Design-build · Alder Bay & the Carrington valley
One studio designs it, prices it and builds it — 8 homes a year, with the numbers said out loud from the first meeting.
01 The practice
That single fact is most of what design-build means here. Our architects draw beside our estimator, so the design that goes to permit is a design that can be built for its budget — and the ambition survives. The cantilever at Solana Point exists because it was priced at the first sketch, not value-engineered out at bid time.
We take on 8 homes a year across new construction and serious renovation. The cap is deliberate: it buys the Friday principal walks, the same superintendent from footings to keys, and a studio that still answers the phone in year five.
02 The work
Every project page tells the parts most portfolios omit: the program, the materials and why, the timeline as it actually ran, and how the architecture and the building worked together.
Transitional · New custom home
Briar Hollow, Carrington foothills
Fieldstone, sand-float stucco and white-oak carriage doors — a hill-country house that will read as well in forty years as it did on day one.
Modern · Renovation & addition
Larkin Terrace, Alder Bay heights
A 1961 hillside modern, doubled in glass and restored in mahogany — the addition reads as if the original architect simply kept drawing.
Classical & heritage · New custom home
Calloway Lane, Alder Bay
A painted-brick Georgian set in a working pear orchard — true divided-light sashes, plaster cornices, geometry you can feel from the road.
03 The promise
01
Architect, estimator and builder under one roof and one contract — with the same superintendent from footings to keys, and a principal on your site every Friday.
02
Cost-plus with a fixed fee and every invoice visible, or a fixed price from complete documents. Allowances set from your real selections — never teaser numbers.
03
Estimate checkpoints at 30/60/90% of design. Weekly owner walks. Bad news the same week we know it, with the recovery plan attached.
04 The process
01 · 90 minutes · no fee
Ninety minutes at the studio — your brief, your site if you have one, and real numbers in plain English: what homes like yours have actually cost, and how long they actually took.
02 · 4–6 weeks · fixed-fee agreement
Before design begins we make sure the project can exist: site walk, zoning and utilities review, and an order-of-magnitude budget built from your brief against our last five years of real cost data.
03 · 4–9 months
Schematic design, design development, construction documents — with our estimator pricing the scheme at 30, 60 and 90% so the design and the budget never drift apart. You'll never fall in love with a house you can't afford.
04 · 3–5 weeks
The full line-item budget, the allowance schedule, and the contract — cost-plus with a fixed fee and open book, or a fixed price from complete documents. Both are explained until your questions run out.
05 · 10–20 months
The same superintendent from footings to keys, a Tuesday owner walk every single week, monthly open-book draws, and change orders priced and signed before the work proceeds — not after.
06 · Move-in + 12 months
A zero-item punch list is the goal; a short, dated one is the reality. Then the house and you get a first year together — with us on call and two scheduled visits to catch what settling reveals.
05 Project fit
Build type, style, budget band, timeline — two minutes. You'll get the past projects closest to your brief, exactly what your first meeting would cover, and an honest answer if we're not your builder. About a third of the time, we're not, and we'll say so.
06 The journal
May 2026 · 9 min read
Per-square-foot ranges, the three budgets, why allowances sink more projects than markets do — the talk we give at every first meeting, written down.
Tom Whitaker — Preconstruction Director
February 2026 · 8 min read
Green flags, bid-comparison tactics, the references that actually tell you something, and the questions we hope you'll ask everyone — us included.
June Hartwell — Founder & Principal
Begin
The first meeting costs nothing and commits you to nothing: your brief, real per-square-foot numbers said out loud, and a frank answer about fit — in both directions. We take on 8 homes a year, so the conversation is the whole first step.
The studio: studio@hartwellhomes.example · +1 (555) 019-2400