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beach cottage remodel
we began an extensive remodel project on a small 1950's beach cottage in South Ponte Vedra Beach in 2008. thinking we would just "freshen it up" we ended up expanding the foot print and taking it...
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Rabbit Run Farmhouse
The girls had graduated college, married, and were starting their own families. We were not too many years from retirement. What kind of house did we (an engineer/amateur architect and a degreed...
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Aging in Grace
Our clients came to us with a busy but beautiful Berkeley hillside lot on which to build a home for the rest of their lives. We combined an L-shaped layout and a walled forecourt to shelter lush...
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Port Orchard Residence
Port Orchard Residence The home is designed to maximize the setting overlooking Puget Sound and the Seattle skyline, while meeting the client's needs today for an active lifestyle yet...
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The Next 120 Years
The Next 120 Years Forty years ago we bought a late 19th century house. It was run-down and therefore inexpensive. But it matched several of the criteria that we had listed as important inour...
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BARN=HOUSE
As pioneers of their generation, in 2006, a pair of "baby-boomers" decided to distill their ideas of a dream-home into the truest essence of Texas' first settlers… though taking full advantage of...
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Victoria Garden Mews
Victoria Mews Santa Barbara Three couples created a communal residential property that will serve them into retirement. They designed and built the multi-dwelling compound with space for four...
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Living in retirement on the shore of Lake Chesdin: A son designs a home for his parents
Dr. and Mrs. Murray are now living in Dinwiddie County, Virginia on the shore of Lake Chesdin in a custom home designed by their son, Brant Murray, who is a graduate of the University of Virginia...
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Retirement By-the-Sound
This easy-living retirement home, designed and built by Simmons Quality Home Improvement, Inc., is located in a tight beach community near Long Island Sound. The priority in designing the house was...
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Westport River House
The owners of this river-front house in Westport, MA – a well known residential general contractor and his wife – bought a cramped, uninspiring fixer-upper with the hope of undertaking a near...
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Deep in the Heart of Texas
Goals: Returning to Texas from a 21-year residence in New England, the owners/architect wanted a comfortable, low-maintenance, energy-efficient retirement home that interacted well with its...
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Pennell Residence
The project intent was to design a second residence for a retiring couple with space for visiting relatives. The site is located in a planned community with restrictions on design and materials. The...
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Mcmaster Lake Addition
We have a existing cottage (Pics Are available via email ) we are adding a great room ,masterbedroom ,exercise room basement on the west side East side = Mudroom / Laundry rm /Garage entrance ...
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Rural Wisconsin Retirement House
An Organic Farming Operation The household owners have been engaged in organic farming for many years, primarily raising grassfed black Angus on their blufftop farm located in rural Coon Valley...
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Contemporary Florida Cracker House
1 commentI have lived in Florida since the early 1930's and without air conditioning until the late 1960's. I have always felt that Florida did indeed have many, many months where A/C was not necessary...
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Prairie-style, river front, Montana townhome with Asian flair
This townhome is part of the Water's Edge development on the Clark Fork River, just upriver from Missoula, the home of the University of Montana. The project's architecture was inspired by Frank...
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Hudson WI SIP Construction
After determining our current home doesn't fit our lifestyle we decided to build a retirement home that accommodates our smaller family and work at home careers. Progressing through multiple designs...
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Desert Contemporary Craftsman - the Promise Fulfilled
1 commentWhen my wife and I were married in 1974, I promised to build her a house. It took 37 years to fulfill that promise, but I finally made good on my word. After building in Georgia and Colorado in my...
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Rebuilding After The Fire
In September 2010 the house I'd grown up in, and the house that my father, a then semi-retired general contractor, had built, was burnt during a wildfire. After everything cooled down we quickly...
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High Performance Cottage
Our key challenge was to design and build a high performance home (performance defined as energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and construction durability) in a community with strict architectural...
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Huffine Home
We designed and built our three bedroom retirement dream home on high bank waterfront property on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle Washington. Bluff setback, property line setbacks, and septic...
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At the water's edge
A very difficult north facing site on a north sloping hill at the water's edge. The challenge was to fit a house and connected garage with kid rumpus room over it and create a sense of place ...
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Hexadecagon
This construction is a new, sixteen-sided, energy efficient, timberframe, retirement lake front home. Some of the particular challenges were in roof design ie: integrating the carport roof into...
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House nestled in a field
This home is approached from above as seen in the first photo. There are wonderful water views to the East and the South, a largish hotel like building up the hill to the West and the public...
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Widner Cottage
Seattle allows cottages in the backyards of single family homes, provided that they are less than 800 square feet, and 23' maximum height to the ridge. The owners, an empty nest couple, wanted to...
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Lake Ariel Residence
1 commentIn the early part of the 20th century, the coal industry was booming along the river valleys of northeast Pennsylvania and helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. My grandfather was pulled out...
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Pass-A-Grille Boathouse
Located on the main road into town, keeping the historic neighborhood scale was paramount - so we developed a split-level plan. The Key West style helped achieve a more grounded feel (to help...
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Montara California House
My goal was to construct a contemporary, spacious, comfortable home with a strong sculptural presence that integrated a range of collected materials that I had accumulated over the previous decade...
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"Meeting In The Middle"
1) TOO SMALL! We were both about to retire. The house was on a TINY flag lot of 5700 square feet, with 1200 feet of that unusable land, and the small beachfront home only had about 600...
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Sanctuary
The owners of this new 1,850 sq. ft. three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath rural Vermont contemporary cottage requested a highly energy efficient building using as many locally available materials and craftsmen as possible.
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Laramie Residence
Laramie Residence Project Summary The underlying goals for this project were twofold. One, to provide comfortable, economical, and flexible shelter for an aging couple. Two, to access the...
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Lakeside Residence
1 commentIn 2009, I was approached by my in-laws to design and build their dream home. My wife's parents had recently retired and wished to build a home that would accommodate large family gatherings while...
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How to Paint Fiber-Cement Siding
Painter Jim Lacey shares some tips for caulking and painting fiber-cement siding. read more
