Former barn packed with charm

WESTWOOD - From afar this house looks to be a gambrel, but a closer look shows the real heritage - a former barn, built in 1908. Now painted - what else? - barn red, the home’s ancestry is apparent in large rooms, oddly shaped eaves, and a roof line where dormers were added to bring air and light into what was once a hay loft. The house is on the front of an acre-plus lot, with plenty of space behind for lacrosse and other lawn games or gardens. Mature trees along the lot lines provide privacy.

To the right of the front hallway is a living room-library, with a sweet little reading spot - a bench made of slate - next to the stone-faced fireplace. One wall has built-in bookshelves, and the ceiling has burly beams. Across the hall is a den with a massive red brick stepping-stone fireplace and knotty pine paneling. The white dining room has double French doors out to yard. The spacious kitchen is in need of a makeover, but has a working fireplace and gorgeous picture window. The left wing is given over to matching bedrooms with adequate closet space in each.

The house is solid, but dated, especially in the bathrooms with linoleum and fixtures appropriate from the 1960s. The renovate-me-now theme continues in the one larger bedroom on the second floor, with its knotty pine paneling and green linoleum under fluorescent lighting. Yet ’tweens might find a retro-coolness in the room’s vintage touches and heritage. The room has a trapdoor that closes off a rear stairwell. The second bedroom on this floor is entered through a polygon-shaped doorway.

A trap door from the barn-era remains, but only opens to crawl space. The house has a two-car attached garage. Oddly, the basement access is through a first-floor bedroom.

Broker Christy Bailey of Coldwell Banker Westwood will hold an open house today from 1 to 3 p.m.