Located in the Village of Lake Placid, this second home provides a nice weekend getaway for its owners. With the use of the basement, space above the garage and an open floor plan, this 1960 square footprint house feels larger, while still keeping the smaller scale of a cottage. The wood detail on the interior helps make this home feel cozy and warm.

This is a house design that is beautifully detailed with natural components and designed for energy efficiency and built in six months. Currently occupied as a vacation home for a young family with children, the house is spacious and open with large open rooms that allow flexibility when inviting friends and family to share their space. The focus is on the lake, so for maximum enjoyment, our designer has provided many windows, a large deck with an outside fireplace and a screened-in porch. The kitchen is made of reclaimed barn board, and the fireplaces are local stone.

The downtown area of Brandon, Vermont was quite rundown and in 2002, The McKernon Group invested time and money to rebuild a section called the Howe Scale Block. The buildings were carefully dismantled and recycled. The end results were retail shops and a quality destination restaurant, Café Provence. Designed by our architect, the main floor is elevated above traffic level. Chef Robert was looking for an efficient attractive kitchen, and a design that would give plenty of open space with divided areas for dining intimacy. There is also seating on the piazza in nice weather. It was a real transformation and the restaurant has drawn townspeople and tourists to this location…

This was a collaborative effort on the part of our Design Team and an outside architect, renovating a 2300 square foot building to be used for retail, office and artisan workspace. Anchoring the center of the store and dividing production and retail, is a water wall made of copper. Vermont slate flooring visually divides the building. Toward the back half of the building, two glassed-in rooms create an area where visitors can enjoy pewtersmiths at work. Much consideration was given to energy efficiency and green construction.

This multi-level addition attached to an 18th century brick farmhouse was designed using a dismantled barn frame. Described as a “highload barn”, the plan was to duplicate the original. It was to look functional and to “settle” into the landscape. A ramp was built with stone foundations to serve as the outside entrance.

The first floor (1440 square feet) consists of a great room with a river stone fireplace, kitchen/bar area and dining room. The upstairs loft (381 square feet) has been turned into a bedroom and the ground level is used for storage and a shop. The stairs are worth noting, in that they are designed to replicate farm fencing. Steel fence mesh was used in lieu of traditional balusters to make it strong.

This new structure compliments the house in esthetic and practical ways. It solves the problem of small rooms in an old house. This new living area is a part of the openness of the hills and pastures that surround this special place.

This home was designed for a young family who is committed to reducing their home energy usage through passive and active methods of design and construction. Their special interests and taste influenced every aspect of the design. The living room is fashioned after a Vermont sugarhouse and is sided with reclaimed barn board. There is living space over the garage which exists for family and clients that visit their alpaca farm. A cigar room is tucked away and has its own air exchange system. Local stone was used for the patio and outdoor fireplace, and there is a built-in Swedish bed tucked into the library. It was awarded Best Home in the categories of Design/Construction and Energy Efficiency by the Vermont Home Builders Association. (Hers Rating 41)

A re-used barn frame from Sudbury, Vermont is a fantastic feature of this ski home located in Warren, Vermont. Although the footprint is only 1340 square feet, the openness of the floor plan on both the first and second floors makes this house feel much larger. The details that the barn frame creates gives this house real character.

A 1,586 square ft footprint was an issue regarding the arrangement of space while creating a comfortable cottage for this family of five. The use of built-ins placed in unusable spaces provided great opportunity for plenty of storage for the family’s belongings. A 2 1/2 story bunk room with a spectacular view, creates the illusion of being in a tree house. This is the favorite feature of the owner’s three children. The building site provided some hardships, but we were able to turn them into opportunities for unique design.