Screened Porches

Owning a screened porch on a buggy summer evening is like owning a castle with a moat when the barbarians attack. The screened porch provides a place to relax outdoors without having to pay attention to the barbarian bug population.

In general, the screened porches we design are larger than the average open porch. Most often they are designed as outdoor rooms and are furnished with sofas and chairs as well as dining tables and occasionally a fireplace. Screened porches can even be a cool place to sleep on a warm summer night.

New technology has made the screened porch even more attractive by extending the useful season and almost magically allowing us to change an open porch to a screened porch a the push of a button.

One of our clients wanted a large porch for entertaining and dining and to take advantage of the stunning view from that side of the house. The problem was that almost like clockwork at 5:00pm when they were getting ready to greet their guests, swarms of bugs would appear. They also did not want to obstruct their view at times and seasons when the bugs were not present. The solution was an automatic roller screen system which was hidden in the soffit most of the time, but when needed would descend and make the wide open porch into a comfy screened porch.

We have also included radiant heat pipes in the stone floor of some screened porches which allow the owners to comfortably use the porch earlier in the spring and later in the fall. When combined with interchangeable glass panels, the screened porch easily becomes a three or four season room.

These days we have more options than ever when designing the perfect screened porch. Bugs just don’t know what they are up against.

Adding On

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 perfectly match the 200 year old materials which have aged in place, flooring recycled from salvaged barn beams comes pretty close. In the northeast we are particularly lucky to be working with craftsmen who take their work as seriously as the people who built the original homes

A case in point is a project we recently finished which included additions, renovations and restorations. Like most old homes it had been added onto by successive generations of home owners. Also like most old homes, some additions were done well and others were not thought out quite as fully. The historic portions of this home set the tone for the rest of the project. In addition to relating to the existing home and meeting the spatial requirements of our clients, it was critical that we save two large very old oak trees. Needless to say the oaks are doing fine.

When adding to a very old home every wall that is opened reveals the secrets of the carpenters which has been hidden away for sometimes centuries. Those carpenters often recycled posts and beams from even older structures. When times were tight, it seemed they used every piece of scrap wood they could cobble together to make the building stand. Most of all those explorations inspire awe and respect for the people who built these wonderful buildings by hand.

Not every renovation/addition project has a great existing building to take inspiration from. Often the portion which is added becomes the stronger design element and therefore influences the rest of the existing home. I don’t know if that is the tail waging the dog, but sometimes perhaps the tail should do the waging at least in home design.

I must admit, that adding onto an historic home is like working with a colleague whom I respect and admire. We are challenged by those homes to do our best.

Cutting Construction Costs

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 home owners are eager look at ways to reduce the price without loosing space or the character of the project. As the architects, our job is to help bring the price down as far as possible without loosing the qualities that the owners loved in the first place. It must be understood that some money saving choices could diminish the long term durability or energy efficiency of a home or addition.
The following are 6 ways to either design the most cost effective project from the start or adjust a design once the bids come in:

1. Keep it simple: Generally the simpler the overall details and structure of a home, the less expensive it is to build-the exception are extremely precise modern details.

2. Consider cost effective materials both on the exterior and interior of the home. There can be a $20/square foot or more difference between higher priced flooring materials and lower priced choices. The same is true of exterior materials. Before making those choices be aware of the trade offs, sometimes they are minimal.

3. Keep built-in cabinetry to a minimum. In the long run those elements can be added, but in the short run they are expensive. You may need to buy more furniture to take the place of cabinetry.

4. Explore the trade-offs of lower priced windows and doors. For exterior doors and windows the savings may not always justify the change. Make certain that the alternatives are durable, attractive, and energy efficient before making those changes.

5. Review choices for the mechanical system. There are many ways to heat and cool a home. Not all systems are designed equal, but the cost differential between the most expensive and the least expensive is substantial.

6. One sure way to reduce prices is to pick the next lower price point of each category of non structural elements of the house. Always bear in mind the trade offs.

Bonus idea: Add a porch. Few additions to a home add as much beauty, functionality, and pleasure as a porch and for a fraction of the cost of interior space.

Modern Farmhouse Design

There is no absolute prototype for a farmhouse, but most of us can recognize one when we see it. By definition the originals were located on farms and were integral to the life and work of those farm families who lived there.

Depending on when and where those homes were built, they could be made of stone, brick, shingles or clapboard. Most farmhouses had porches since there was no air conditioning and many farm and family chores were undertaken there. The porch roof provided shelter from the sun and rain yet allowed the cool breezes to flow through and help make those steamy summers tolerable.

The center of family life in the farmhouse was the kitchen. Meals were prepared and often eaten there as well as home pickling and canning for the long winters (in the North). In the older farmhouses, a cooking fireplace was essential. Additional fireplaces were used to heat as many rooms as possible.

I live in an old farmhouse originally built around 1790 and then added onto in the 1800s and more recently added onto by my family. I have come to appreciate the simple detailing the wide board floors and beautiful fireplaces.

When designing a modern farmhouse, porches, wide board floors and beautiful fireplaces are welcome. The floor plan can be center hall, side hall or a variation of the two. Gathering places within the home are as important today as they were 200 years ago. Modern farmhouses include big bright kitchens to accommodate the inevitable influx of friends and family. These days many families spend most of their time in the kitchen cooking, eating, talking, studying and just visiting. Energy efficiency is important, with some farm houses using geothermal heating and cooling and solar panels on the barns.

We are lucky to inherit the traditions of our founding families including their most treasured possession, the farmhouse.

Children's Rooms

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 become a toddler’s room, then a preschooler’s room, an elementary school child’s room, then middle school…until eventually it could become a college student’s room. In our planning, we went from wanting the room adjacent to the master bedroom for access to the baby, to realizing that our daughter would soon want distance and privacy from her parents(and vice versa). This is a lesson I try to pass on to my clients who are adding a children’s’ room to their home.

The toddler will be a high school student quicker than we think. Additional sound proofing is inexpensive during construction but costly afterward. Choosing layouts that work both for a small child and a young adult makes everyone’s life easier. Paint and furniture is easy to change, relocating rooms is hard.

The new bedroom we built is the place were my three children gather and where they bring

their friends.

Taking Care of Yourself (Guest Blog about Saunas)

In today’s economic and work environment taking care of your physical and mental health is ever more important. Exercise and healthy lifestyle in general include different kinds of things. But the one single part often missing is relaxation. For me nothing else works as well as a Sauna does. Sauna owners overall say that a Traditional (Finnish type) Sauna offers absolutely the best way to wind down from the stress, tension and noise of everyday life.

I just returned from a trip to my home country, Finland. We own an old country home over there, and it has, of course, a separate sauna building with a wood burning stove. Although it was cold and dark over there (early December being maybe the worst time to travel to Finland), I was really looking forward to it. Heating up the sauna, and bathing in the evenings just by myself, with a complete darkness and quietness outside wore off the jet lag just like that, and I slept better than I ever had. I stayed in our place for three days, and had a sauna bath four times… Not so many people can build a wood burning sauna here in the US, but you can also get a very similar experience in a well designed and built sauna with an electric heater.

Besides relaxation, saunas actually do offer real health benefits, too. Bathing in a proper traditional sauna has among others, these health benefits:

Helps to remove toxins
Cleanses your skin
Soothes aches and pains in muscles and joints
Improves cardiovascular performance
Relieves congestion
Burns calories.

These probably are more important than relaxation for most of the people, but for a Finn, sauna means relaxation and belongs to our way of life. A list of corresponding medical studies can be found at the Finnish Sauna Society web site at http://www.sauna.fi/80.html

Saunas are actually one of the fastest growing amenities being added to the home today as the aging population continues to focus on bringing wellness into their lifestyle. Adding a Sauna to a home is also another opportunity to add value to the home design that makes it a step above others in the market place. A few things to consider when choosing a sauna:

• Sauna type; do you already have a certain (framed) space for a custom-made sauna,
  or is a free-standing unit a better choice for you?
• Do you maybe have an unused separate building, or would you consider to build one? Could you use a pool-side or deck sauna?
• The size; how many people are going to use it at the same time? If you prefer to lay down on the (top) bench, then you need at least one longish bench set.
• Choice of wood; do you prefer the traditional cedar with its aroma? Please note that cedar boards tend to turn darker during the years. European Alder might be a better choice.
• Floor-plan; if you can, plan to have the door (always opens outwards) on a longer wall. This will optimize the heater location, and the circulation of the air in the room.
• Can you include a window in your sauna? It is a very good thing to have.
  Drain is not required, but if you have it, it is an advantage.

Modern design and technology can make the sauna one of the most stunning additions to a home. The Finnish sauna…where health and relaxation meet. Kalevi Ruuska kalevi@optonline.net

Garden Structures

Nothing reminds us that spring is coming more than digging out the potting soil, the rusted tools, and clay pots. For me it involves cleaning the refuse out of my vegetable garden from the previous year, opening up the deer fencing, and bringing on the roto-tiller. Like many things in life, the process is often more important than the final product. In the end, after planting watering and tending, dozens of vegetable plants and seeds over the course of the summer, if the bugs, the weeds, and the weather let us have a few to ourselves we are truly happy.
A few years back I had a most unusual request come across my table. A husband and wife who are friends of mine had 2 different needs. She wanted a potting shed. He wanted a wood shed. Neither of them wanted to clutter their bucolic setting with too many little outbuildings. Our solution was to combine the two functions.
Their home and farm is located in a beautiful hamlet with a carpenter gothic church and many homes dating from the 1800s or before. The edifice they ask me to design was to define the line between her space-the flower garden and his space-the barn. The barn area was often quite busy and chaotic with his potato crop, and farm equipment. Her garden was equally in flux with new designs and beautiful assortments of flowers and fauna. With my friends help, I designed a carpenter gothic, potting and wood shed. From the barn you see the wood shed; from the house you see the garden and a potting shed. He can walk through the middle of the potting shed to reach the wood on a cold winters evening. She can easily reach her tools in the potting shed from the garden. I particularly love the fact that a small building I designed has joined this hamlet as a working participant of farm and home life.
I think many of us have forgotten how powerful a modest structure can be in the landscape. Eighteenth and nineteenth century southern plantations almost always kept their pigeons or doves in pigeonniers or dovecotes. These small structures were utilitarian, but punctuated and emphasized the larger structures they were near. We design tool sheds, potting sheds, and generator enclosures (and all other buildings) to fit in with their environment and to complement the existing architecture. Garden structures create the feeling of a compound even though as buildings they themselves are quite modest. Because their presence in the landscape can enhance all else, their design deserves just as much attention as their larger cousins.