True Story Construction

So so close and finishing up this wonderful space. A little before and (almost) after.

Custom sauna with a custom window just a few days away from giving these clients sweet refuge on days just like this.

Big door time.

It’s nice to see some progress on this one - roof trusses removed and replaced with a ridge beam and rafters for a vaulted ceiling in this garage to bedroom conversion. We also removed the existing slab to add sub-slab insulation in preparation for the radiant heat that will connect the bedroom and the entryway without any changes in elevation.

Another sauna coming in hot 🔥

Some finish details at our 70’s remodel. Almost there.

Spent a few days last week with finishing up some exterior details at our big island exterior remodel. I know there are reasons to use materials other than wood for siding, soffit, and fascia, but I really love ‘em.

Can anyone guess what this is?

Progress. Floors are done, time for trim!

Name something more County than barn beams and whitewashed Chisholms pine. I’ll wait…

After 4 days of painting it’s finally over. Over 1000 sqft of living space primed and hit with two coats, stairs, stairs, railings, cabinet doors, and passage doors sprayed to match the walls and trim. Now finally it’s time for flooring.

#70’sremodel

Third time designing an archway for a project but the first time building one. Got the framing all done, moved the electrical and got the first coat of mud on yesterday, so hopefully I can sand tonight.
It does exactly what I was hoping it would, it connects the spaces without any major structural changes, and still gives each room its own feel.

Thank you , it was a pleasure working with you over the last two weeks 🤙 I can’t wait to see this place finished up!

For the next little while I’ll be doing some trim at this beautiful house by . The design has a few variations but I’ll be making sills and caps as well as jamb extensions for 30+ deep window and door wells. With something as irregular as rammed earth, a jig was a no brainer. With jigs for the left and right side of the window well, all I need is a stretcher piece between the jigs to lock them into place tight against the wall. No tape measure, no room for error.

Just a few more paint touch ups for this beautiful interior remodel. White oak floors + farrow and ball French grey and pointing + white washed pine ceiling are a winning combination for me.

Almost there with this beautiful white cedar sauna in Consecon.

Cedar siding going up over 2 layers of rockwool comfort board and Mento 1000.

Personal project I’ve been working on recently. Scale is the most important thing in design in my opinion, and it’s one of the hardest things to ‘get right’ in architecture. With this project, I’ve been trying to create a space that feels open, spacious and airy, but doesn’t compromise coziness and warmth.

9’ plaster ceilings and walls, wood windows, warm wood tones, terrazzo countertops and a concrete floor.

Classic details going down at our big island reno. We’ll be finishing up drywall today and moving on to paint and flooring this week!

Off all the parts of building and remodeling, the most enjoyable part for me is design. It’s where I can be most creative, and where my experience allows me to envision the feeling of being in a certain space before it’s built. It’s a wonderful synthesis of things I’ve seen and places I’ve experienced and making choices that fit a certain location or budget is always a great challenge.

The intersection of durability and sustainability is the number 1 thing we’re focused on as a builder/ remodeler. That’s why we use so much cedar. It’s local, renewable, looks beautiful, and will last a good 50-80 years when maintained well. Then, it goes back to the soil.

Paul has been pre staining all 4 sides of our trim and beveled siding before it goes up to ensure as much protection as possible and to reduce warping, cupping and movement. We’ll treat the cut ends as it’s going up to fully seal the boards.

There’s a lot going on in this beam, but it’s going to look like it grew there when it’s in place.

I’m a big fan of the double stud wall, especially when remodeling the old homes we have here in the county. We’re often not dealing with exceptionally small homes, making the square footage loss less costly, while providing the opportunity for a significant increase in insulation with many of these old farmhouses have 2x4 walls. This wall system will have 2 layers of r14 rockwool on the inside and 2 layers of rockwool r5 on the outside, giving what was the most uncomfortable part of the home an r38 wall.

This is what a contingency is for. We actually had an allowance for this because the house sits right in the middle of a hill and gets all of the runoff right to this wall, but there was no way of knowing how far the damage had gone before we opened it up. We’ll install a new sill and replace/ sister in new studs before finishing our mento and moving on to insulation. We’ll also add a footing drain to keep water away in the future.

Old house + mento 1000 + 3” rockwool Comfortboard = happy house.

#475

When I started out in architecture school, rendering was still a painstakingly slow process, and the programs were super technical and hard to use.

Fast forward to today and this image is 100% 3d and took about an hour to put together in Twinmotion. The suite of tools built around the Unreal Engine is honestly staggering, and best of all it’s free.

There is some professional benefit to this, but mostly I do this because I love it, it’s like painting or drawing and it’s so satisfying to be able to finally have a workflow that matches the pace of the creative process.

Tree house fully in its element.

Mudroom tile all cleaned up, ready for grout! This space is coming together so nicely, I can’t wait to see the finishes go up.