December 2025
Greetings from Graphite!
Welcome to the last month of 2025 at Graphite Studio, what a rollercoaster-year it has been! We hope you enjoyed your Thanks-giving and are excited to start the week. For the home stretch in 2025, we are hoping to get a handful of projects underway. We also started a blog page called “Thought Bubble” - we’re promising regular and slightly irreverent postings on design, building science and other engaging topics. Reach out to us! We would love to hear from you, answer your questions, or wax poetic for you on all things design.
Warmly,
Andrew and the Graphite Team!
Image taken in the updated basement of Warwick Road (not so spooky anymore!)
Happy 50th Birthday NESEA!
Happy 50th Birthday to NESEA! We are grateful to be a part of a strong and meaningful community committed to do important work. As a professional organization dedicated to lifelong learning (and the sharing of mistakes!), NESEA is a part of our company’s DNA - our origin story, our growth, and our strength. These happy-hour gathering events took place simultaneously across the Northeast, in Boston, Burlington, Northampton, Portland, NYC, and Providence! We met new and old friends from our part of the world, and talked about projects that excite us! Cheers to another 50 years!
Graphite Talks with Thermory
We love a good “lunch-and-learn”, where vendors bring us lunch and teach us about the latest products they represent. We like to dig in on the products we consider in our projects, and to get to pester the reps with questions about how and why we might use any given object. This month we had Thermory visit with their thermally modified wood products. “Thermally modified wood” means wood treated with heat to prevent rot. We’re particularly interested on behalf of clients who were concerned about durability and maintenance of exterior surfaces, but who also wanted a sharp-looking accent wall on their covered steps. In some instances, a naturally-aging untreated wood product isn’t quite right. Punchline: they chose stained cedar instead! (We still got to meet nice folks and broaden our understanding of what’s out there.)
Project Progress: Child’s Play
It has been all hands on deck at our Child’s Play Project! The shed is close to complete (which our talented Anita took to modeling for our client, in a style suitable for DIY builders and a teenage daughter!). It is always fulfilling to see our completed projects and to witness the parts of a Deep Energy Retrofit in motion (We didn’t design that part!) The main house is being retrofit to tighten up the shell, include more insulation along the exterior walls, and provide increased comfort - Look! We found a ERV as well, high up in a bathroom! (It’ll get a framed ceiling below it, with just enough access to change the filters, seasonally.)
Project Progress: Warwick Road
Our project on Warwick Road is coming to a close as well! Our client Sam bought this charming home several years ago hoping to tame the river running through the dark and scary basement, and to remake the rest into a welcoming and durable home in the woods. The foundation, siding, roofing, and overall envelope was in poor condition and in that same 2022, he reached out to us for some help. The entire home was redone from the foundation to the roof with an eye on energy consumption and with the fine craft work of Travis and Josh Knectel. We’re almost there now! We are eager to see Sam move in later this season.
Project Progress: Phoenix Nest
This is our second and last blower door test for Phoenix Nest. Congrats to the team at MHB! Graphite is delighted every time we come visit because our friends at Mathes Hulme Builders care so clearly about every detail. In May this year, we tested to search for weak spots in the envelope. Our final test at this stage - after Yellow Guard, door hardware and windows are installed - helps us to insure we have a comfortable, durable, draft-free home when the owner moves in. Congratulations to all who worked so hard on this project, which we started over three years ago.