A 4,820-square-foot single-family home on a former rolling-mill site, built for a Brooklyn-based family of five who moved up full-time in spring 2025. Designed in collaboration with North River Architecture; structural by Pyhe Engineering; landscape by Field Operation.
The site sat above the creek bend on what had been a paper mill from 1841 to 1962. The owners — both writers, two kids in the local elementary, one on the way — wanted a house their parents could move into someday and their children could inherit without renovation. The work was scoped to a fifty-year envelope: cellulose insulation in double-stud walls, geothermal heat, a slate roof, copper gutters and downspouts.
The plan unfolds along a long timber spine that traces the contour of the slope. A central kitchen-and-hearth volume opens both north to the creek and south to a stone terrace; bedrooms tuck into a quieter wing. A separate 480-square-foot studio outbuilding on the lower terrace serves as office and guest quarters.
We worked off a guaranteed-maximum-price contract signed in February 2023, broke ground that May, dried-in by Thanksgiving, and turned the keys over twenty-two months from contract. Final accounting closed at 1.4% under GMP after twenty-two change orders — net of which fourteen were owner-initiated and eight were field-condition discoveries.
Nudura ICF stem walls to 4'-0" frost depth, 12" R-32 assembly. Hot-tar damp-proofing & dimple board.
Hand-cut 8x10 timbers from a Vancouver Island forest cooperative. Mortise-and-tenon, oak peg.
Continuous exterior insulation, taped seams, blower-door tested at 0.6 ACH50.
Camara quarry, 3/8" graduated thickness. Copper standing-seam at the dormer assemblies.
Maibec 1x6 shiplap, factory-applied iron-vinegar finish, weathered to seasonal silver.
Triple-pane, argon-filled, 0.18 U-factor. White oak interior trim, integrated screens.
Salvaged barn timber, kiln-dried & milled in-house at our Hudson shop. Hardwax oil finish.
Stone harvested within twelve miles of the site, dry-laid by Anthony Vasiliou & sons.
Built in our shop with Blum Movento hardware. Unstained, hardwax oil only.
Soils, wetlands delineation, code review, design coordination, GMP signed.
Clear & grub, 320 yards of excavation, ICF forms set, slab pour.
Timber frame trucked from BC, raised in nine days. Floor and roof deck.
Sheathing, weather barrier, slate roof loaded. Windows installed before December.
Geothermal loop, electrical & plumbing rough, plaster, oak floors, cabinetry.
Owner walk, 142-item punch, calibration of all systems, year-one warranty memo.
We watched eighteen people show up every day for twenty-two months and treat our house like the most important house they had ever built. By the end we knew everyone's name. The crew came back for the housewarming.