Simple Alcove When designing a home or addition, part of the fun for the owner is imagining the project finished without any compromises. When bids come in from the contractors, many homeowners are eager to look at ways to reduce the price without losing space or the character of the project. As the architects, our job is to help bring the price down as far as possible without losing the qualities that the owners loved in the first [...]
Complete Home Renovation I live in a home that was built over 220 years ago. Of course, it has been added on to over the years and has been adapted to modern living, but much of the house exists as it did in 1790. The builders of my home knew only one way to construct a house, and that was to design it well and build it to last. They succeeded. We often are asked by clients to [...]
Low Ceilings After Low Ceilings Before We are often asked how to deal with existing low ceilings in a home. This is one of my favorite blogs on the subject: Homes built before the advent of efficient heating systems and proper insulation often used fireplaces both as a source of heat and a place to cook. Lower ceilings and smaller rooms were much easier to heat with fireplaces, therefore many period farmhouses were built with a [...]
Addition to Old Home 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. [...]
Formal Dining Room In an age where family time has been shortened by screen time, and we eat most our meals on the go, a formal dining room can bring us together. A dedicated dining room can change the atmosphere of a meal and provide a special grace to dinner time. I have a large dining room in my own old farm house, and we do enjoy more formal meals there. In our house, the dining room is [...]
Former home of Kermit Love, creator of Big Bird (New Home) We love Greek Revival style buildings. Â Sometimes we add on to Greek Revival homes, and we also design them from the ground up. Â We often take liberties with details and proportions like carpenter architects did with the originals. Â Above is a home we designed for (the late) Kermit Love, the creator of Big Bird, and his partner. Â Kermit was in his 80s when we began this project. [...]
We are frequently asked the cost of building a project. Universally the answer is: It depends what you build. Following is a list of some of the elements that go into homes in our region and their installed costs. The prices will vary depending on the supplier, contractor and the market conditions at the time of the bid. These prices were provided by suppliers and contractors in early 2016 (Technically late 2015)Â . Estimated Installed Costs of Building components [...]
I have renovated and added to my own home for many reasons, including the fact I hated the existing kitchen. I added a porch and a bedroom because I love porches and my oldest daughter needed a room of her own. Many people renovate a home because no one thought to incorporate light or views in the original design.  Sometimes the existing home is outdated, dark, too small, poorly laid out, or all of the above. In any case, some [...]
Patio View It is not uncommon for our clients  to ask us to add additional rooms or outbuildings to their property, but it is unusual to work on a home more than a decade in the past then have the current owners ask us to expand the home even further.  That is exactly what happened with the 'Country Lane Home'.  An earlier kitchen and family room renovation was expanded when we added living space and guest quarters and [...]
Sun Room in the Snow The best time to enjoy a sunroom can be the middle of winter. Â While we always think of sitting in a sun room looking out over a lush garden, the time when we need sun the most is when those plants are well below the snow. Â Like sitting on a porch in the summer while a warm rain falls out in the yard, sitting in a sun room around a crackling fire while [...]
