Renovations Portfolio

The four kitchens featured here all share some common ingredients. The homeowners spent considerable time thinking about all they wanted in their new kitchens, prioritizing their wish lists, and seeing it all come together on paper first. And all reaped the rewards of working with a hard-working, effective, and efficient team: a creative kitchen designer, architects with a love of the historic as well as the modern, reputable and respected cabinet manufacturers, and a contractor that masters the art and science of construction management.

Summer 2000 Newsletter
Spring 2007 Newsletter
Spring 2008 Newsletter
Summer 2009 Newsletter

Master bathroom renovations are particularly interesting because they are so highly personalized, reflecting the owner's inclination more so than any other room in the house. Sometimes, these bathroom renovations are particularly challenging,as in the case of this one near Lancaster.

Everyone thought this was going to be a simple addition project until the old siding was removed. That's when we discovered that the only thing holding up the rear of the old log house was the siding: Termites had skeletonized those logs from sill plate to roofline! Our crews switched into emergency mode in order to save the structure, and the owners decided to switch the project into a whole-house renovation. Every room is a winner, but one of our favorites is the master bathroom.

Fall 1999 Newsletter
Winter 2000-2001 Newsletter
Fall 2004 Newsletter

It's the place where... you hang out with family and friends, or you curl up on a comfy chair or sofa with a favorite book, or the youngest members can invite their friends - real or imaginary - to join them for playtime. They are the spaces where we can kick back, relax, and simply enjoy. Every home needs such spaces, and it doesn't matter how little space is available. Even the otherwise unused space beneath the stairs is a springboard for one little girl's vibrant imagination.

Fall 1999 Newsletter
Fall 2004 Newsletter
Spring 2007 Newsletter
Winter 2007-08 Newsletter
Winter 2008-09 Newsletter

From the humble cooking-fireplace mantle to the stately room-end, each one started with the homeowners requesting us to construct something that would appear original or showing us a picture from a book of historic interiors and asking, "Do you think you can duplicate that for us?"

Winter 2005-06 Newsletter
Winter 2006-07 Newsletter

Utilitarian rooms such as the laundry room, the mudroom (often called "the back door"), and corners of a back room used by the resident gardner are often looked upon as bland and boring. Admit it, we usually shut the door on those rooms when company is coming. But these projects prove that those utilitarian rooms can be anything but bland and boring.

Winter 2005-06 Newsletter
Spring 2007 Newsletter
Fall 2007 Newsletter

New porches, built. Old porches, restored. And every porch, diminutive or grandiose, should be anchored by a patio or walkway that, together with the porch, invites visitors to come in or beckon the inhabitants to come out.

Fall 2007 Newsletter
Winter 2009-10 Newsletter