I'd been learning about the complexity of classical Roman architecture since working on Gilbert's crew, and I'd read Marianne Cusato & Ben Pentreath's book, Get Your House Right front to back and back to front, so when a customer requested a portico to protect an entryway on the very visible side of a house, I immediately thought of the classical pediment. My second thought was that the Roman revival being such a popular local building style, It would be easy to walk around B

We just got through a renovation of our RV getting it ready for a short or long term rental on our other parcel, and through the process I became aware of the 'proper' use of art in building. By 'proper use', I don't mean it is the only good use of art. I love the whimsical architecture of Bayside, and the ornate captain's homes of Searsport and Belfast. Those buildings are beautiful in their own right. All of these are good in their own ways, but they all add expense to alre

Interior and exterior paint have very different jobs to do; most importantly, exterior paint is protecting a structure from the elements, sun, rain, humidity and UV, whereas interior paint is generally just an aesthetic feature. If interior paint looks good, it is good. Exterior paint, on the other hand, has a job to do, and if primer and two coats are needed to do that job, then it needs those two coats everywhere. If 5 or even 3% of a house accidentally receives only one fi

When we purchased our current home, it came equipped with newly installed heat pump water heater (HPWH.) Like many people, I had heard the claims that they were three or four times as efficient as a conventional electric water heater, and on paper that certainly sounds impressive. One thing I noticed almost immediately was the room cooling effect. The room where our water heater is located serves several purposes, as our house, like many manufactured homes, does not have a de

Gilbert introduced me to these books while subbing on his crew, and both have profoundly effected my thinking about building. Since Anna and I began working together we have had a focus on scale, proportion, and symmetry, so it was great to find a book by an architect with a similar focus. So much of building has been about ways of creating the look of old traditional construction with modern materials, which essentially means a great deal of plastic. Vinyl siding is of cours

Builders tend to be a hardy bunch. Weather, danger, noise, dust, fumes, power tools, sharp blades spinning at incredible speeds just next to you fingers, heights, sun, wind, rain, etc etc. The weak get weeded out fairly quickly, and only the robust and cautious/lucky survive longterm, at least with all of all of their fingers. The downside of this toughness is that in general discomfort is downplayed on construction sites, and the loss of productivity and reduction in efficie

Most of our clients have a budget they are trying to meet, and so we are used to honing and shaving estimates and quotes down to the least expensive quality product we are capable of conceiving of. To this end I am constantly thinking of ways to increase our efficiency, building jigs, modifying scaffold, purchasing shade structures, onsite toilet stations, tables, mobile saws, rolling work stations, etc etc. However, there is another way to reduce costs and it leads to a lowe

Power tools have transformed construction sites in the last century, however spend some time in the average shop space and you may notice that the average job site has failed to keep up with the possibilities currently available. One day in conversation with my good friend Ryan about the pros and cons of roller stands v's ball rollers for out-feed from table saws, he informed me that neither was generally acceptable for shop work as they tend to pull the material to the right

I've been working in the trades for a good long while now, over two decades or half of my life, and for most of that time I worked like most builders, off of the ground. Then around a decade ago I made a small table with a face vice on one side and splayed legs for heavy wood working for the hand tools i favored at that time. It was great, but limited because it had to be dismantled to fit through doorways, and the 2x4 foot top surface was quite limited. Thankfully it had a s

We just rebuilt a set of stairs on a walkway in Bayside down to the beach, and although the builder was obviously an excellent carpenter, good at compound angles and tight joints, the stairs only survived 16-18 years. Upon disassembly the reason was quite clear, no gaps anywhere. Cleats tight to stringers, treads tight to each other and the stringers, When water got into the joints, it stayed there due to capillary action and near total lack of airflow. When rebuilding we use