New Home with Porches

We design many forever homes.  Whenever we are asked to design any project, we approach it the same way the builders of my home did: design it as though a family will live there forever. The forever home starts with good design. Our preference is to avoid whatever the current fad is going around and to design each home or addition in a timeless manner that will look as good 25 years from now as it will 125 years from now. I can’t count all the 70s and 80s homes we have been asked to redo, sometimes from scratch.

Stone and Wood Home

In addition to timeless design details, we try to build out of materials that are as low maintenance and high quality as possible. We do keep in mind that there are tradeoffs between costs and quality and often ‘value engineer’ a project to accomplish the best project for the client’s budget. We generally design so a home lives well, is bright and comfortable, and takes advantage of the site and the views. Our clients often ask us to create the interiors in a more modern style, which, over time, is expected to change.

Timeless Addition

Family Farmhouse

Stone Addition

In 2007, Sandee Mahoney and I wrote a book for Taunton Press titled, ‘On the Porch: Creating Your Place to Watch the World Go By.’  In that book, we not only showed examples of porches we had designed; we also included porches designed by architects across the nation.  We included a beautiful porch in Louisiana designed by Kevin Harris, a friend from college and a colleague of mine.  In 2015 he wrote ‘The Forever Home: How to Work With an Architect to Design the Home of Your Dreams,’ in which he details how to work with an architect to achieve your ‘forever home.’  It is an excellent resource for ideas and guidelines for creating that special place you won’t ever want to leave.

Small Forever Home

Modern Farmhouse

Home on the Water

Photos by Rob Karosis  Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

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