When Beth set out to build a peaceful retirement home in Vermont, she wanted more than just a cozy place to land — she was searching for modern farmhouse plans that would reflect her personal style, maximize energy efficiency, and make everyday living feel intentional. That search led her to DEN Outdoors, whose builder-ready cabin plans stood out for their clean lines, flexible layouts, and thoughtful detailing. What began as a long-held dream quickly took shape as a warm, light-filled modern farmhouse tucked into the woods of New England.
Beth's home is a beautiful example of how modern cabin plans can offer more than just rustic charm — they can deliver a turnkey path to energy-efficient living. With downsizing in retirement top of mind, Beth prioritized functionality and simplicity while still maintaining the visual warmth that makes a house feel like home. The result is a blend of classic farmhouse design with modern sensibilities: an open floor plan, high ceilings, and a welcoming porch that perfectly frames the surrounding forest.
While many prospective homeowners look to prefab homes or modular solutions, Beth took a more hands-on route, using DEN Outdoors plans as a foundation for her own unique build. From crawl space foundation tweaks to adding special finishing touches inside, this project demonstrates the flexibility of DEN's modern farmhouse plans for those looking to create a forever home without sacrificing style or substance.
Whether you're considering a cabin-style retreat or exploring farmhouse plans for a new chapter in life, Beth's journey is a powerful reminder that the right home plan can simplify the process and lead to something truly personal.
Check out the plans Beth built from: DEN Eastern Farmhouse
Building a Modern Farmhouse in Vermont with DEN Outdoors
Mike: Let's start with some basic texture, right? Who are you guys, what did you build, and where? And what were your roles in the process? Let's start with Beth.
Beth: So we built the DEN Eastern Farmhouse, on Ross's suggestion. He sent it our way. We are in Northfield, Vermont, on a five-acre piece of former farmland with a pretty nice mountain view. My name is Beth Cole.
Mike: Awesome. Ross, how did you find DEN? And thanks for referring Beth to us.
Ross: Yeah, sure thing. My name's Ross Linthicum. My company's called Sage Home, based out of Bethel, Vermont. We do new construction and additions in the upper Valley of Vermont. Beth had come to me with a set of designs from an A-Frame company — they were just sort of getting a bit out of hand. I'd seen DEN on Instagram. I sent along the Eastern Farmhouse, which is what we built for Beth — 1,600 square feet, pretty much to the plans. The other plans had started to get out of hand, and she loved them right away and was able to move forward.
Beth: It took five minutes to say yes.
Mike: That's incredible. Beth, how many homes have you built before? Or is this your first?
Beth: I have not built a whole home from scratch before. But I have put on additions that are the same size as this house — three times. I always renovate homes. I don't know, it's in my DNA. Ross was the perfect partner. I really wanted to see if we could build a really tight, energy-efficient, all-electric, no oil or gas home that allowed us to downsize but still maintain a quality of life as we enter the third act of our lives.
Why Beth & Ross Chose Farmhouse Plans Over a Cabin
Mike: What made you want to build something instead of just buying something already available on the market?
Beth: Anything that's affordable still needs to be renovated. There aren't a lot of energy-efficient homes in Vermont that don't need attention, and there aren't a lot of new builds you could just buy either. In my head I was just like, "Land — I'm gonna find the land. Maybe I'll put a tiny house down. Maybe I'll put a yurt. I don't really know." But the goals were efficiency in design, efficiency in heating and cooling, and respect for the environment.
Mike: In the kitchen, did you go with an induction stove?
Beth: Yes, we did. It's all electric.
How DEN's Modern Cabin Plans Shaped Their Final Design
Mike: Ross, tell us how you interpreted the plans initially. I'm presuming you also worked with a structural engineer.
Ross: We did not. We live in rural Vermont — there are no inspections in our area. Beth pulled a permit from the town saying we're going to build a house and we've got a state-approved septic system. Other than that, we just build. As far as modifications to the plans, not a whole lot. We put a crawl space in instead of slab on grade.
Mike: As a builder, what did you think of the plans?
Ross: I really liked the plans. There was a lot of thought put into price consciousness. We're using a 24-foot width, which is really close to the max on TJI joists — past 24 feet, we've got to come up with something else. So there was definitely forethought there, and the design and structure had some symbiosis. And then the budgetary worksheet that came with it was pretty accurate in a lot of ways and really started us on a good path.
Ross: I'm a big believer in the Pretty Good House movement — a part of that is having design plans that are ready to go. From my research, there aren't a whole lot of design sets out there that are easily accessible and pretty much good to go. It's just me and a crew of three or four people. I don't have an in-house estimator or salesperson. A lot of the estimating is me, nights and weekends. So having that stuff well thought out really streamlined the process for us.
Ross: As far as modifications, we went with zip R9 and a two-by-six wall, and then modified the roof truss system — we raised the heel truss and dense-packed about 16 inches of cellulose in the attic. Between the two-by-six wall with zip R9 and dense pack in the roof, I think we got a pretty good package. We haven't done a blower door test yet — we'll probably do that in the next couple of months.
Beth: It's really tight. We can't hear when a truck comes up the driveway. There is a significant air exchanger, but the house is just so well sealed.
Downsizing in Retirement and Finding the Right Size Home
Mike: What's been the best part of building this DEN design?
Beth: Watching Ross and his crew build it from Maine. We weren't on site — we'd come in, check in, and then it would be like, "Wow, that's cool." Ross is a great communicator. I had a lot of faith in both the design and in Ross and his leadership. So it was fun. It was so much fun that we're building a barn with Ross that's bigger than the freaking house.
Beth: We did some modifications to the design, and that was fun too — like converting a window to a door for the dogs. "Okay, how can we make this really suit us?" That was fun.
Mike: Beth, what's your favorite part of the house?
Creating an Energy-Efficient Home with Smart Farmhouse Design
Beth: No question, it's the corner — this corner with the really openness. And then the porch, that's just fabulous. I had an old Victorian farmhouse. I've had other houses with porches, but this is a substantial porch. Being able to see out to the mountains from the kitchen all the way through the house and then going out there — it's just this extension of the living space that puts you right into the nature.
Ross: I'm definitely with Beth. Those nice big corner sliders open up into a porch that's 10 feet deep — and at 10 feet, you're creating an outdoor room. You can put a dining table out there, have a summer dinner under the covered porch, and the rain starts coming down and it's still wonderful.
Ross: And then I really love the staircase — it's this great staircase with a centered skylight that just beams down into the room. Beth's partner Jerry is a wonderful wildlife photographer, and I know over the years we're calling that Jerry's gallery.
Mike: Beth, you're living in this DEN design full-time now, is that correct?
Beth: Yes. We didn't start out that way — we were originally building this as a second home. But then we realized: what are we doing? We have a brand new house that's so energy efficient, and then an older house in Maine that needs a lot of work. With a lot of heartbreak, we sold the house in Maine and decided to move here full time. We had already eliminated the basement to save costs when it was a second home. This property does happen to be on a nice slope that could have had one, but we went with a crawl space instead. Now we're building a beautiful garage, and it's gonna be great. And there's a wonderful attic — we put in motorized stairs up to it.
Beth: One modification worth mentioning — the kitchen is small, so we took space out of the mudroom and created a pantry with doors Ross built. And we eliminated the door going into the extra room and built a barn slider instead. We created a little den office space in there.
Ross: I think the original plans had a closet there, but the original vision was a TV room. We might still do that. For the HVAC, we have three cassette mini splits upstairs feeding three bedrooms, a single 24K mini split downstairs, and electric in-floor heat in both bathrooms.
Modern Farmhouse Details: Porch Design Ideas & Interior Touches
Mike: Ross, if you had a potential client interested in pursuing a build using a DEN design, what advice would you give them?
Ross: The biggest thing is really talking about what your needs are. We're in an environment that's very expensive to build homes, and a lot of people are having to make hard decisions about where and how they're going to live. Budget is so important, and I think that's one of the biggest things I appreciate about the DEN plans — the budget that came along with it was very on track.
Ross: We built a 1,600 square foot home. There are a lot of people in this country who've lived in bigger spaces and are finding themselves needing to shrink down a little. And so I think it's even more important to pick designs that are both beautiful and engaging and actually handle your needs. With intelligent design, a thoughtfully designed space under 2,400 square feet can function just as well as a 3,000 or 4,000 square foot house. That's a great reason to look at DEN — these things have been thought through.
What It's Like to Build with DEN Outdoors: Final Thoughts
Mike: Beth, if you had a friend who was thinking about building a DEN, what advice would you give them?
Beth: I've had big bedrooms that I just sleep in. I knew that bedrooms don't need to be large — I'd rather have the other spaces be large. In terms of this design, I would say: look at the living space. I think it will meet your needs.
Mike: How did the DEN plans foster a strong relationship between you and Ross?
Beth: Well, first of all, he rescued us from the A-Frame — so that's worth its weight in gold. Once we saw the efficiency of the actual plan and saw it ticked off all these boxes, it was just Ross and I agreeing to collaborate on making it as energy efficient as possible and making it a home for the future. That fostered a lot of back and forth — "let's look at cork, okay now let's not, let's look at an alternative to granite that's kinder on the environment." We just had great collaboration.
Ross: Building a house is complicated. There are so many decisions to get made — it can be a really overwhelming process. What the DEN plans did for us was they just shortened that list of questions. All of a sudden we had a really good house plan with the sizes and shapes we wanted, and DEN had already pre-selected a bunch of different options for us. That really just tightened the scope so tightly that we were able to reduce that list of questions, which relieved so much stress on both of us.
"Just being able to have a blueprint that's starting us on a path and reducing that number of questions for both of us — to allow us the freedom to focus on the things we really want to focus on. I think that was the beauty of the DEN plans for us." — Ross Linthicum, Sage Home
Beth: One thing I'd offer as feedback: in Vermont, wood stoves are really important, and we struggled with where to put the wood stove and how to route the pipe. It ended up taking space out of the master bath and created a somewhat complicated solution. And the only other thing is that for any cold climate with snow, Ross put a little cap above the door to shed snow away from the doorway. But those are really the only things.
Mike: Great design feedback. Nice work to both of you — this is really enjoyable, and it's great to see the positivity in your relationship as client and builder. I wish you both the best of luck.
Build your own energy-efficient farmhouse — the same plans Beth and Ross used in Vermont.
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