New Home in Columbia County As I have said before, one of my favorite tasks is visiting job sites in the fall. The air is crisp, and the leaves are turning. There is an urgency on job sites to get everything enclosed or painted before the harsh weather arrives. We usually don't have to worry about mud or slush or snow yet and driving through the countryside reveals one amazing view after another. New Home in Columbia [...]
Outdoor Living and Dining In the northeast, we don't have a whole lot of warm weather suitable for outdoor entertaining, so we celebrate those perfect days in any way we can in our outdoor living spaces. We are lucky to be able to collaborate with talented landscape architects and designers including Conte and Conte, Renee Byers, Judy Murphy of Old Farm Nursery, and Rob Adroyd of Greylock Design Associates respectively. Outdoor living spaces impact the design of our [...]
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. [...]
A new kitchen can be one of the most dramatic changes to a home and a homeowner’s lifestyle. When my wife and I renovated our kitchen, we went from wincing every time we cooked a meal to really loving to spend time there. The new kitchen is the heart of our home. It is where our family eats breakfast, does homework, gathers with friends and of course cooks. The layout of a kitchen is critical to [...]
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  Sometimes the existing home is outdated, dark, too small, poorly laid out, or all of the above.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 [...]
Older homes have a character that often is impossible to replicate. A 200 year old home has traces of daily life so different from our world today.
I would never advise anyone on their personal investments in real estate or otherwise. I will only comment on the current market conditions I am seeing. Rarely in my career as an architect have I seen the economic conditions align so strongly in favor of the consumer.
Before and After photos are always a lot of fun. We go out of our way to find the worst before photo and pair it with our favorite after shot. As architects, we are accustomed to imagining the potential of an existing home that needs work. The before and after photographs greatest value to our clients is to show how a room or a whole house can be transformed through thoughtful design and quality construction. [...]
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 impossible to [...]
When our third child was on the way, we decided to add a bedroom to our home. The room we were planning for our new born son was immediately claimed by his oldest sister. We realized that in fairness our first born deserved first choice of rooms, at that point we began to reevaluate the design of the new room. This was an epiphany since our mental image of the room changed immediately. In fact the babies room would soon [...]
