Great Room

The bones of this house — which spent most of its life as a barn — date to the 1800s. But nearly everything else is new. Amy and Iain Kerr bought the weathered old barn in 1997 and slowly turned it into a living space with windows, exposed beams and open rooms. But they kept some of the original details — including a metal haylift that hangs from the second-floor ceiling — to pay tribute to its initial purpose. All the major systems in the house — from the natural gas furnace that provides radiant heat, to the electrical wiring — are less than 12 years old. The Kerrs replaced...

A Brandeis University professor and a US Forest Service botanist will participate in a forum on deer Thursday in the Great Room at the Weston Community Center. Brian Donahue, the professor and a member of the Weston Conservation Commission, will present a talk on deer hunting, while Thomas Rawinski of the forest service will discuss the ecological impact of white-tailed deer. The forum will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. In the event of snow, the forum will be held Feb. 23. - Andrew Clark

A Brandeis University professor and a US Forest Service botanist will participate in a forum on deer Thursday in the Great Room at the Weston Community Center. Brian Donahue, the professor and a member of the Weston Conservation Commission, will present a talk on deer hunting, while Thomas Rawinski of the forest service will discuss the ecological impact of white-tailed deer. The forum will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. In the event of snow, the forum will be held Feb. 23. - Andrew Clark

The bones of this house — which spent most of its life as a barn — date to the 1800s. But nearly everything else is new. Amy and Iain Kerr bought the weathered old barn in 1997 and slowly turned it into a living space with windows, exposed beams and open rooms. But they kept some of the original details — including a metal haylift that hangs from the second-floor ceiling — to pay tribute to its initial purpose. All the major systems in the house — from the natural gas furnace that provides radiant heat, to the electrical wiring — are less than 12 years old. The Kerrs replaced...

HAWLEY - Looking for a no-frills vacation in the woods? From December through late March, Stump Sprouts, a mountain-top lodge just this side of the Berkshires, offers 25 kilometers of groomed cross-country ski trails among ice-tinseled trees and snow-covered brooks. At the summit, skiers are rewarded by views that include New Hampshire's Mount Monadnock. The no-frills part? Guests bring their own bedding, including sheets, towels, and pillows. Meals are taken together in a common dining room.

420 Franklin St. Reading Price: $588,900 Style: Farmhouse Bedrooms: 4 Rooms: 7 Baths: 2 1/2 baths Sewer: Public Walk into this historic red 1711 farmhouse, past the wood-floored foyer and into the so-called great room and enjoy the warm and inviting space. This expansive room, once a carriage barn, showcases a renovated kitchen, dining, and living rooms with oak floors, tall ceilings, and original cross beams. One of the home's two working fireplaces lines a wall and multiple windows look out to the front and...

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - You’ll feel like Goldilocks, walking through the woods into the Bentwood Inn: The sweet library is almost too small, with just one chair in its tiny alcove. The Great Room is too big; three stories high with a massive river rock fireplace. Imposing, for a B&B that from the outside looks like a private home. The five guest rooms, however, are just right, with big cozy feather beds, private decks, and jetted tubs. Breakfasts are gourmet with such local offerings as elk sausage with your French toast.

SPRING GREEN, Wis. -- This town's primary claim to fame is Taliesin, the country home of Frank Lloyd Wright that expresses on an intensely personal level the architect's enduring theories on shelter, landscape, space, and the environment. But Spring Green, about 35 miles west of Madison, is also the site of another well-known house, the sprawling, surprising, and occasionally kitschy House on the Rock. Designed by architect Alex Jordan in the 1940s, the original 14-room house perched atop Deer Shelter Rock has grown into a 200-acre complex...

MERCED, Calif. - Heather Alarab, a junior at the University of California, Merced, and Jill Foster, a freshman, know that their sudden popularity has little to do with their sparkling personalities, intelligence, or athletic prowess. "Hey, what are you doing?" throngs of friends perpetually text. "Hot tub today?" While students at other colleges cram into shoebox-size dorm rooms, Alarab, a management major, and Foster, who is studying applied math, come home from midterms to relax under the stars in a curvaceous swimming pool and an adjoining Jacuzzi behind...

MENDOCINO, Calif. -- What was to be done with hundreds of virgin redwood logs, many measuring a super-sized 16 feet in diameter, buried deep in the sludge of Northern California's Big River? Perfectly preserved, they remained where they fell for well over a century. Utimately a physician, gardener, and environmentalist named Arky Ciancutti took notice. He laboriously salvaged many of the logs, then had them milled into 100,000 board feet of tight-grained lumber. Soaking so long in mineral-rich river water accounts for their burnished shades: golden blond, burgundy,...

Walk into this historic red 1711 farmhouse, past the wood-floored foyer and into the so-called great room and enjoy the warm and inviting space. This expansive room, once a carriage barn, showcases a renovated kitchen, dining, and living rooms with oak floors, tall ceilings, and original cross beams. One of the home's two working fireplaces lines a wall and multiple windows look out to the front and back yards, which have a child's sandbox, slate patio, chestnut trees, and a meandering picket fence.

MERCED, Calif. - Heather Alarab, a junior at the University of California, Merced, and Jill Foster, a freshman, know that their sudden popularity has little to do with their sparkling personalities, intelligence, or athletic prowess. "Hey, what are you doing?" throngs of friends perpetually text. "Hot tub today?" While students at other colleges cram into shoebox-size dorm rooms, Alarab, a management major, and Foster, who is studying applied math, come home from midterms to relax under the stars in a curvaceous swimming pool and an adjoining Jacuzzi...

HAWLEY - Looking for a no-frills vacation in the woods? From December through late March, Stump Sprouts, a mountain-top lodge just this side of the Berkshires, offers 25 kilometers of groomed cross-country ski trails among ice-tinseled trees and snow-covered brooks. At the summit, skiers are rewarded by views that include New Hampshire's Mount Monadnock. The no-frills part? Guests bring their own bedding, including sheets, towels, and pillows. Meals are taken together in a common dining room.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - You’ll feel like Goldilocks, walking through the woods into the Bentwood Inn: The sweet library is almost too small, with just one chair in its tiny alcove. The Great Room is too big; three stories high with a massive river rock fireplace. Imposing, for a B&B that from the outside looks like a private home. The five guest rooms, however, are just right, with big cozy feather beds, private decks, and jetted tubs. Breakfasts are gourmet with such local offerings as elk sausage with your French toast.

SPRING GREEN, Wis. -- This town's primary claim to fame is Taliesin, the country home of Frank Lloyd Wright that expresses on an intensely personal level the architect's enduring theories on shelter, landscape, space, and the environment. But Spring Green, about 35 miles west of Madison, is also the site of another well-known house, the sprawling, surprising, and occasionally kitschy House on the Rock. Designed by architect Alex Jordan in the 1940s, the original 14-room house perched atop Deer Shelter Rock has grown into a 200-acre complex...

MENDOCINO, Calif. -- What was to be done with hundreds of virgin redwood logs, many measuring a super-sized 16 feet in diameter, buried deep in the sludge of Northern California's Big River? Perfectly preserved, they remained where they fell for well over a century. Utimately a physician, gardener, and environmentalist named Arky Ciancutti took notice. He laboriously salvaged many of the logs, then had them milled into 100,000 board feet of tight-grained lumber. Soaking so long in mineral-rich river water accounts for their burnished shades: golden blond, burgundy, softly hued red,...