Newsletters

Moving to the Farmhouse

If you’ve visited our office in the past 18 months, you’ve probably noticed the contractor trucks and vans parked around the farmhouse on our property. We picked a challenging time for a renovation project with supply chain issues, cost increases due to materials inflation, and labor shortages. Now that we can see the completed project, it feels very worthwhile. The end result of maintaining the historic nature of the farmhouse while adding a new office addition is off-the-charts well done.

Working with general contractor Ebersole Brothers Construction of Mount Joy and architect Carol Hickey (the same folks who renovated our barn offices), we decided to renovate the farmhouse for more office space. When we moved to the barn in 1999, we had 12 people on staff. We’ve been steadily growing over the years and now have 32 team members. We have run out of space in the barn.

Since purchasing the property in 1998, we haven’t done much with the rented farmhouse. We located a picture of the house from the early 1900s that showed a summer house addition before cars were common. So, we decided to replace the two-car garage with a “summer house” reminiscent of the original farmhouse.

Here are a few other historic building details we pre-served during the remodeling:

  • Exterior paint was stripped to expose the original brick, which we then re-sealed. Part of the old exterior is visible in the new addition.
  • Old attic floorboards were pulled, refinished, and re-used as the wide plank flooring in our small conference room.
  • Old wallpaper (circa early 1900s) that was uncovered when removing walls was saved and is used as a display item.
  • The cold cellar was rebuilt including the original stone archway entrance.
  • The small bell cupola that dates back to the original summer house has been remounted on the addition.
  • As a reminder of our family and company roots, the store sign from our former home in Mastersonville is displayed in the lounge of the addition.

Our plan is to immediately move around a half dozen folks who work in our group and individual benefits, Medicare, life insurance, and financial planning areas to the new building. As our numbers in the barn have grown, one of the downsides is the lack of private meeting areas. The new building has more conference and meeting areas to better accommodate private conversations with all of you with these topics.

Many of you have asked when we might have an open house to display our new fancy digs. While a final decision hasn’t been made, we’re faced with some logistical challenges with hosting. For one thing, we haven’t added any parking areas. So while we have enough spaces for our staff and a few guests, we don’t have many extra spaces. Also, some of the furniture for the new building is back-ordered. We’ve been given some loaner items, but we’d prefer to showcase the building when it’s fully furnished.

We’re keeping the barn as our main customer service space, so continue to stop by the barn when needing assistance. If you need to work with someone in the farmhouse, we’ll get you steered in the right direction.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in the barn almost 24 years now. It has been a pleasure to work with you from our unique barn building, which definitely has held up well over the years. I’m certain we’ll look back on the farmhouse renovation with similar thoughts. We look forward to many more years of serving you.

Steven L. Faus, CIC, CLU
President

Farmhouse 2021

Farmhouse Remodel

We are excited to welcome Erica Hannan to the barn. Erica moved to Lancaster 20 years ago to raise her three daughters and currently resides in Lititz. She has been working in the insurance industry for 12 years and is working in business insurance for the agency. Erica enjoys traveling, gardening, and spending time with her family.

We are here to serve you Monday through Saturday
Weekdays 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Thursdays 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:00 a.m. – noon Other hours by appointment

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