Maggie Evans 
New York architectural designer and builder Tom Givone embarked on a journey to resuscitate a 19th –century homestead. He changed a dilapidated building in Eldred- a tiny city in upstate New York and made a large, light-filled house with spacious kitchen, dining, and lounge areas. He also expanded the veranda that jobs out across the face of the neighboring creek, hence the name Floating House.
The two-story house was built in the 1820s. It has colonial revival touches, such as white-painted timber cladding, beams, original wood floors, tiny arched attic windows, and double-hung sash windows. Givone revamped the inside, first exposing hardwood floors and beams, and adding a new wood-burning stove in the kitchen. The house is finished with polished concrete floors and with plenty of natural light brought in through the glazed wall.
The design and renovation process took four years to complete. And now the 1820s manor house is a study in contrasts: restored entirely to its period grandeur while still featuring modern design features, including a curtain wall of skyscraper glass in the kitchen and polish concrete and grind and seal finishes.
The floor plan was redesigned, letting a large living space take a significant amount of the initial ground-floor blueprint. A double-height fireplace centers the distance, along with the kitchen addition on its other side. Again, on the ground floor, there is a separate entry, a tiny bathroom, a bedroom, and a utility room. Two separate staircases lead upstairs, where there is a large master bedroom with a fireplace and a private bath, and another bathroom and two bedrooms that face the road.
The Floating Farmhouse’s semitransparent addition has a roofline that matches the original 1820 farmhouse. A porch that is tucked under the side eaves is cantilevered over a stream that runs through the property. IKEA loungers are illuminated from the interior by commercial gymnasium lights repurposed as pendant lamps. A fireplace fronted in weathered steel keeps the master bedroom warm.
Givone says that the expectation at the beginning was to combine archaic and contemporary elements throughout the home in such a way that improves the inherent elegance of each by virtue of its contrast with the other.
A heavy steel angle bracket is concealed in the wall to maintain the sink. The wood and copper tub goes way back to the late 1800s and was salvaged from an apartment residing in the Lower East Side of New York City.
The modern Floating Farmhouse in Eldred, New York City bears a few similarities to a renovation job that Givone has finished in rural Pennsylvania. Both of them combine antique furniture pieces with white, light-filled spaces.
