Insulate and air seal the attic / roof – There should be a minimum of 12″ of insulation in your attic and all penetrations should be sealed to the conditioned space in your home Air Seal walls – stop losing energy through your walls and ducts, seal all cracks and...

Gaines Group Architects in Harrisonburg We have been building our firm here in the valley for a little more than 8 years. I opened our branch office in Harrisonburg in July 2008 in the basement of my Timberville home. Most of my jobs were still in the Central Virginia area at the...

We all have budgets – no matter how big or small the project, there is ALWAYS a budget. These budgets are always a discussion point during design and usually becomes a point of restriction in the project at some point. Clients often face conflict between what they want and...

Beck Builders has finished the Sustainable Farmhouse we designed just north of Harrisonburg.  Click here to see more from past posts. Click here to see more from past posts. The deep front porch provides plenty of space for seating. The rear deck has incredible views. The open...

Our new office is open and getting into shape. The interior brick walls along the stair that were once covered in black char from the 80’s fire have been scraped. The stairs have been rebuilt leading to the second floor. Heading into the second floor, the window and door...

Check out this cool find inside a wall on a renovation project You never know what to expect in the walls of a renovation project. There are always things hiding from the construction process in the past. From coke bottles to beer bottles things get tossed inside of walls and sit...

Thinking about the future, I see hope. As I return to blogging, I am going to take a less technical approach to my writings. I will still include projects we are working on, technical posts, but also just thoughts from an architect trying to figure out life. I have been thinking...

Deborah Smith received her Master of Business Administration degree from EMU Congratulations on your achievement at Eastern Mennonite University.  We are very proud you and appreciate your hard work invested to achieve this goal! Deborah Smith Graduates from Eastern Mennonite...

Lots of progress since the last post about this exciting project. The spaces are starting to look finished and we are excited to see the progress each time we visit.  In order to tell the story of this historic building there was a lot of work done to preserve original parts....

Chesapeake Western Depot project updates Over the last few week there has been an amazing amount of progress at the Depot job site. The electricians have almost finished wiring the entire building. The drywall crew has done an amazing job putting the building back together and...