About James Crisp

James M. Crisp has been an architect for well over 30 years. His architectural firm, Crisp Architects, designs projects throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In April of 2007, Taunton Press published 'On the Porch' by James M. Crisp and Sandra Mahoney.

Very Entertaining Smart Bird Feeder

Tufted Titmouse My wife knows how much I enjoy watching the birds on our property, so it was an easy choice to give me an intelligent bird feeder for my birthday. If you haven't seen them before, they are pretty impressive since they take a short video of every bird that lands on the feeder and keep a record of those birds. It can also email an alert of those birds landing. (I did turn that feature off [...]

By |2024-03-18T16:51:52-04:00March 17th, 2024|Categories: Animals, Miscellaneous|0 Comments

Under Construction 3-24

New Home Waiting for Landscaping We are working on a wide variety of projects, including an energy-efficient net-zero renovation and addition, several new homes, and major additions to antique and newer homes.  As one project is completed, another begins. This continues to be a warmer-than-usual year.  Helping most construction sites while making others a muddy mess.  We won't look a gift horse in the mouth. New Home Waiting for Landscaping Foundation About to Set Steel [...]

By |2024-03-18T16:42:39-04:00March 17th, 2024|Categories: Additions, Construction, Design, Miscellaneous, New Homes, Renovations|Tags: |0 Comments

13 Family Friendly Pool Houses and Pavilions

Pool House With Porch A Pool house can be a place to access only the absolute necessities while enjoying the pool, or it can be a fun destination that allows friends and family to spend the day around the pool and then stay for the night. A well-designed pool house can easily double as a guest house for summer and winter use.  Pool houses we have designed often become the favorite house on the property. Pool House [...]

By |2024-03-16T07:16:53-04:00March 3rd, 2024|Categories: Pools, Design, Pool House, Pool Houses|0 Comments

Animal Update 2-24

White Lamb and Mom We get excited by architecture, but nothing gets our hearts pounding like baby lambs on the way.  At about 10:00 o'clock last night, I noticed on our lamb cam that our ewe was about to give birth and let my wife know.  That began a mad dash my wife made through the snow up to our barn, which is about a hundred yards uphill from our house.  Next, my son and oldest daughter ran [...]

By |2024-02-24T10:52:11-05:00February 21st, 2024|Categories: Miscellaneous|3 Comments

Escape to Tranquility: Explore 7 Rooms Crafted to Ease Your Mind

Private Reading Room These days, tranquility is often hard to find.  We live in a stressful time and must find ways to reduce that stress.  Many of us have hobbies and sports that help us relax, while others meditate or exercise to achieve the same goal.  When the weather permits, I go to unwind and relax on my back porch.  Even though it is outside my home, I consider it another room of my house.  Although my wife [...]

By |2024-02-05T07:22:48-05:00February 5th, 2024|Categories: Miscellaneous|0 Comments

25 Shocking Before and Afters

Before and After Ranch Before and afters of our projects are always a lot of fun.  Admittedly, we don't go out of our way to find the best-looking before photos but always use some of the best afters. One of the pleasures of working with a great photographer(Rob Karosis) is the thrill of seeing new photos of one of our projects for the first time.  After spending months, and sometimes years, on a renovation project, it is always [...]

By |2024-02-03T14:47:26-05:00February 1st, 2024|Categories: Miscellaneous|0 Comments

4 Fun Bunk Rooms

Basement Bunk Room Nothing predicts a fun time when you are little, like a sleepover with your friends in a bunk room.  Everyone has their own space, but they also are all together.  What is lost in sleep is more than made up in good times.  Basements make great bunk rooms, but so do attics and children's bedrooms.  We design built-in bunks as well as bunk rooms that accept off-the-shelf bunks. We put bunk beds in our son's [...]

By |2024-01-26T13:46:14-05:00January 16th, 2024|Categories: Miscellaneous|0 Comments

Explore 7 Unique Kids’ Rooms: Architectural Magic for Children and Young Adults

Kids' Rooms Kids' rooms are unique in many ways.   When our third child was on the way, we decided to add a kids' room to our home.  It seemed overnight that the toddler’s room became the high schooler’s room.  The lesson we learned is to keep rooms flexible because the only consistent thing is change. Toddler's Room Teenager's Room Pink Room Purple Room Teenager's Room Twin Bedroom Photos [...]

By |2024-01-26T13:51:10-05:00January 1st, 2024|Categories: Miscellaneous|0 Comments

One House, Plenty of Storage

Kitchen  Storage is a premium in old homes.  I can never have enough places to store things.  From cookbooks to gadgets, power tools to dog toys, winter gear to summer clothes, supply exceeds demand for space. One family, whose home we completely renovated, requested storage any place we could find it.  Although when designing a home or renovation, we are always looking for good places for storage, this home has a great variety of places to store stuff. [...]

By |2024-01-26T14:09:31-05:00December 28th, 2023|Categories: Miscellaneous|0 Comments

8 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Home

Home 1.  Upgrade that old bathroom in your home.  Again, from personal experience, a big improvement to our home was a new primary bath.  Our renovation included a large, comfortable shower, radiant floor heat, and extra room by our sinks with plenty of storage.  The only downside was that our children loved the new bathroom so much that I had to compete for bathroom time. Primary Bathroom Green Kitchen 2.  Cook more family meals [...]

By |2024-01-26T14:12:07-05:00December 28th, 2023|Categories: Miscellaneous|0 Comments
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