Rob and Anna at Photo Shoot

Photographing a home is a team effort. Rob, our photographer, Anna, our stylist, and Mary, her assistant, began their day early. Rob drove down from Maine with all his equipment, while Anna and Mary shopped at a wholesale flower market for the best natural props available. They will work non-stop until dark to get those great indoor shots and stunning dusk exterior photos we have loved over the years.

Mary and Anna Moving Furniture and Arranging the Table

To capture a room at its best, we often make small changes that help the design read clearly on camera. Depending on the shot, stylists sometimes need to add furniture and other times they need to remove it.

Rob and Anna are reviewing an Image On the iPad.

Since the quality of digital images has met or exceeded the detail of film cameras, we have been able to see the images and make adjustments in the field rather than waiting for film to be developed.

Rob Getting Ready for Some Dusk Shots

House Prepared for Night Shot

Side Entry

Photos by Troy Curry   Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Sheep Sandwich

The baby lambs we had this winter have grown up quickly. Our little farm was quite loud when we had to wean them from their mothers. I’m not sure who bleated louder, the ewes or the lambs. Since the weather went from very chilly to brutally hot in a matter of days, we quickly asked our favorite sheep shearer, Donald Kading, to visit and give the sheep a respite from the heat.

Molly Before Being Sheared

Donald Shearing a Sheep

Even though it looks pretty uncomfortable for the sheep, shearing is very quick and painless, and the sheep don’t seem to mind. They certainly enjoy the lack of a thick winter coat.

Shorn Sheep

Three Lambs

The lambs’ fleece was not as thick as the older sheep’s, so they got to keep their coat. They are very precocious and love to dance around and chase each other. They are also very curious and will sniff the dogs and strangers.

Two Lambs

One Lamb

Photos by Alicia Crisp,     Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Three-Season Porch

There are some design ideas that, for a while, are the latest trend, but come and go quickly. Many of our renovation projects include undoing the latest trend of 10, 20, 30, or more years ago and replacing it with designs that are meant to last. Below are a few ideas that we feel are timeless.

Porches That Feel Like Outdoor Rooms With Seasonal Flexibility

The best porches are not treated as leftover exterior space. We design them more intentionally — with furniture groupings, lighting, fireplaces, ceiling details, rugs, and materials that encourage people to linger.

A good porch should feel like a room without walls. Especially in the Northeast, screened porches continue to evolve into true three-season living spaces. Retractable screens, removable panels, infrared heaters, fireplaces, and tighter detailing allow porches to remain comfortable well into fall, and sometimes winter, and ready for early spring.

Three Season Porch With Glass Panels

Well-Designed Laundry Rooms

Laundry/Mudroom

Laundry rooms are no longer relegated to the back corner of a damp basement. They are bright, attractive spaces that make a family chore a little more fun.

Laundry/Dogwash

Home Office in Stately Home

Darker, Moodier Rooms in the Right Places

Libraries, studies, dining rooms, powder rooms, and bedrooms often benefit from deeper colors and lower light levels. Although we love bright, open rooms, sometimes the contrast of a dark, brooding room can bring out the best in both.

Dining Room with A Tempest Mural

Basement Pub

Mudrooms That are Good at Welcoming Guests and Hiding the Chaos

In the Northeast, we rely on our mudrooms to handle our muddy or snowy boots and to welcome all comers to our home. Kids, dogs, and grandparents all pass through this well-used space many times a day. Paying attention to its design makes sense for such an important part of the home.

Lake Home Mudroom

Primary Bathroom with Tub as Focal Point

Primary Bathrooms that Feel Both Personal and Timeless

No two bathrooms designed for a homeowner are the same. It is a place to splurge because we have earned it. That bathroom is the first place we visit in the morning and the last place we visit at night before bed. In our case, when the kids were growing up, it was the favorite bathroom in the house. There were times I wished it wasn’t so nice.

Primary Bathroom with Natural Stained Cabinets

Covered Entry

Front Doors That Let You Know You Have Arrived

One of the most common requests we receive from homeowners is to create an entry to their home that guests can actually find. The need is brought home when I go to the wrong door on my first visit. When we design a new home, creating a strong entry is pretty straightforward. The same task on an existing home can be challenging

New Entry Porch

Breakfast Nook

Sunny Breakfast Nooks

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so why not enjoy it in one of most beautiful places in the house. The sun and the views wake us up and help take us through even the toughest days. A sunny breakfast nook will never go out of style.

Litchfield County Breakfast Nook

Photos by Rob Karosis     Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Craftsman Style Home                                  HABS/HAER/HALS Collection, Library of Congress    

By the late nineteenth century, American architecture had grown elaborate. Victorian homes were loaded with ornament, machine-produced and applied by the yard. A quiet reaction was building. Out of that reaction came one of the most enduring domestic styles America has ever produced.

The Craftsman home is not a grand gesture. It is an argument for simplicity, for the beauty of well-made things, and for houses that feel at home in the landscape around them.

Craftsman Style Home

A Brief History of the Craftsman Style

The Craftsman movement grew from the broader Arts and Crafts tradition that took root in England in the 1860s. William Morris and his contemporaries were pushing back against industrial mass production, which they believed had separated workers from their craft and stripped everyday objects of meaning. The argument was for a return to handwork, honest materials, and the dignity of skilled making.

Those ideas crossed the Atlantic and found receptive ground in America. Gustav Stickley published his magazine, The Craftsman, beginning in 1901, spreading the philosophy through pattern books and ready-to-build house plans that reached a wide audience. Stickley was both a furniture maker and a tastemaker, and his magazine became one of the primary vehicles for bringing Arts and Crafts principles into American domestic life.

On the West Coast, brothers Charles and Henry Greene produced some of the finest residential work the country had seen. Practicing in Pasadena from the early 1900s through about 1916, they refined the bungalow into something closer to architecture than building. Their houses featured intricate timber joinery, carefully selected wood species, hand-shaped details, and a mastery of the relationship between interior space and the California landscape. The Gamble House, completed in 1909, remains the most visited example of their work and a touchstone for anyone studying the style.

By the 1910s and 1920s, Craftsman bungalows had spread from California across the entire country. Mail-order companies, including Sears, sold complete house kits. A family could build a solid, well-designed home for a modest sum. The style was democratic in the best sense.

The defining characteristics are easy to recognize. Low-pitched gable roofs with wide overhanging eaves shelter deep front porches. Exposed rafter tails and decorative knee braces give the eaves their character. Tapered columns, often resting on broad piers of stone or brick, carry the porch roof. Natural materials are used on the exterior with minimal concealment. Windows are grouped in pairs and triples to bring in light. Inside, built-in cabinetry, wide window seats, and generous woodwork trim give rooms a sense of crafted permanence.

Craftsman Style Renovation

Why Craftsman Design Still Matters Today

The Craftsman style carries lessons that translate easily into residential work today. We return to these ideas often, particularly when a client wants a home that feels rooted in its site, honest in its materials, and finished with care.

Here are five qualities we find ourselves drawing from in our design process:

1. The Front Porch as a Room. Craftsman porches are deep, sheltered, and clearly meant to be used. They connect the house to the yard and the street in a way that shallow decorative porches never can. When we design a porch, we think the same way: it should be large enough for furniture, protected from rain, and oriented toward whatever view or activity makes it worth sitting in.

2. Exposed Structure as Detail. Rafter tails, knee braces, and timber brackets are not ornament added after the fact. They are structure made visible, and they give a home its character without adding cost for purely decorative elements. When structure can be expressed honestly, the result is almost always more satisfying than when it is hidden behind smooth surfaces.

3. Natural Materials That Improve With Age. Wood, stone, and brick were the Craftsman palette, and they remain ours. These materials do not fight the landscape. They settle into it. Over time, they weather in ways that add depth rather than signal neglect, and they reward quality installation in ways that synthetic substitutes rarely do.

4. Built-Ins That Belong to the Architecture. The Craftsman interior was distinguished by cabinetry, shelving, and seating designed as part of the room, not brought in later. Window seats, bookcases flanking a fireplace, and built-in benches in an entry all do the same work: they make a room feel complete and considered. We size and detail built-ins to the room’s architecture rather than treating them as furniture.

5. The Fireplace as the Heart of the House. In Craftsman homes, the fireplace was never an afterthought. It anchored the main living space, often surrounded by tile, flanked by built-ins, and given a generous surround of brick or river stone. That emphasis on the hearth as a gathering place still shapes how we think about the rooms that matter most.

Craftsman Principles in Our Work

The Craftsman tradition fits naturally with the way we approach residential work in the Northeast. Our climate rewards deep overhangs, sheltered entries, and durable exterior materials. Our landscape rewards houses that sit low to the ground and use materials drawn from the region.

Craftsman Style Renovation

One project that reflects these values directly is the Westchester Classic Reborn. The original home dates to around 1890 and had the character you find in well-built Craftsman-era houses: a front porch, honest materials, and rooms that were modest in scale but carefully made. The owners loved the house and wanted to bring it forward without losing what gave it its character. We added a new side porch just off the kitchen, connected it to the original front porch, and redesigned the kitchen and dining area to open up the space and capture the views. The owners chose retro appliances that feel right at home with the vintage bones of the house. The project is a good example of how these older homes reward careful attention. Work with what is already there, add what is genuinely needed, and the result feels like it was always meant to be.

Low Ceiling Fix

The Low Ceiling Fix is not a Craftsman project, but it illustrates one of the style’s core ideas as well as any we have done. The farmhouse had low ceilings, which is common in old cold-climate houses built around fireplaces. Rather than raise the ceiling or conceal the condition behind new finishes, we exposed the 200-year-old beams and floor joists and let them do the work. The framing that had been there all along became the character of the room.

This is what Craftsman builders understood intuitively. Structure does not need to be hidden. When it is honest, well-proportioned, and made of good material, it is already the detail. The same thinking applies whether the house was built in 1910 or last year. When we open up a ceiling and find timber worth showing, the right answer is almost always to show it.

Cellar Pub

The Cellar Pub is a different kind of project, but it draws from the same well. A basement was transformed into a gathering room centered on a fireplace, with a built-in bench, a bar, and space for darts and pool. The client came to us with the room already vivid in his mind. He knew exactly how it would be used and who would be in it. Our work was to make it real.

That kind of clarity, a room designed around a specific way of living, with a hearth at its center and every element in service of the people using it, is exactly what Craftsman interiors were built on. The style never asked what a room should look like. It asked what a room should do. The Cellar Pub answers that question the same way a good bungalow inglenook always has.

The Craftsman Ideal Today

The Craftsman movement began as a response to excess. Its founders believed that a well-made home, built of honest materials and designed to be lived in rather than admired, was worth building. That idea holds up.

A house that is simple in form, careful in detail, and rooted in its site will outlast fashions. It will feel at home in its landscape twenty years from now in a way that trend-driven design rarely does.

As we continue this series on American residential styles, the Craftsman tradition stands as one of the most direct responses to the question of how a home should be made. It asks not how impressive a house can look, but how well it can be lived in.

Article by Troy Curry Photos by Rob Karosis unless otherwise noted.  Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Pool Cabana

It is getting close to summer, and we are all itching to get out of the house. Some of our lucky clients have structures on their property that become destinations. Some structures are primarily for the homeowner, like a potting shed, and others are great for friends and family, like a pool house/guest house. We have designed outbuildings that are strictly utilitarian, such as storage barns, and others that are just for fun, such as a golf pavilion. Any building you add to a property, if done well, can add to the beauty and functionality of a home and the surrounding landscape.

As a design project, outbuildings are a lot of fun and a challenge to make both beautiful and functional, while integrating them into the rest of the property. Please enjoy some of our favorites.

Golf Pavilion

Golf Pavilion

Storage Barn

Potting Shed

Outdoor Kitchen

Outdoor Kitchen

Pool House-Guest House

Pool House-Guest House

Pool House-Guest House

Pool House-Guest House

Simple Garage

Entertainment Pavilion

Entertainment Pavilion

Garage-Guest House

Garage-Guest House

Family Sports Barn

Family Sports Barn

Family Sports Barn

Family Sports Barn

Photos by Rob Karosis     Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Sandisfield Major Renovation

This is a muddy March like so many before it. We always have a mix of projects in the design and construction document phases, but those under construction are dealing with the mud season. Our first project, shown above, in the Berkshires, is very close to completion. If you would like a taste of summer, please take a look at the Breathtaking Berkshire Pool House, which was our original project on this property.

Family Kitchen

Pantry

Library Waiting for Books

Berkshire County Renovation

Kitchen-Dining Room

Wet Bar

Porch

Dutchess County Addition

Dutchess County Addition

Ulster County Major Renovation

Ulster County Major Renovation

Millerton Farmhouse Entry

Millerton Farmhouse Rear

Millerton Farmhouse Interior

Dutchess County Stone Addition

Dutchess County Stone Addition

Dutchess County Stone Addition Kitchen

Dutchess County Stone Addition Kitchen

Dutchess County Stone Addition Butlers’ Pantry

Dutchess County Stone Addition Library

Lakeville Addition

Lakeville Breakfast Nook

Lakeville Living Room

New Home in Boothbay, Maine

New Home in Boothbay, Maine

New Home in Kinderhook, NY

New Home in Kingston, NY

 Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Every custom home involves a long series of decisions, and almost every one of them has a cost attached to it. The challenge isn’t that clients want too much. It’s that the cumulative weight of many reasonable choices can quietly push a project beyond what anyone intended to spend.

The good news is that not all choices carry the same weight. Some decisions return their investment many times over, in daily use, in lasting beauty, in the character of a home that deepens over time. Others feel significant in the moment but are quickly forgotten once the project is complete. Knowing the difference between the two is one of the most valuable things an architect and builder can offer early in the design process.

Here is how we think about it.

Splurge: The Kitchen

The kitchen is the one room in the house that almost everyone uses every day. It is where mornings begin, where gatherings happen, and where a home feels most lived in. Quality here is felt constantly, in the way a drawer closes, in the warmth of a well-chosen material, in the way the space simply works the way it should.

Cabinetry, countertops, appliances, and hardware are all worth careful investment. Not extravagance for its own sake, but the kind of quality that holds up, looks better with age, and never makes you wish you had spent a little more. The kitchen is not the place to chase savings.

Lakeville Kitchen

Simplify: Secondary Bathrooms

The primary bath deserves attention and care. Tile selection, fixtures, and custom details in that room are felt every morning and every evening. But applying the same level of investment to every bathroom in the house, a guest bath used a few times a year, a powder room off the mudroom, rarely returns what it costs. Simple, well-proportioned, and cleanly detailed reads beautifully in secondary spaces. Restraint here frees up resources for the rooms that matter most.

Crisp Family Kids Bath

Splurge: Windows in the Right Places

Windows are among the most expensive elements in a custom home, and the cost differences between product lines are significant. But there are places where a high-quality, carefully proportioned window is worth every dollar. A large opening that frames a beloved view, a window seat where light falls across the room in the afternoon, a series of

windows that define the character of a facade. In those locations, the investment is visible and felt every day.

In utility rooms, service spaces, or secondary bedrooms with unremarkable views, simpler and consistent window choices keep costs manageable without sacrificing quality where it counts.

Berkshire Lakehome Windows

Simplify: Building Form

One of the clearest lessons from working closely with builders is that complexity in the building envelope carries a significant and often underestimated cost. Every offset in a foundation, every change in roofline, every transition between wall assemblies requires additional labor, coordination, and material. The cost adds up quickly and is often invisible in the finished product.

A simpler building form, well-proportioned and cleanly detailed, with a disciplined roofline, is almost always less expensive to build and more satisfying to look at than a complicated one. The discipline required to resist unnecessary complexity often produces better architecture.

Understated Home

Splurge: The Entry and Exterior Materials

The entry to a home is the first thing every visitor experiences, and the last thing you see as you leave each morning. A well-designed entry, with proper depth, good proportion, a generous door surround, and shelter from the weather, sets the tone for everything that follows. It signals care and permanence in a way that is disproportionate to its size.

This is not the place to cut back. A modest investment in the entry pays returns in first impressions, daily experience, and the long-term character of the house.

The exterior of a home lives in the weather every day of its life. Cutting back here is rarely a bargain. Materials that hold up, good wood siding properly detailed, quality roofing, durable masonry, cost more up front, but avoid the maintenance expense and disruption of early replacement. They also tend to look better over time, developing the kind of patina that gives a house its character.

A home that looks handsome and well-maintained twenty years from now was almost certainly built with honest, durable materials from the start.

Entry to Salisbury Home with Clapboard Siding

Greenwich Waterfront Home with Cedar Siding with Stone Base

Entry to Millbrook Home with Brick Siding

Simplify: Ceilings and Trim in Less Important Rooms

Generous ceiling heights in the main living spaces of a house, the entry, the living room, the kitchen, create volume and a sense of ease that is worth having. But raising ceilings throughout an entire house, including bedrooms, secondary rooms, and service spaces, adds cost without a meaningful improvement in how those rooms feel or function.

Varied ceiling heights, used intentionally, are actually more interesting than uniform volume. A lower ceiling in a library or bedroom can feel intimate and settled in a way that serves those rooms perfectly.

Custom millwork, detailed trim profiles, and built-ins are some of the most labor-intensive elements in a custom home. Used thoughtfully, they add tremendous warmth and architectural richness. Applied everywhere, regardless of how much time is actually spent in a space, they strain a budget without a meaningful return.

Hallways, utility spaces, and rooms where people rarely linger are good candidates for clean, simple trim details. The budget saved there is better spent in the rooms where people gather and where the quality of the space is noticed and appreciated.

Columbia County Primary Suite–Splurge

Woodstock Children’s Bedroom-Simplify

The Underlying Principle

There is a pattern here that applies across nearly every decision in a custom home: invest where a choice is noticed and felt every day, and simplify where it isn’t. The homes that feel most resolved are rarely the ones where everything was treated equally. They are the homes where the design team and the clients thought carefully about what mattered most and then directed their energy and resources accordingly.

That conversation starts early, long before any drawings are priced. It is one of the most valuable things the design process can offer.

Article by Troy Curry Photos by Rob Karosis unless otherwise noted.  Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Entry/Mudroom

Every year in the Hudson Valley, winter doesn’t end — it dissolves. The snow recedes in uneven patches. We have a few days of mud and then another week of frozen moonscapes, then it repeats. From the adults to the children, we track in the mud. Then the dogs with mud-clogged toes come trotting in, completely bypassing the towels we have prepared for them. In one word, it is a mess.

Mud Control Starts Outside the House

House with Covered Entries

In practice, it is very difficult to control everything around your house to minimise the impact of the mud season. In a perfect world, we all would have gravel walkways on well-drained substrates or brick paths that are always free of snow and ice. The fact is, most of us don’t live in manicured estates with full time staffs to keep springtime grounds in perfect shape. What we can do is create spaces near our house that minimise the mud that makes it into our homes. In addition to durable, mud-free paths around our homes, we can provide transition spaces like covered porches and entries where we can take the first layer of mud off our boots. Good drainage and gutters can minimise water around the house, though many people prefer to avoid gutters and rely on underground drainage pipes.

Covered Entry with Gutters Around House

No Outdoor Prep Can Stop Real Mud

Real Life Spring Mud Pit on the Way to Feed the Sheep

When we walk up to the barn in the spring, there is no outdoor walkway or covered entry to keep the dogs and us from sinking into the mud. We do have a brick walkway leading to our covered entry, but it doesn’t help much after we have walked up and down from the barn. Most properties have those unavoidable areas that can’t be made mud-free. The design of a practical mudroom should include a durable floor and sturdy benches for sitting and carefully removing those muddy boots.

Mudroom With Rugged Floor

Don’t Forget the Animals

Gus Posing in Our Clients’ Dog Wash

One of the biggest sources of mud coming into our home is our dogs (and maybe a little from the cat). If you have animals and the room and budget for it, a ‘dogwash’ area can be a wonderful addition. Though not the only place to locate the dogwash, the mudroom is perfect because it catches the mud before it gets into the house. Even if only to rinse off their paws, a dogwash can be worth its weight in gold.

Mudroom Dogwash

Mudroom Dogwash

Leave Room For Everything Else

Mudroom For Gear and Activities

The ideal mud room in the Northeast would have room for winter gear, including snow pants and all the assorted stuff associated with whatever sports the family takes up. If we are shooting for the moon, there would also be plenty of room for summer gear and all those pastimes. What they all have in common is a durable floor, lots of storage, and plenty of space to sit down and put the gear on and take it off.

Even a Small Mudroom is Better Than Nothing at All

Small Mudroom

Even the smallest of mudrooms makes a big difference. With a durable floor and places to sit and hang up your coats, that extra organization goes a long way toward a cleaner, more organized home. When we added a bench, cubbies, and places to hang our coats, our home made a great leap toward order and family harmony.

Simple Cubbies, Hooks, and a Bench Go a Long Way

Photos by Rob Karosis     Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Clearing a Path to the Barn

One more round of snow made it pretty difficult for the shepherds and the dogs to make their way up the hill to the barn. Being from down South, I had never owned or operated a snow blower until this year. I didn’t realize I needed one until 20 inches of snow fell in January. Who knew it could be so much fun to forge a path up the hill and leave the shovel behind?

Gus in the Storm

Sheep Paying No Attention to the Snow

Mo in the Snow

Of all our animals, Mo, the Bernese Mountain Dog, loves the snow the most. With her big furry paws and thick coat, she would stay outside in the snow all day if we let her.

Photos by Alicia and Jimmy Crisp,     Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Cost Comparison Between 2018 and 2026

“How much is this going to cost?” is one of the questions we hear the most, for good reason. At the beginning of a project, no one can answer that question accurately. We can review the pricing of the most recent similar project, or we can apply a cost-per-square-foot range we have seen or heard from contractors. In fact, there is often a significant difference between the low and high bidders’ prices on a project, and that difference grew during and after Covid. Prices climbed quickly as supply chains faltered and skilled labor became harder to secure, making accurate early estimates even more challenging.

Over the past several years, construction costs have settled into a new normal. Prices rose sharply, fluctuated for a while, and then landed at a higher baseline that isn’t likely to reverse. That can sound daunting at first, but it doesn’t mean custom homes are out of reach, or that budgets are impossible to manage. It does mean that understanding where costs come from, and how decisions affect them, matters more than ever. This article draws on a recent component-level cost study provided by Framework Custom Builders. The numbers reflect real, installed costs in today’s market. More importantly, they reflect how experienced architects and builders work together to help clients spend their money wisely, focusing on what adds lasting value rather than reacting to sticker shock.

Current Construction Cost Trends in Custom Residential Architecture

A Market with a Higher, More Stable Baseline

Today’s construction pricing isn’t a temporary spike driven by a single material shortage or short-term disruption. Labor shortages, higher performance standards, more complex building systems, and sustained demand for skilled trades have permanently changed the cost structure of residential construction.

Even when the price of a particular material eases, overall project costs tend to stay elevated because labor, coordination, and sequencing now make up a larger share of the work. In high-end custom homes, that effect is more noticeable, but so is the opportunity. When design and construction teams collaborate early, they can direct spending toward the parts of the home that matter most to the people living there.

What Builder-Provided Costs Really Tell Us

Cost per square foot is a common question, but it’s a blunt tool. It hides more than it explains. Component-level pricing, on the other hand, breaks a house down into familiar pieces, windows, kitchens, bathrooms, mechanical systems, finishes, and shows where the money actually goes.

The cost data provided is especially useful because it represents installed costs: materials, labor, coordination, and builder overhead combined. That’s the number homeowners ultimately experience. When you look at the data this way, a few clear patterns emerge.

Windows and Exterior Openings

Windows are one of the most common places for budgets to creep upward without anyone noticing right away. High-quality windows often cost several thousand dollars each after installation. Larger units, custom sizes, specialty glazing, and premium manufacturers push that number higher very quickly.

What drives cost here isn’t trim or color, it’s quantity, size, and variation. A design with fewer unique window types and more repetition is almost always easier to price, build, and control from a budget standpoint.

Kitchens

In most custom homes, the kitchen is the single most expensive interior space. When cabinetry, countertops, appliances, hardware, and labor are added together, six-figure kitchen costs are common.

That number usually isn’t the result of one extravagant choice. It’s the accumulation of many reasonable decisions layered together. Understanding this early allows clients to decide where to invest and where to simplify, rather than being surprised late in the process.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms follow the same pattern as kitchens. Tile, plumbing fixtures, custom vanities, and glass enclosures all carry significant labor costs. When similar choices are repeated across several bathrooms, the total adds up quickly.

What feels like a modest upgrade in a single space can become a major line item when applied throughout the house.

Thermal Performance and Rainscreen Strategies

How a house is insulated and protected from moisture has a meaningful impact on construction cost, often more than clients expect. Different thermal strategies vary not only in material cost, but also in labor, sequencing, and coordination with other trades.

High-performance wall assemblies, exterior insulation, and rainscreen systems generally cost more up front than conventional construction. They require additional layers, careful detailing, and more time to install. That said, they also tend to improve durability, comfort, and long-term performance.

From a cost perspective, the biggest drivers are complexity and repetition. A simple, well-detailed high-performance assembly is often more efficient than a complicated mix of wall types and transitions. These strategies are evaluated early with builders and consultants to ensure performance goals are met without introducing unnecessary cost or construction risk.

Mechanical Systems and Infrastructure

Mechanical and infrastructure systems are largely invisible once a home is complete, but they represent a substantial portion of the construction budget. Heating and cooling, ventilation, plumbing, electrical service, wells, septic systems, and utility connections all fall into this category.

These costs are largely unavoidable. They’re influenced far more by the complexity of the house and how efficiently systems are laid out than by any visible finish choice. Clear planning and straightforward layouts make a meaningful difference. These systems are coordinated closely with mechanical and structural engineers early in the design process so they are fully integrated with the architecture, reducing inefficiencies and avoiding costly adjustments later.

Finish Carpentry, Built-Ins, and Lighting

Custom trim, built-ins, shelving, and lighting are what give a home much of its character. They are also some of the most labor-intensive parts of the build. In many cases, the time required to fabricate and install these elements exceeds the cost of the materials themselves.

Used thoughtfully, these features add tremendous value. Applied everywhere, they can strain a budget quickly. Strategic placement is often the most effective approach.

Why Cost Control Starts with Design

One of the clearest lessons from builder-sourced data is that late-stage changes rarely produce meaningful savings. Once drawings are complete and pricing is underway, most of the cost is already set.

The biggest opportunities to manage cost happen earlier, when architects and builders are shaping the project together. Decisions like simplifying the building form, reducing

unnecessary offsets, repeating details, aligning window sizes, and organizing mechanical zones all influence building cost long before a contractor prices the job.

These choices don’t reduce architectural quality. More often, they lead to cleaner, more disciplined designs that are easier to build, easier to maintain, and better aligned with how clients actually live.

Setting Expectations Without Creating Anxiety

It’s natural for clients to want a single, clear number early on. Cost per square foot can feel reassuring, but it rarely tells the full story. Component-level costs provide a more useful framework. They explain why projects land where they do and where there is flexibility to adjust.

In today’s high-end residential market, a few realities consistently apply:

· Skilled labor is the most limited resource

· Complexity carries a cost, even when materials are modest

· Early alignment between architect, builder, and client is critical

When clients understand these dynamics, conversations about budget become clearer and more productive, and far less stressful.

Looking Ahead

Construction will continue to evolve, but one thing remains constant: successful projects are built on transparency, collaboration, and informed decision-making. Builder-informed cost data, shared early, allows architects and clients to work from the same understanding.

In future posts, we’ll look more closely at how specific design choices affect cost, and where thoughtful restraint consistently delivers the greatest return.

We would like to give a special thank you to Stephen Talaber at Framework Custom Builders for taking the time to contribute the cost data for this article. If you are interested in learning more about their work, please visit their website: www.frameworkcustombuilders.com

Article by Troy Curry Photos by Rob Karosis unless otherwise noted.  Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Open Porch

Timeless homes aren’t created by trend or nostalgia. They last because they are grounded in proportion, material honesty, and an understanding of how people actually live in spaces over time. Many of the most enduring qualities of older houses aren’t decorative at all—they’re architectural decisions that quietly do their work year after year.

Here are nine old-house ideas we consistently draw from when designing new homes and renovations that feel settled, lasting, and deeply rooted.

1 Porches, Open, Screened, and Glazed

Porch with Glass Panels for Cool Months

In old houses, porches were never ornamental. They were designed as rooms without walls—places to welcome guests, to gather with family and friends, and to slow the transition between outside and inside.  A back porch was often a workspace where family members would gather to shell peas, shuck corn, or simply enjoy each other’s company. Glass and screen panels extend the comfort and utility of any porch.

Open Porch

2. Reclaimed and Real Materials That Improve With Age

Reclaimed Flooring

We often use reclaimed flooring, beams, cabinetry, and architectural elements. Old houses rely on materials that tell the truth. Wood wears in. Stone softens. Metal darkens. These materials don’t resist time—they partner with it. Reclaimed materials carry a kind of quiet authority. Old beams, wide-plank flooring, salvaged brick, or antique doors bring more than texture—they bring scale, density, and a sense of permanence that is difficult to manufacture.

Reclaimed Columns

Reclaimed Floors, Beams, Walls, and Ceilings

Reclaimed Brick

3. Family-Friendly Kitchens That Invite Life, Not Perfection

Family Friendly Kitchen with Room for Everyone

Old houses treated the kitchen as a working room first—and, over time, a gathering place by default. What makes these kitchens family-friendly isn’t scale alone, but intention. Clear work zones. Storage where it’s needed. Sightlines that allow cooking and connection to happen simultaneously.

New Family Kitchen

Renovated Family Kitchen

4. Welcoming Entry

Entry porch

A timeless entry is defined by proportion, depth, and hierarchy. In historic homes, the door was rarely flush with the façade; it was recessed, framed with substantial casing, often sheltered by a porch, pediment, or overhang. That layering creates shadow lines and visual weight, signaling importance without excess ornament. The front entry was both clear and unmistakable.

Classical Entry

5. Cozy Fireplaces

Period Fireplace

A fireplace in a room is a gathering spot, a center of attention, and a fascinating connection to our past. A burning fire becomes a presence that is alive with color and motion, not to mention a source of radiant heat and light. We first had fireplaces in our homes to cook our food and provide heat. I can’t think of a better connection to old homes and a time when gathering around the fire was a way of life.

Period Fireplace

Restored Fireplace

New Fireplace

6. Well-designed Windows

Well-Proportioned Windows and Interior Details

In older houses, windows were treated as architectural elements, not voids cut into a wall. Their size is related to the ceiling height and the room width. Their placement established rhythm across a façade. Alignment from floor to floor created order that might not be consciously noticed, but is deeply felt. Proportions are critical.  A modern large-paned window can have an old-home sensibility, with studied proportions and well-thought-out details, like the old home precedents.

Well-Proportioned Windows

Modern Windows in Home Office

Modern Windows in Home Office

7 Built-ins That Feel Like They Belong

Wet Bar

Bookcases, benches, and cabinets in old houses were often part of the original construction. They belong to the architecture, not the furniture plan.

When built-ins are designed as integral elements—aligned with trim, windows, and proportions—they add both function and permanence.

Breakfast Nook

Butlers Pantry

Built-in drawers, shelves, and closet rods

8. Symmetry

New Home

Symmetry is one of the quiet disciplines that gives old homes their sense of calm and order. When new homes apply symmetry thoughtfully—especially in façades and major interior axes—they gain a sense of permanence and clarity. The result isn’t formal for formality’s sake; it simply feels settled, as though everything is exactly where it should be. Whole homes were rarely symmetrical, but parts were symmetrical unto themselves.

Living Room

Guest House

Bedroom

New Entry to Antique Home

9. Framed or Axial Views

View From Front Door

One of the quiet reasons old homes feel calm and coherent is the way they guide your eye. When you step through the front door, you often see straight ahead—through a hallway, toward a stair, or out to a window framing trees or sky beyond. These framed views create order without drawing attention to themselves. When a house is designed with clear framed views, it feels composed. You move through it naturally. And that subtle sense of direction—of everything lining up the way it should—is one of the simplest ways a new home can inherit the sensibility of an old one.

Aligned Doorways

View From Front Door

View From Kitchen Through Sun Room

View of Framed Hallway

View From Hallway

Photos by Rob Karosis     Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

The Barn in the Freshly Fallen Snow

It was a dark and snowy night. As I slept, most of my family rushed up the hill in the snow and began to attend to the four new lambs, just arrived in the world. Hours later, I woke up and started to feed the dogs. Even though it wasn’t 6:00 am yet, my wife walked into the kitchen with her winter coat on, and I knew the lambs had come.

We walked back up, and I took more photos, and the ‘A’ team continued to make sure the lambs were warm and feeding from their moms. The first few hours are critical to making sure the lambs survive. When you stick your finger in a newborn lamb’s mouth, it should be very warm. A cool mouth indicates trouble and triggers a mad rush to get their core temperature up. Luckily, this band of lambs has warm mouths and is doing fine.

One of the Ewes Keeping Watch

Three Lambs and Their Mom

The Last Lamb in the Sleeve of One of My Old Sweaters

Getting in Line For Dinner

Lamb Playing King of the Hill with His Mom

In Line For Breakfast

My Son and One of the Lambs

Oliver Would Not Be Left Out

My Youngest Nephew Finn, Meeting the Lamb

Gus Exiled From the Barn Since the Ewes are Very Protective of the Lambs

Photos by Alicia and Jimmy Crisp, and Katie Hynes    Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Country Lane Farmhouse: In this renovation, Victorian ideas about incremental growth and thoughtful expansion guide the design. Roofline variation and carefully scaled additions allow the house to evolve naturally, preserving its rural character while accommodating contemporary living patterns.

Overview

Victorian architecture is best understood not as a single, rigid style, but as a broad and expressive period in architectural history. Emerging during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), it reflects a time of rapid industrialization, expanding prosperity, and evolving social expectations. New building technologies and mass-produced components made complexity and ornament accessible, while pattern books and rail travel allowed ideas to circulate widely.

What distinguishes Victorian architecture is its willingness to embrace richness and individuality. These homes were designed to be experienced from multiple viewpoints, with massing, material changes, and detail working together to create depth and presence. For today’s homeowners, this layered approach continues to offer valuable lessons about character, craftsmanship, and longevity.

Origins and Historical Context

Victorian architecture followed the more formal and restrained styles of the early American republic, including Federal and Greek Revival. As the 19th century progressed, architects and builders moved away from strict classical rules and toward a more eclectic and interpretive approach. Inspiration was drawn freely from medieval, Italian, French, and vernacular sources.

This period produced a wide range of related substyles: Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Shingle Style, among them. While visually distinct, these styles share a common philosophy: architecture as an expressive craft, responsive to place, program, and personal taste rather than fixed formulas.

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, T. Mcdonough Russell, Wesleyan University, and Thomas T Waterman, Waterman, Thomas T, photographer. T. Mcdonough Russell House, High & Washington Streets, Middletown, Middlesex County, CT. Middlesex County, Middletown, Connecticut, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/ct0322/.

Key Characteristics of Victorian Homes

Despite their diversity, Victorian homes tend to share several defining characteristics:

Asymmetrical massing with projecting bays, towers, and varied volumes

Steep, complex rooflines incorporating gables, dormers, and decorative shingles

Layered materials and textures that create shadow, depth, and visual richness

Prominent entries and porches that emphasize arrival and human scale

Contrasting materials and colors used to articulate hierarchy and form

Together, these elements create architecture that feels substantial and nuanced, with visual interest that unfolds gradually rather than all at once.

Interior Planning and Spatial Hierarchy

Traditional Victorian homes were organized around clear spatial hierarchies. Public rooms were positioned prominently and often expressed externally, while private spaces were more contained. This clarity helped occupants and visitors intuitively understand how the house was meant to be used.

Although contemporary living favors more open plans, the Victorian emphasis on distinguishing between public and private, formal and informal, remains a useful guide when designing homes that feel intuitive and well-proportioned.

Victorian Influence in Crisp Architects’ Work

At Crisp Architects, Victorian influence is applied with intention and restraint. Rather than replicating historic houses, our work draws from the underlying principles of Victorian architecture; composition, hierarchy, and depth. We then adapt them to modern expectations for comfort and performance.

Westchester Classic Reborn: This historic renovation focuses on proportion, porch hierarchy, and the relationship between the house and the street. Victorian principles inform the reestablishment of a clear entry sequence and façade rhythm, reinforcing the social role of the porch while integrating new work that respects the original structure.

Rhinebeck Shingle Style Home: This Hudson Valley residence demonstrates how historically influenced massing and complex roof forms can be composed to feel cohesive rather than ornate. Interconnected volumes, secondary gables, and varied roof heights reference late-Victorian and Queen Anne precedents, while a restrained material palette ensures the home feels current and timeless rather than nostalgic.

Across these projects, Victorian influence is expressed through controlled complexity, careful proportion, and an emphasis on depth and shadow—resulting in homes that feel established and enduring without appearing overly historic or decorative.

Designing Victorian-Inspired Homes Today

Designing with Victorian influence today requires clarity and discipline. Modern codes, energy standards, and lifestyles demand efficiency, while historic reference calls for balance and restraint. Ornament must serve proportion. Complexity must be intentional.

When these principles are applied thoughtfully, Victorian-inspired homes can offer warmth, character, and architectural depth; All qualities that continue to resonate in contemporary residential design.

Two projects from the Crisp Architects design team

Conclusion

Victorian architecture endures because it values expression, craft, and human experience. Its relevance lies not in surface detail alone, but in its approach to massing, hierarchy, and material richness. Interpreted through a modern lens, Victorian influence remains a powerful and flexible framework for creating homes with lasting presence and character.

Article by Troy Curry Photos by Rob Karosis unless otherwise noted.  Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Living Room with Bookcases and Fireplace

Living rooms are the place we gather with friends and family.  They come in all sizes, shapes, and decors, and are as diverse as families themselves.  In my living room, it is not uncommon for us to light a fire in the fireplace in front of the couch and then watch TV in the corner of the room.  Not a perfect setup, but my home is an old farmhouse from the 1790s that has been added onto over the centuries, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Fireplaces anchor a room and create an ambiance that cannot be reproduced.  Whenever possible, we make the living room fireplace a focal point and gathering place.

Restored Writer’s Cabin with Stone Fireplace

Living Room Created From a Former Garage

Living Room Addition

Living Room with Fireplace Focal Point

Living Room with Fireplace and Hidden TV

Paneled Living Room

Traditional Living Room

Contemporary Living Room

Living Room with Bookcases

Formal Living Room

Bright Living Room

Cozy Living Room

Photos by Rob Karosis     Curated Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp

Rhinebeck Greek Revival Home

In Rhinebeck, we were asked to design a new home on the site of a nineteenth-century house that had been lost to fire. The goal was to honor the original while creating a more comfortable, efficient home for a modern family. The result is a classic Greek Revival-inspired house, with a strong front gable, carefully scaled corner boards, and generous trim at the eaves. Tall windows and a well-proportioned entry give the facade a calm, composed expression that feels right at home in the historic landscape. Link: https://crisparchitects.com/newhomes/rhinebeck-greek-revival-home/

We have already examined how Colonial homes laid the architectural foundations of America and how Georgian design added balance and refinement. The next chapter in that story is the Greek Revival, a style that brought the calm order of classical temples to everyday family homes.

Across the Northeast, many of the houses that feel solid, bright, and quietly impressive owe something to Greek Revival design. Wide corner boards, generous trim, and strong gable fronts create a sense of dignity that still feels right for modern life.

Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), and Charles Yarrington. “East and South Elevations, Cyrus Gates House, Old Nanticoke Road, Maine, Broome County, NY.” Photograph, 1963. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. https://www.loc.gov/item/ny0476/

A Brief History of the Greek Revival Style

By the early nineteenth century, Americans had begun to look to ancient Greece as a symbol of democracy and independence. Architects and builders translated that admiration into a new domestic

style. Pattern books carried measured drawings of Greek details to towns and villages, and carpenters adapted those forms with local materials.

The results were not copies of marble temples. Instead, they were wood frame houses with clear, simple outlines and a few carefully chosen classical elements. Typical features included:

1. Temple front gables, often with a full or partial pediment facing the street.

2. Wide entablatures and strong corner boards that read almost like pilasters.

3. Entry doors framed by sidelights and transoms, sometimes with understated columned porches.

4. Taller, more generous windows that brought in welcome daylight.

5. Painted wood exteriors, often light in color, that emphasized the play of light and shadow on trim.

In cities, Greek Revival houses could be quite formal, with bold cornices and carefully proportioned facades. In rural areas, the same ideas appeared on farmhouses, churches, and simple village homes. A rectangular plan, gable roof, and thoughtful window placement gave even modest houses a strong, confident presence.

Historic examples recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey show how widely the style spread. Wooden farmhouses in New England, masonry townhouses in Mid Atlantic cities, and temple front houses in the South all adapted Greek ideas in their own way. What unites them is the clarity of form and a restrained use of ornament that still feels fresh today.

Classical Addition

On an older farmhouse, the owners needed more living space but did not want the additions to feel tacked on. We designed new wings that use Greek Revival proportions and details so that the house reads as a unified whole. Triple hung windows bring abundant light into the living room, while the extended kitchen and gathering spaces flow naturally from the original structure. The additions respect the home’s age yet appear to have been part of a thoughtful nineteenth-century expansion. Link: https://crisparchitects.com/renovations/classical-addition/

Why Greek Revival Still Feels Right for Modern Living

At Crisp Architects, we return to Greek Revival principles whenever we want a home that feels both generous and composed. The style offers lessons that fit easily into twenty-first-century family life.

Here are a few of the qualities we find ourselves using again and again:

1. Strong, Simple Forms A clear gable front, a calm roofline, and well-organized facades create a sense of order from the street. Even when a plan is complex inside, the exterior can remain legible and welcoming.

2. Light-Filled Rooms: Tall windows and thoughtful window rhythm bring natural light deep into a house. In our climate, that extra light on winter afternoons and over breakfast tables makes a real difference in how a home feels.

3. Comfortable Porches and Entries. Greek Revival porches and entry surrounds do more than dress up a facade. They create sheltered thresholds, places to pause before stepping inside, and spots to sit on a summer evening.

4. Calm Use of Detail Trim in this style is bold but not fussy. Wide casings, corner boards, and cornices frame the house

without overwhelming it. That restraint pairs very well with both traditional and contemporary interiors.

5. Flexibility Across House Types The same language works for new homes, additions, and accessory buildings. A modest pedimented porch or a simple entablature at the eaves can quietly tie a group of buildings together without calling undue attention to itself.

Sometimes the purest expression of a style appears in a small building. For one client, we created a compact pool house that picks up the Greek Revival language of the main residence. A simple temple-like facade, with carefully proportioned columns and entablature, frames large openings that look out to the pool and gardens. Inside, the plan stays open and airy so that light, views, and easy circulation do the work. The pool house feels like a little pavilion in the landscape, formal enough for special occasions and relaxed enough for everyday use. Link: https://crisparchitects.com/accessory/greek-revival-pool-house/

Together, these projects show how Greek Revival ideas can be tuned to different settings. A full gable-front home in the country, a set of sympathetic additions to a long-standing farmhouse, and a small garden pavilion all draw from the same family of forms. Each one uses strong outlines, measured detail, and good light to create spaces that feel welcoming and settled.

Greek Revival at Home Today

The appeal of the Greek Revival lies in its mix of clarity and warmth. A house with a simple gable front, a well-framed entry, and carefully scaled windows feels composed from the street yet relaxed in daily use. Inside, high ceilings, tall openings, and straightforward trim give rooms a quiet backdrop for family life.

As we continue this series on American residential styles, the Greek Revival stands as a bridge between early vernacular houses and the more elaborate Victorian and Italianate homes that followed. It shows how classical ideas can be adapted to real family needs without losing their sense of proportion.

Article by Troy Curry Photos by Rob Karosis unless otherwise noted.  Brochure by Crisp Architects: Portfolio

To get my monthly newsletter, On The Drawing Board, click here.  Jimmy Crisp