The first night Jake and Katie Schneider spent in their newly purchased home, there was a horse sleeping down the hall—or shall we say on the other side of the stall. It was 1980 and the couple had just bought an old dairy barn on the shores of Lake Erie to turn into the home of their dreams.

The property, 20 miles south of Buffalo, New York, was part of land owned by Katie’s grandmother, who lived across the road. She was ecstatic the couple had chosen to live so close to home, but when Jake stood in the barn surrounded by old rusty farm equipment and announced, “This will be the kitchen,” she summoned her granddaughter aside.

“I think your husband is crazy,” she told Katie. Today, the former milking area (which accommodated 12 cows) is a kitchen, the aforementioned horse stall is an office, and bedrooms, rather than bales, occupy the old hayloft.

“It was kind of our starter home,” says Jake, of the 6,500-square-foot residence situated on fifty acres. “When we moved in Katie was pregnant with Zack, our oldest. We had a plan that the home would grow as our family did.”

Almost 30 years and four children later, Jake recalls the construction of the home in eight phases. “What was great about this place is that we grew as a family here. We couldn’t have afforded to do the whole thing when we were just starting out.”

And each phase has its memories. Take a tour with Jake and you’ll begin to see the transformation. “We used to park our cars in the living room,” he says. “And this is where they used to milk the cows . . .”

While it’s hard to believe by looking at it now, you’ll see the barn through some of the architectural elements the couple left intact, such as the horse stalls and the silo and well pump. The beams upstairs, the brick in the dining room, and the oh-so-charming Dutch doors are original to the barn and the cathedral ceilings on the second floor are also inherent to the structure. Jake, an architect and owner of Schneider Design Architects, made decisive use of all available spaces and window openings in the floor plan.

He left the Tudor stucco exterior—which is actually quite unusual for a barn—much the same as it was.

“We’re very proud of it because it has happened over our lifetime. We’ve lived through all the construction processes, and pretty much stuck to the master plan,” he says.

Katie, an accomplished photographer, agrees. She remembers not only the building phases, but the stages the growing family went through as the home evolved. A favorite memory is how the family would turn the tennis court into an ice rink in the winter.

“The court had lights so we were often out there in the wee hours of the morning,” she recalls fondly. Her laid-back attitude and love of life are reflected in the home.

Early on, she knew that she wanted a functional home, rather than a showcase. “We believe in living in a house,” she affirms.

Jake shared the philosophy and designed with it in mind. “We wanted a place that could be treated a little like a barn, with no cellophane over the furniture. We wanted our home to help in the process of living.”

Since Zack, Max, Eliza, and Sarah have grown up and moved elsewhere in Buffalo, Jake and Katie do have a little more “living” room than before, but the space comes alive with warm memories at every turn. The current farm animals include Bogie the barn cat and a lovable Bernese (as in Bern, Switzerland) Mountain Dog, named Toby, after Toblerone, the triangular-shaped Swiss chocolate bar. Bogie and Toby, like the previous farm animals, roam freely around the barn. And there’s always room for guests, who can also stay in the old chicken house, which is now an in-law apartment complete with kitchen and exercise equipment.

When guests enter the home, says Katie, they always ask, “Should I take off my shoes?”

Her response? “No, we live in a barn. Just come on in.”