctly, the dimensions of this room are 23′ x 41′. That would account for 943 square feet of the total.
There is an expansive semi-finished basement whose square footage I assume is included.
But is this place 5,520 square feet in size? I wouldn’t guess it by looking at it, but perhaps those of you with a keener eye would judge otherwise.
This room is empty. I believe it is the same room as higher up, just from the opposite angle. Perhaps it was emptied in preparation for a move. Another possibility is that the photos were taken before or after church, though I’m not sure the room would be large enough for bigger congregations, but maybe for smaller ones.
That’s a grandfather clock at the other end, and you can see two hooks where the light is hung from the ceiling. The closer one doesn’t appear to have a heat shield, while the one at the back of the room does, which itself is hung from a hook (you can barely make that out).
This suggests that they hooks might be used for both heat-generating lamps, as well as the Dewalt-style battery lights seen in more progressive Amish homes. A calendar hangs on the wall. I wasn’t able to make out the date even at the larger versions of these photos at the realtor.com listing.
Another view of the large bedroom seen higher up.
More bedrooms.
Lighting and general decor gives away that this home is not as plain as the others mentioned. Notice the bedside lamp.
Kitchen. Nice abundant natural wood look to this home, with the flooring and furniture.
A pleasant sitting area.
A lot of upholstered furniture in this place, the type you might see in an English country home.
Contrast that with plainer Amish homes where rockers, including hickory rockers, show up in greater numbers (see here and here for examples).
The workshop, which lies partially built into a hill.
Looks like the owner of this place works with metal.
Barn and horses.
Pasture area.
The price of this home, when last listed in spring of 2018?
$275,000. The home was not sold according to realtor.com, and is currently listed as “Off Market”.
My Amish Friends
My Amish friends that we have been friends with over 26 years make beautiful furniture and quilts and baskets, grow beautiful vegetables. I could sell some of there goods to my friends if I could take pictures. But I can not they don’t aloud it. I know there believes so I have never ask
They live in Tennessee . A 3 half hour drive for us to see them. I have received a letter going up Saturday for tomatos.
I will take Lunch for all of us the children love pizza and ice cream. I will stop and pick up pizza from Pizza Hut and ice cream from Kroger.
But No pictures
Media center
I wonder how much land comes with it. The big bucks is in the land these days. Notice the nice media center? I’ll assume there is not a TV and/or stereo in it.
Speaking of Scio, I stopped for lunch in a beautiful little town named Scio in Oregon awhile back which appeared to have either Mennonite or Amish population. I noticed a lot of plain dress but I didn’t want to ask impolite questions.
I did learn the town was named after the Scio in Ohio by migrants from the Ohio town.
I checked other listing sites and it has about 10.5 acres. And according to this one it was sold two months ago for $235,000: https://www.trulia.com/p/oh/scio/38345-bower-rd-scio-oh-43988–2045279159
For that matter, I think I found more clarity on the square footage. My hunch was right – two other sites list it as having 1,840 square feet, including the Trulia site and Zillow, which both report its May sale. I am inclined to believe those sites. Usually if there’s a question I cross-reference these listings with other sites but this time I failed to do that while under some time pressure. Will update the post.
Finally, on Scio, Ohio – the name got me to wondering about other town/city names which rhyme with their state name (I’m assuming Scio does not have some odd local pronunciation). There must be more but I couldn’t come up with any.
Wow!
My entire house would fit in their great room.
Square footage isn’t guest at or even provided by the seller, square footage is determined by the Assessor’s Office. Furthermore anything below grade level cannot be counted into square footage. I finished basement will certainly add to the value of the home and you are able to mention it as a selling point but you can’t add the square footage in to the total of the house because it sits below grade
Thanks for that info, Leah. Btw post is now updated with what looks to be the more accurate square footage.
Big House
I wonder if there are bathroom(s). I agree with Wow! Our house would also fit in their living room/kitchen area!! A beautiful home though. Would make a great place for a very large family. I noticed that they must collect mantel clocks, as there are several on the entertainment center and on smaller shelves in living room.
There are 2.5 or 3 bathrooms depending on the listing. Forgot to include that detail. Another sign it’s not the plainest of Amish places.
Spacious
Another nice home.
The more I see those blue curtains the more I like them.
Square footage ..I’ve owned a 2,000 sq ft home and it would have fit on that first central level, no doubt in my mind. They probably did include their finished basement in that 5,000 ft assessment but I totally believe it’s that big.
This house isnt an odd build for Geauga Co. I know 2 families who have houses very similar.
I’d love to own this house.. I need t HF e space. Lol