Almost at the end of a dead end road overlooking the South Fork River a beautiful historic farmhouse was deteriorating. The structure had seem many renovations over the years for what I could imagine was a growing family that enjoyed the beautiful setting. A storage room was added, a kitchen was “fit” into a space, some outdoor decks to enjoy the views – but there was never a holistic plan to preserve the beauty and make the home efficient and comfortable. As many of these historic farmhouses do over time, it lost its luster and the owners just could not maintain it anymore. Our clients however, fell in love with the beauty and purchased it with a goal of bringing it back to life and restoring the former beauty. I am pleased to say that this historic farmhouse renovation in Luray is well underway.
Our clients have worked hard to balance the costs of renovation while thinking through the building science impacts of an old house. You cannot just “add insulation” for instance without thinking through the impacts of such a decision. Sealing up a house that is used to being able to dry out can be very hazardous to the existing old and very dry structural members. You have to protect the old bones while working to make the home comfortable and durable for many years to come. You also run into those past decisions that are now a challenge to handle, like the wet crawl space caused by a new deck and poor grading or a buried cistern that is now under part of the house that was added without thoughts to how that impacts everything.
We were able to design a functional addition that will blend well with the historic structure, but also consult with the builder, home owners, and insulation contractor on how to deliver the goal of preserving the house on a budget. There is not one right answer that will solve all the issues and not all right answers are right for every home. It takes a team to get it just right and we are thrilled to be part of the team working on this historic farmhouse renovation.
Gaines Group Architects has elevated four new partners to the leadership of the firm: James Halstead, Deborah Smith, Adrienne Stronge, and Paul Tassell. They join Raymond Gaines and Charles Hendricks in the leadership of the firm. Raymond founded the business in 1987 and Charles joined as a partner in 2008. This leadership expansion provides resiliency and stability. Charles says, “This is a huge step forward for the business allowing us to better serve our communities. I am very excited to continue to work with each of our new partners for many years to come. Ray has set up an incredible partnership model for how to do business as friends while serving others. This was an obvious next evolution for the firm.”
About the firm: Gaines Group Architects is a firm that has a commitment to designing for the future. We have assembled a remarkably talented and experienced team of professionals to pull all building elements into a single elegant and functional design. Integrity, budget control, effective and timely communication, and a thorough knowledge of current technology, construction methods, and materials turn our promise and your dream into a delightful reality.
Mission statement: Gaines Group Architects is committed to designing for the future and having a positive impact on the lives of the people who live and work in the communities we serve.
Why we do it: Because we want our clients to have comfortable beautiful healthy spaces to live, play, and work.
We loved celebrating together in 2022 all the architecture fun things, special days, and events! We are a small team and many of us have been together for many years understanding the overall goals of the firm and joining together to achieve them. We look for ways to infuse fun into every project while supporting our community and each other.
This year several of us kicked off the new year by attending the Young Architect Winter Series. This gathering of like minded designers focused on making us better people so we can be the best architects possible. Read more here.
We have had some pretty awesome projects come up out of the ground this year. While it is super fun to design a home or business, there is nothing better than seeing the design take physical form and the parts become a whole. Check out some construction progress highlights this year in the below projects.
This house on Afton Mountain is the first in a series of homes in the same neighborhood. It features amazing views and traditional details. Click here to see photos. Blue Ridge Mountain Home
An amazing home with amazing views, this modern cottage is incredible. Click here to see photos. Muddy Creek Modern House.
We don’t just do houses, we have a lot of commercial projects on our resume including this addition to the Petro truckstop in Raphine. If you have not stopped to shop, you should. Click here to see photos. Petro 2 Addition and Renovation.
We get to work with some amazing people on some really cool projects. This project in particular has some of my favorite people (clients) of all time. They appreciate what we do and allow us and trust us to design for them. Phase 1 of their project is to design a detached garage / barn / workshop addition. The goal with this addition is to help with the scale and proportion of their existing home as it sits on the beautiful site in Shenandoah County. They learned during the construction of their home, designed by a builder, how important it is to have a holistic approach to a project to compliment the building site and to achieve their aesthetic and functional goals.
The detached garage / barn / workshop addition will house some of the equipment used to maintain the property, give a place to store the messy stuff in a neat and orderly fashion, and expand the space to make stuff in a second story workshop. The structure sits in the corner of the lot not to take away from the existing structure, but to complement it and tie both together aesthetically. We will also do some work on the existing house to improve function and aesthetics in a later phase.
The framing is in process and the builder is taking good care of our clients. Here are some photos of the progress.
February 17th we celebrated kindness on 
