My professional life is filled with emotional extremes. While there is tremendous satisfaction from winning a new project, delivering on expectations, and seeing your design built, there is a dark side to our profession. I live in a world of rejection, constantly being judged by...

We have a wide variety of projects under construction right now or just finishing. The key unifying element is each of the clients understood that design added value to their project. We are very thankful to our current clients and hope they love these spaces as the finishing...

Air within your homes can be up to 10 times more polluted than the air outside. Building science is tricky to get right if you understand holistic design strategies. If you don’t address these complicated issues, you are in deep trouble. (note: most people don’t...

Most of us know the miles-per-gallon of our cars. I just went through (for me) the very painful process of purchasing a new (used) car. I weighed the options looking at asking price, insurance premium, maintenance costs, and miles per gallon. These should all be factors when...

I respond to a lot of requests for proposals and do a lot of interviews for new design projects. Sometimes there is a higher standard to which the new design needs to meet, and sometimes the potential project is only aiming for building code minimum standards. What quality do you...

We do a variety of renovation projects from basements, garages, to kitchen additions. The one consistent element between them all is our clients want a healthy, energy-efficient, and durable building solution. This basement renovation is no exception. Here is a blog post from our...

On a tight budget or want to reduce your environmental footprint? Build smaller! Here are some simple tips to get you thinking about how you can get the highest value for your space: Maximize your usable space – Get rid of rooms that don’t add value to your way of...

In a home with a forced-air heating and cooling system, the system used to distribute air is called duct work. In an average home, 30% of the air sent through the duct work system is lost due to leaks, holes, and poorly executed connections. The result to your wallet is higher...

Snow on the Roof - Building Science Analysis

1      Insulation. Make sure your attic insulation is deep, positioned correctly, and completely covering the heated areas of your home. Just like an extra blanket on your bed keeps you nice and toasty, a thick layer of insulation in the attic keeps your energy bills lower in the...