Inside A “Plainly” Beautiful Amish Home (31 Photos)

Here we have a neat Amish home in west-central Pennsylvania (Luthersburg). There are some really nice photos here – and interesting features to check out in this large-family home.

I’m calling this home “plainly” beautiful because it provides a striking visual contrast.

As you’ll see below, it has an almost fancy-looking, beautiful space downstairs – and very plain upstairs rooms.

This is part of a sizeable community lying around the town of Troutville, PA (settlement is in both Clearfield & Jefferson Counties).

The home is on an attractive, hilly property. Check out this great wraparound deck which will have some leafy coverage partially concealing it soon.

As noted, the more visually attractive parts of this home are the downstairs rooms. The bedrooms are plainer – as are the more functional spaces (bathrooms & utility rooms). This is not uncommon in Amish homes.

The description via Zillow:

Escape to the peace and tranquility of this 12-acre Amish farm, featuring a classic 2-story home with 7 bedrooms. The expansive barn (34 X 54) is perfect for those seeking a self-sufficient lifestyle, whether you’re passionate about gardening, raising animals, or pursuing your hobbies.

Enjoy the beauty of the surrounding landscape and the timeless appeal of a well-maintained Amish home. Orchards of apples, pears, cherry, plum. Grape vines and blueberries bushes. Hickory floors in kitchen dining room and living room. House does have a chicken coop with workshop, ice box and outhouse. Wrap around deck.

Downstairs Rooms

Let’s start with the kitchen area.

The place does have beautiful hickory flooring.

In this photo showing the kitchen table, something immediately jumps out. Do you see it?

Tennis balls being used as floor protectors on the chair legs. They are taking good care of this flooring.

Classic bold black cookstove and gleaming ceilings give this place a crisp and pristine look.

A quick glance in the pantry space.

On to the spacious living area.

Hickory rockers all lined up in a row. Each with a cushioned covering for added comfort. The more progressive Amish use recliners and other upholstered furniture. In plainer groups, it’s often rockers like these, but often with the coverings.

In this corner of the room we have a what looks like a cutting mat on a folding table, for making dresses and other clothing and fabric items.

A closer look shows measuring tape and sewing box.

Back to the sitting area, the rockers from another angle, showing their colorful coverings. I’m curious what that cross-shaped item hanging above them is. The Amish don’t typically display crosses in their homes as other Christians typically do.

And yet another angle of this sitting area they’ve carved out of their large living space. I count spots for 12-14 people, and that’s without getting the folding chairs out. All in all, a beautiful room and cozy space.

Bedrooms

Now let’s have a look at the sleeping quarters. You can see what I mean about the bedroom spaces being much plainer than downstairs rooms in this home. Flooring, decor, furniture – the contrast with the above photos is stark, isn’t it?

It’s not uncommon to see that in some Amish homes. More resources are devoted to the downstairs common areas. Less time (or at least, less “awake” time) is spent in bedrooms. At least, that might be the way of thinking for some.

In some cases (as we’ve seen in other homes), upstairs bedrooms are even left partially unfinished for a time (rough walls, no molding around windows, etc.). That likely reflects similar priorities, and perhaps lack of resources at the moment for finishing those spaces.

However, one of the property’s seven listed bedrooms however does have a “fancier” look. The crib in the corner suggests this is the parents’ room.

There is also this simple interesting space – a nursing room/children’s playroom. A rocker with a comfortable blanket/cushion for a mother to nurse and rock her baby.

“Bathrooms” in this home

As for the “bathrooms” – it looks like this is a community which does not use conventional plumbing. However, they have a toilet in the home for convenience.

Though, you can see below there is no water tank, just the seat portion. Not a fully “English” bathroom – but a more comfortable arrangement than going out to an outhouse.

But there is also this building, which I believe is an outhouse – outside the home at the end of a simple walkway.

Not only that, there is a bathtub in the home. You can see there is some sort of a water setup here. But not your traditional faucet.

It looks like there is some sort of a pulley attached to that suspended bucket. I’m not doing well here today figuring out how this is supposed to work. It’s also possible the water is heated and piped in here (see next section for more on that).

Wash Room

Here’s a look at the functional wash room space, with two wringer washers in the corner (as suggested by the home’s seven bedrooms, this is a large-ish family no doubt).

The metal contraption in the foreground looks to be a water heater (we once had a post explaining how this sort of thing works, but unfortunately had to remove it).

You can see the pipe hanging down, which is used to fill the water container for heating. A box of wood for burning is seen in the photo above. And the piping for smoke from the fire to exit the space. It’s a water heating solution for plainer Amish communities.

Basement

A quick look at the basement as well. A sizeable basement is standard in most Amish homes.

And Amish families use basement in different ways – as storage for canned goods, as space for a second “kitchen” to do canning, as a place for a ping-pong table or exercise equipment, a place to hold church gatherings, even a living space in the hotter months.

Some Amish basements are quite crude and basic, while others are finished to a comfortable degree.

This one looks to be more the latter, as you can see by the faux-wood flooring. It’s typical to have a heating stove in the basement as well, as we see an example of here.

Icehouse

Another neat feature of this home we should have a look at – it has a built-in icehouse. That’s another sign of a community with a more restrictive Ordnung (church rules). Notice the thick wall of insulating material. It appears to be a foot or more thick.

The blocks of ice are harvested from local sources (ponds & lakes) and retain their cooling power for many months, even into the summer. Taking a closer look, you can see some packages of food. I can make out “FRANKS” on the reddish one. Maybe some of you can tell what the others are.

The Price

Finally we come to the dollars-and-cents on this property. Here’s a nice aerial view of the property. So what is the asking price for this home and 12.6-acre parcel of land?