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 [...]
Modern Farmhouse With Reflecting Pond This summer my family and I rented a home on a lake in Maine and it was wonderful. Other summers we stay in a cabin on a lake in the Adirondacks or on the ocean. Perhaps those water-connected homes are extra special to us because we live inland surrounded by trees with no water, but a pool. Some of our clients are lucky enough to own property on a lake, a pond, a [...]
Indoor Pool Nothing says summer like kids splashing around in a pool–except perhaps an adult party centered around a pool on a balmy summer evening. In either case, a pool house makes everything easier. Whether the pool house or pavilion is small and simple or includes a full kitchen and guest quarters, having a place to store cold drinks, towels and refreshments makes summer entertaining a lot more fun. This summer is predicted to be a scorcher and [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Indoor Pool This has been one of the warmest summers in memory which made it perfect pool weather. Ironically, now is when pools and pool houses are often on the drawing board in preparation for next summer’s fun. To be fair, our landscaper friends do the lion’s share of planning the pool environment. We are most often interested in the location of the pool as it relates to the main house, pool house, and the surrounding patio. As always, [...]
Architectural Models About to be Moved No, there was not a mini tsunami in our model making room. We have been renovating a building in the village of Millbrook, NY and are slowly moving our office. You forget how much you accumulate in 12 years. We look forward to being able to walk to the post office, hardware store, and restaurants instead of driving. Otherwise, the mud is still deep on many of our job sites, but the [...]
Stone Addition in the Snow Something magical happens to a home with the first snowfall of the season. Around my house, the kids and the animals are even more excited than I am as we run and throw snowballs. Rosie, our mini Aussie, Oliver the Border Collie, and Gus, the English Setter, track in the snow, which melts on the floor while I start a fire and my wife makes hot cocoa. The timing doesn’t always work, but [...]
Massachusetts Lake Home Mass. Lake Home Jobsite visits are always fun. They get us out of the office where we can see what was conceived on paper (or a screen). We also have a chance to talk to the craftspeople who are building our projects. I am always impressed with the care and the attention to detail that our contractors bring to our job sites. New Home With Old Heart Brick Home Entry [...]
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 [...]
