Last Updated: 03/05/2021 1:10 pm click to enlarge Winona Barton Ballentine Laurie Ylvisaker’s 2,000-square-foot farmhouse sits at the top of what she and her neighbors have dubbed Rainbow Hill. Her grandfather, a best-selling author, and her grandmother, a German immigrant, were the first year-round residents of the Maverick Colony of the Arts, invited by colony founder Hervey White. Ylvisaker spent much of her childhood visiting them and “as a 13-year-old existentialist, I always knew this was where I’d ultimately be,” she explains. Although she's roamed like the quintessential rolling stone, Laurie Ylvisaker's life has truly come full circle. A descendant of Woodstock art colonists, her childhood was colored by the artists, musicians, and writers who first made the town a creative hub. "Their creative and free-spirited lifestyle carved an indelible impression on my way of life," says Ylvisaker. Her 2,000-square-foot nouveau farmhouse expresses a similar theme—that is, honoring history and reworking local forebears' oeuvre for the present day. Built in 2001, it was inspired by the 1850s barn that still sits at the front of her 22-acre property. Steep gabled roof lines and clapboard siding recall 19th-century farm life, while the home's modern interior provides wide swathes of wall space ideal for hanging art. "One of the best compliments I get is when people ask me, 'Who had this farmhouse before you renovated it?'" Ylvisaker says of the home she built herself. "But really I designed it."