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

Building Your Forever Home (or addition) 8 Examples

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 [...]

By |2024-01-26T20:22:54-05:00May 9th, 2023|Categories: Additions, Design, Lake Home, Miscellaneous, New Homes, Porches, Renovations|2 Comments

Our Client Turns Her Passion Into a Business!

Bryson Home at Night When we were first contacted by Laura Bryson and her husband, she told us she wanted to use reclaimed materials as much as possible.  She started with some columns her father had given her that she wanted to use on the porches we designed.  This and other reclaimed materials helped her forge relationships with craftspeople who could match or repair antique components.  Finding reclaimed materials became a treasure hunt that led to some incredible [...]

11 Bold Breakfast Bays

Breakfast Bay I have always loved sitting in breakfast bays, eating breakfast, and reading the paper.  These days, the object in front of me is often an iPad or other electronic device, but the wonderful feeling of a breakfast nook is always the same.  Of course, breakfast bays with windows on three sides will be the brightest.  Depending on the orientation of the house, the sunlight streaming in can be dramatic. If there are some interesting views, that is a [...]

By |2024-01-31T08:18:10-05:00November 30th, 2022|Categories: Additions, Breakfast bays, Breakfast Nook, Miscellaneous|0 Comments

Under Construction 7-21

Ulster County New Home The good news is, prices for some building materials are coming down.  The bad news is that many items are harder to get and have longer lead times.  Some windows have an almost 6 month lead time.  You can imagine how difficult it is for a contractor to have to put in a window order months before they start construction.  Luckily there are workarounds such as alternate brands of windows or substitute materials.  As [...]

By |2023-01-05T15:09:20-05:00July 21st, 2021|Categories: Additions, Construction, New Homes, Renovations|1 Comment

Cutting Construction Costs

Simple Porch Between the shortage of materials and the high demand, we are all scrambling to understand the current price of projects.  Covid has shut down factories and interrupted supply chains like no other time in my career.  There are signs that material prices will stabilize soon, but no one knows what to expect in the short term. When designing a home or addition, part of the fun for the owner is imagining the project finished without any [...]

By |2023-01-05T15:19:35-05:00April 11th, 2021|Categories: Additions, Construction, New Homes, Renovations|Tags: , |1 Comment

Period Home Renovation

Front Entry This was a wonderful old home that needed a modern kitchen, more light, and a great master suite. As always, we respected the original architecture while adding rooms that now take advantage of the views and the landscape. We added porches and made it into a very comfortable new/old home. Side View Rear View Screened Porch Kitchen Kitchen View Breakfast Area Butlers Pantry [...]

By |2021-03-26T18:22:44-04:00December 3rd, 2020|Categories: Additions, Bathrooms, Bedrooms, Kitchen, Miscellaneous, Porches, Renovations|1 Comment

Under Construction 11-20

New Home New Home-Entry Side I'll repeat what I said a couple of months ago-except with more urgency: As we progress toward winter, days are getting shorter and it’s starting to cool off a bit.  Contractors know that there are a limited number of days for working outside and there is a great incentive to get the buildings dried in.  It doesn’t always work that way, but the best-case scenario is to get the exterior of [...]

By |2021-03-26T18:23:09-04:00November 6th, 2020|Categories: Accessory Buildings, Additions, Miscellaneous, New Homes|0 Comments

Home is Where the Birds Are

3 Chicks Close Up On one of our site meetings which included the homeowners, me, the project architect and the contractor, Howie Senior, from Structure Works Construction, pointed out a new swallow’s nest. The swallows would start to build a nest on the house which is under construction and then the workmen would have to undo their hard work when a new piece of clapboard or framing was installed. Howie solved their dilemma by putting up a couple [...]

By |2023-01-13T15:02:49-05:00August 1st, 2019|Categories: Additions, Miscellaneous, Porches, Renovations|4 Comments

Modern Farm House Kitchen

Modern Farm House Kitchen Our clients bought an old home that had been moved to it’s the site and reconstructed.  The old portion of the home was charming and quite beautiful.  Added on to it was one of the worst additions I have ever seen.  They asked us to remove the addition, and design a modern chef's kitchen/family room that was sympathetic to the old house but give them big views and a modern aesthetic. One other requirement was that the [...]

By |2023-02-10T08:41:17-05:00March 25th, 2019|Categories: Additions, Kitchen, Miscellaneous, Renovations|0 Comments
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