Springhouse Architects

Most families are told the living-kitchen space has to compete with a finished basement for attention. Sunset Grove's answer was to stop building a basement people had to be talked into using.

The kitchen and living space share one open, light-filled room instead — cozy enough for a Tuesday night, open enough for a full house on a holiday. No lower level trying to compete for everyone's time.

That's the kind of decision that only gets made when a floor plan is designed around how a family actually lives, not around a builder's standard layout.

Ever notice how the same house looks like a completely different one at golden hour?

Sunset Grove sits on a tranquil, tree-lined lot in Springboro, Ohio — a Modern Farmhouse built to actually earn that light. Roughly 3,600 square feet, four bedrooms and four baths, and a main floor drawn around one idea: bring the basement upstairs. Instead of burying the family living space below grade, we moved it into the light, so the room the family actually gathers in every day is the one with the view of the grove.

As the leaves turn, this is the house we keep coming back to. Swipe through for the full tour.

Modern Glamour is our answer to a client who wanted to feel like they were on the Mediterranean coast without leaving Ohio. Soaring ceilings under a modern cupola, walls of glass that dissolve the line between indoors and out, and a floor plan built with one job — hosting. This is a house designed for the party as much as the people who live there every other day of the year.

Want to know the cheapest structural decision on any project? Keep your foundation simple.

Every corner, every jog in a foundation plan compounds — it doesn't just cost more concrete, it costs more wall, more roofline, more places for something to go wrong. It's one of the first things we look at with a client's site and program, because a clean footprint decided early is money you never have to spend chasing complexity later.

Can you actually live in your house during a major renovation? A listener asked us this one too — and the honest answer is usually no.

Living through demolition takes a real toll, and most major renovations run 20-30% longer once a family is underfoot to work around. A furnished rental, a month-to-month lease extension, or staying with family all beat gutting it out in a construction zone. The best case? A phased addition sealed off from the existing house and only "broken through" to connect at the very end — which is exactly what we're doing on one of our current projects right now.

Straight from our HOME: The Second Story mailbag.

"Do all builders just suck, or is this really what building a house is like?" A listener asked us this after reading a rough Reddit thread, and honestly — fair question.

Our answer: it's rarely the builder's company that's the problem, it's who's actually running your job day to day. Interview the real project manager, not just the owner who sold you the bid. Watch for the red flags — no written contract, a chaotic jobsite, references you have to chase down instead of ones they hand you. If you want backup, an owner's rep can be the fallback that keeps everyone honest. And get everything in writing, because your payment draws are real leverage — including holding for lien waivers from the subs.

Straight from the mailbag on our podcast, HOME: The Second Story. Swipe for how we actually vet a builder.

Wondering if your builder is the right fit? Start the conversation — link in bio.

Built in the early 1950s. Renovated top to bottom — new kitchen location, rebuilt garage with a loft, a redesigned entry, and every bathroom in the house made new. Same house. Completely different way of living in it.

This is what a whole-home renovation looks like when it's planned as one project instead of a list of separate fixes.

Before and after: the kitchen that made the whole floor plan finally work.

Moving a kitchen isn't a cosmetic decision. It's a structural one — and it's usually the single move that unlocks an old floor plan. On Storybook Reno, relocating the kitchen gave this family better flow to the living spaces, better light, and a layout that actually matches how they cook and gather.

This is the same front door. We promise.

Before: a flat, forgettable door that didn't tell you anything about the house behind it. After: a new door and surround designed to actually feel like an arrival — the proportions, the material, the light around it, all working together to make the front door the moment the house introduces itself. That's the difference between a door that's just an opening in the wall and one that creates a genuinely beautiful entrance.

This is the first look at Storybook Reno, our full renovation of an early-1950s home — kitchen relocated, garage rebuilt with a finished loft, every bathroom made new, and a front door that finally does justice to everything behind it. Swipe to see before and after side by side.

What do you do with a wish list that includes a home gym, a music studio, a detached in-law suite, and guest space in the pool house — without the house feeling like four different buildings stapled together?

That's the brief on the Moore Residence, a new home we're designing for Mike & Grace Moore on Lot 99 in Milford, working alongside builder Chris Gorman Homes. Two stories, a finished basement, a four-car garage, a first-floor primary suite, three more bedrooms upstairs — all wrapped in a warm, modern-traditional style with outdoor living built in, not added on. Construction Documents were issued for permit this spring, and the project is now moving through construction.

A big program doesn't have to feel big. It has to be organized well. Planning a home with a long wish list of your own? Start the conversation — link in bio.