We have designed new homes which are very small(under 1000 square feet) as well as homes which are very large. Regardless of scale, each home reflects the vernacular detail of the region and the careful study of proportion and light as well as the needs and desires of its owners. This will be the first of several articles exploring projects of various sizes. This home was designed as a weekend home for a couple who were professionals working [...]
About half of the work in our office is new construction and half renovations and additions. When designing a home from scratch some of the most important elements to study(besides the clients wishes) are views, site features, sun and wind direction, and the approach to the site. The most important single element in an addition/renovation is the existing building. Sometimes the portion you save and restore is key to the rest of the project. Although it is almost [...]
 It's hard for me to believe it has been almost 7 years since the publication of 'On the Porch'.  Sandee Mahoney and I wrote this coffee table book at the request of Taunton Press, and I have to say we are as proud of it today as we were in 2006.  What follows is the text of a article written just before release of the book but after we had seen authors' copies.  It begins with a [...]
One of my least favorite parts of a project is it’s end. During the process of designing and constructing the home, we have built special relationships with home owners, contractors and craftspeople which inevitably must change. Often those business relationships become friendships, but there is nothing like being part of that creation(ask any mother). We work together as a team for as much as several years speaking at least once a week and exchanging ideas even [...]
America has had a love affair with porches that goes back centuries. Although few of the earliest Dutch and English colonial homes had porches, it wasn’t long until they were added to the beautiful stone and wood structures. Like most of the country, there were few homes built from the mid nineteenth century until after World War II in the northeast that didn’t have a porch. From Greek Revival farm houses scattered through Connecticut to Gothic revival cottages [...]
Every autumn as leaves and temperatures fall, I anticipate the first fire in the fireplace. I continue to build fires well through the cool spring nights. Each new fire is a personal test of my log selection and arranging skills-some of which I fail; my father-in-law and I have a running contest to see who’s fire will smoke and go out the fastest. When my home (and his) was built in the late eighteenth century, building fires was [...]
On a renovation we recently completed, the metal(tin) roof had a stamp on the back, the installer gave a 25 year guarantee. The roof was a little worse for wear, but was not leaking. The guarantee expired in 1905. For most of us, the expected life of a metal roof is beyond our expiration date. That is not true of most modern cedar shingle roofs which I have seen fail in less than 10 years(due to acid rain [...]
A covered entry to a home makes sense. Believe me, on a cold rainy day when I cannot find my keys, my covered entry is worth it’s weight in gold. Shelter is not the only reason to love a covered entry. In addition to protecting whomever is standing in front of the door, a roof above also protects the entry itself. Even if those two great features were not important, a covered entry announces the front door, accentuates a side [...]
There is no absolute prototype for a farmhouse, but most of us can recognize one when we see it. By definition the originals were located on farms and were integral to the life and work of those farm families who lived there. Depending on when and where those homes were built, they could be made of stone, brick, shingles or clapboard. Most farmhouses had porches since there was no air conditioning and many farm and family chores were [...]
As I sat down to dinner on our porch the other night, I knew something was wrong. The kids were already scratching. I turned on the ceiling fan, which normally blows away all but the most determined bugs and it barely had any effect. The next thing I knew, the kids were going for the bug spray. We made it through dinner, but until this crop of mosquitoes has gone south, we will be eating indoors. It dawned [...]
