There's no such thing as blueprints anymore and haven't been for many, many years. And yet the term is so ingrained in my profession that hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't ask me about "a set of blueprints". Today Architects just make "prints" of...
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It's a surprise, sometimes, for potential clients of mine to learn that the bulk of the designing I do is sketching by hand. Don't we have computer tools to handle that these days? Isn't sketching by hand more time-consuming and less accurate? Yes, actually - it's both...
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Inspiration is one of my most important keys for getting a home design project started, and I find lots of it in the architecture books on my bookshelves. I've built a solid library over the years and I use it almost every day. My book...
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“Downsizing” to an empty nester home is what a couple does when the kids are grown and moved out, and the family home has become a house of mostly empty rooms. It typically means moving to a smaller home, but that’s not always the case. In fact,...
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A lot of homeowners dream of building on a large rural property with plenty of space to spread out, with no restrictions on what to build or where to build it. That's what first attracted the owner of this contemporary home makeover to the property. From...
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Remodeling a home in an older neighborhood often comes with challenges above and beyond what my clients want and need for their project. In this Project Notebook, we’ll look at a small house remodeling in Upper Arlington, Ohio to see how it was updated and...
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A client asked me this question recently: "What is the first step in designing a house, the floor plan or the outside of the house?" Good question - the answer is a little complicated, and subjective, and contradictory...
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When you begin working with your Architect, you might think you need to start by figuring out what house style to choose. That’s not a bad place to begin if you’re dead-set on a particular architectural style, or if you're building in an area that requires it....
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Two demons wait for unsuspecting homeowners, hoping for their chance to gobble up time and money for those who don't plan ahead for a new home or remodeling project. The Ripple Effect lurks quietly in the background. Just like the movements on the pond surface for...
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If you’re planning on building a custom home in a new development or remodeling a home in an older neighborhood, you’ll likely to find you need to get approval from a design review board. Design review boards go by different names; ARB (Architectural Review Board), DRC...
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