It’s not hard to transition to rural living – just move into a 300-year-old house and get some sheep.

That’s what Joe and Anne Duggan did earlier this year when they purchased the property of Arthur Lionberger, a Rochester resident who passed away at 105 years of age in 2008.

Only four miles from their former home, the lifelong Marion residents sold their house on a whim.

“I don’t really know how it happened,” said Joe, a mechanical engineer at Raytheon in Portsmouth, R.I. “We sold the boat and bought a tractor.”

The couple has tried to trace the history of the house and barn, located on Rounseville Road, but so far have only uncovered a little information.

Before Lionberger, the Rounseville family owned the property and stored oxen in the barn for the sawmill, which still exists on Vaughn Hill Road. Before them, a man named Ephraim Gammons owned the house.

“Before that, I can’t figure it out. The names of the roads have changed,” said Joe. “We kept hoping to find something cool, something in the walls.”

But there are still plenty of opportunities to uncover the house’s history.

On a murky Thursday afternoon, Joe is fixing a doorknob and nervously monitoring a major change to his new three century old home – the demolition of his kitchen. Underneath the room there was only a dirt foundation.

“The floor had about a foot slope in it,” said Joe. “We just bought an old place that needed a little work.”

The Duggans also put new siding on the barn, which is across the street from the house.

Neighbors gave them old windows to outfit the barn, and so far it’s gotten a lot of positive comments from motorcycle riders, classic car drivers, and other passersby.

“We have three or four people stop a day,” he said. “They come from all over. They just like the barn.”

The Duggans’ seven sheep are also an attraction. After meeting someone with sheep at a local ice cream shop, Joe decided to host some lambs at his place.

“I thought the sheep would be fun. These are pets. They’re mowing two acres for me,” he said, adding that all of the animals have names. Baaaaarbara is Joe’s favorite.

The hoofed heard can even be watched up close. Joe mows the perimeter of the 1,000-foot fence around the sheep so people can get closer to them, and he cleared an area beside the barn for people to park.

“You buy sheep and people are going to stop,” said Joe’s son Dan.

As the family continues to settle into their home, they’re enjoying its rustic charm.

“We don’t feel like we want to change it much. It’s nice to have crooked things.”