Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

Design Builders & Remodeling is a one stop shop operation. From the start, design solutions are strongly rooted in practical applications and experience. Project planning takes into account the realities of the construction process and mindful of your established budget. All the work is centralized in one firm reducing the chances of costly or time consuming surprises. A solid partnership with solid professionals to help you realize your dreams for a new or improved home. Historic converted barn w/chestnut beams & floors, vaulted ceiling LR w/field stone fireplace, and exceptional charm! Quiet and cozy space located off this grand room includes a den + guest room with its own bath. The grand staircase takes you to 4 BRs and 4 full baths. Through the post and beam defined archway, you’ll enter the party room: LR/DR & kitchen w/5-burner gas range & generous work island w/marble counter.

This half bath was converted into a full bath by adding a shower and changing the location of the existing fixtures. Now these homeowners have a first floor bedroom/bath space. Timber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube Michael Eric Berube, Maine Virtual Home Tours

​SWM Builders and Remodelers have over 25 years experience just in deck work alone, including small repairs and upgrades such as steps, rails, planking and posts, to additions and full builds including designing and drawing up your deck. working with your existing landscape. We can add doorways, work off any floor you want, even turn your cracking cement slab into a ground-floor deck that wont allow seasonal soil contractions or bentonite in your ground to warp or ruin your deck. As well, we can do custom deck roofs, BBQs, full outdoor living areas, upper and lower decks, whatever you want.​

The client wanted a unique railing design, they liked our organic work but wanted something a little more contemporary. The "tree" design is all forged and fabricated from flat bar and the horizontal rails are round stock. We used our cap rail which we forge in house.

Michael Eric Berube, Maine Virtual Home ToursTimber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

Natural stone walls, White Oak timbers, metal rails, painted shiplap and millwork, wide plank oak flooring and reclaimed wood ceilings, all work together to provide a striking entry to this custom home.

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

The high ceiling of this lovely family room is enhanced by architectural mill-work which give this charming room an elegant and cozy feel. Dormers above bring light into the the space, and the decorative ceiling adds scale and beauty to the room. We can see that the focal point of the room is the stone fireplace which is flanked on both sides by a 24"x 24" picture window with built in shelves below. To further enhance the symmetry of the room are 2 large windows with half moon tops giving architectural interest and allow for light to stream across the room. Photos by Alicia's Art, LLC RUDLOFF Custom Builders, is a residential construction company that connects with clients early in the design phase to ensure every detail of your project is captured just as you imagined. RUDLOFF Custom Builders will create the project of your dreams that is executed by on-site project managers and skilled craftsman, while creating lifetime client relationships that are build on trust and integrity. We are a full service, certified remodeling company that covers all of the Philadelphia suburban area including West Chester, Gladwynne, Malvern, Wayne, Haverford and more. As a 6 time Best of Houzz winner, we look forward to working with you on your next project.

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

This elegant home by Alair Homes, Nanaimo, features our timber work in the main living area/great room, and the exterior covered deck. In the great room the timber system is structural, in that it supports the conventional truss system above, but it is not the primary roof structure. The exterior deck cover is a fully self-supporting timber system. We also provided the timber posts and braces to support the deck. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Builder: Alair Homes This elegant home by Alair Homes, Nanaimo, features our timber work in the main living area/great room, and the exterior covered deck. In the great room the timber system is structural, in that it supports the conventional truss system above, but it is not the primary roof structure. The exterior deck cover is a fully self-supporting timber system. We also provided the timber posts and braces to support the deck.

Warm wood and cold glass don't always work well together, but here they do. This white oak staircase pairs naturally grained treads with a sleek glass balustrade anchored by bold black metal posts, a combination that feels considered rather than contrived. The wrap-around starting steps ease the entry, softening what could have been a hard geometric statement into something more welcoming. Overhead, a statement lighting installation pulls the eye upward, casting a warm glow that works with the oak rather than against it. Clean lines throughout, nothing excessive. 1976-2026 © Century Stair Company

The builder laid custom wide plank flooring in the upstairs hall and flex space stained to match the existing woodwork of the timber frame construction. Timber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” - Henry Ford It’s no secret that one big reason for Jacobson Construction’s success is because of our people. I’ve always hired the best people who work together as a team while respecting our customers. These are real professionals who work together and get the job done. Sean, our project leader, has been with me since 1995, and my electrician has been with me even longer. Many of my current staff have been with me for over 15 years. I am fortunate to have these skilled professionals working with me. The addition is coming along. There’s a hole in the kitchen where there used to be a supporting wall. Framing’s done in the basement, and a gas fireplace is ready to be installed. The second-floor dormers are framed, and all of our windows have been delivered. Now that it’s taking shape, looks like one of our new favorite spaces will be the new second-floor bedroom. Because it’s adjacent to the master suite it could make an ideal nursery and add value to my home. Paying for things you can’t see is hard. For example, putting on a new roof is expensive, and because you can’t see it this seems like an even bigger expense. What you can’t see on this addition is how much effort is made in securely tying the addition to the existing home – originally built in 1936. We needed to support part of the old roof and all the new roof with stacked support posts. To do that we installed 3 stacked posts to carry the load from new footings in the basement to the beam three stories up. The red marked beam in the photo at the top of the page is supported by footings three stories below, halfway into the existing home. We also physically connected the new addition with beams that extend halfway into the current home.