Cypress Construction De

10/07/2025

Excited to start day one of the Philly Building Science Symposium!

09/26/2025

Waiting for a meeting and happy to patronize . First time with a Cortado and I’m a fan!

05/02/2025

Had a great evening with at their Raise the Roof event last night at . It was a pleasure to catch up with friends from , , and Architectural Alliance.

04/15/2025

I’m excited to be a trade partner with Green Diamond Builders, NeighborGood Partners, New Ecology, and countless others to bring the first single family Phius Passive Homes to Delaware.

It takes a whole team to make the dream happen, and I’m excited to see the results.

03/11/2025

"By working with the city to reduce minimum lot sizes, we were able to build 28 homes on a parcel that would have otherwise only accommodated seven. Each home sold quickly, with attainable total prices. Best of all, many of the buyers were young families, retirees and single professionals who might otherwise have been shut out of the housing market.” — Alli Thurmond Quinlan

The South Street Cottages project in Fayetteville, Arkansas built 28 homes on land that would have only accommodated seven if not for the city’s reduction of minimum lot sizes.

Read more on our site: https://buff.ly/ux3jv77

02/25/2025

Excited to see what this committee will be able to recommend to the county to change zoning and land use regulations.

LAND USE LOOK: Sussex County appoints special Land Use Reform Working Group to examine ways to address growth, development concerns. https://ow.ly/t5Gn50V6vUg

07/06/2024

Just received my latest order from (plus one book from eBay). I’m excited to dive into these and reference them when I have my more unusual projects. I’m always inspired by and , so I’ve committed to purchasing new and old books to fill my bookshelves.

Carpentry is my wheelhouse, but my next foray will be into more historical brick and masonry texts. A recent job on several 1870’s chimneys has piqued my interest in the seemingly dying knowledge of using lime mortar and plaster. With the wonder of social media, I’ve been able to chat with tradespeople in the UK, Ireland, and Italy to discuss old (and occasionally ancient) masonry construction practices.

The turn to reinforced concrete and steel buildings has steered the modern architect away from traditional lessons in design. Those developments are important for modern life, but, I think it’s important to understand where we came from to make good design choices for the future. Much of classical design were lessons on structural support, water management, and regional conditions. I fear with the standardization of production building that we’ll stray farther and farther from the lessons of our ancestors. I’m trying to do my part in keeping some traditions alive.

06/29/2024

Finally found a sweet rip saw! I’ve been keeping an eye out for a good hand rip saw for a while now, a saw balanced with length, TPI, and weight. A lot of the newer composite and plastic handle saws will turn brittle on the hard parts, and gummy on the soft grip parts. None of that is a great experience. As this finish wears off, I’ll switch to to keep the handle conditioned. If you’ve ever seen my motorcycle, I subscribe to the “ridden, not hidden” mentality of ownership. I’ll keep them in working order, but I’ll use these often on the job site.

The other saw is a new crosscut saw from that I’ve had for a few weeks now. I’ll pattern the handle off of the and apply it to the new crosscut saw as it’s a little too small to use with a gloved hand. I find a good handsaw is essential on the job for making quick work cleaning up stringers, rafter seats, and post notches.
gm tagging you to show my rip saw I just found at

I ordered my saw sharpening book for pointers on keeping the saw properly tuned.

06/25/2024

New updates to the county code that will improve the ability to remodel or add an ADU to residential properties in unincorporated parts of the county.

The new code will make it easier to permit an ADU by removing the requirement to apply for special use, increasing the square footage to 1000 SF, and allowing a fully equipped kitchen.

It’s important to note that ADU’s will need to comply with applicable DNREC permitting requirements related to sewer or septic daily flow capacities.

REMODELING THE MODEL: Sussex County renovates code to allow for expanded secondary housing options known as ADUs. https://ow.ly/KClJ50SpAKg

05/18/2024

A rainy, but pleasant day in Philly. Came up to see .us at

Took lots of photos to sketch later since it’s too wet to sketch in person!

04/21/2024

What a slam dunk issue from . There’s a bunch of great content as always, but want to shout out John Carrol’s example of counterflashing masonry chimneys because it’s becoming a lost art quickly. has an awesome article on . And Ian Schwandt has a great contribution on how provides fixed price contracts through budgets, and not “estimates”.
Not sure why 323 stood out this month but it was a great read and is why I subscribe. So much content on social media is unvetted, and often just plain bad; it’s nice to have a trusted source of content in FHB.

04/08/2024

Eclipse 2024. In the bucket is my sister and brother in law, and two “Future Carpenters of America”. My dad to my right, my wife to my left, and my mom behind the camera!