04.3 Services · Architect partnerships
Bring your architect. We'll be the builder who prices the drawings honestly, then builds them as drawn.
The work
Some clients arrive with an architect they love. Good. We build for outside studios as gladly as for our own, and the architects we have partnered with keep coming back, because we treat their drawings as the contract, not as a suggestion.
The partnership works best when we join during design, not after it. Our estimator prices the scheme at 30, 60 and 90% of the drawings, so the design that goes to permit is a design that can be built for its budget. Solana Point's cantilever exists because pricing sat in the room from the first sketch.
For clients and architecture studios who want a builder in the room early: preconstruction during design, craft during construction.
The money, plainly
Preconstruction during design is a fixed monthly fee, credited against the construction contract if we build the project.
Estimate checkpoints at 30, 60 and 90% of the drawings, each delivered as a line-item book the architect and owner read together.
Construction runs as cost-plus with a fixed fee and an open book. The architect sees every invoice we do.
If our price and another builder's differ, we show you the line items that explain why. A fair comparison is a service, not a slogan.
Every figure here is part of a fictional demo, set to be realistic for a high-end regional builder in 2026. Read the cost talk
How it runs
Your architect leads phase 03. We price the drawings at 30, 60 and 90%, then build them as drawn.
01 · 90 minutes · no fee
02 · 4 to 6 weeks · fixed fee
03 · 4 to 9 months
04 · 3 to 5 weeks
05 · 10 to 20 months
06 · Move-in + 12 months
The proof
2025
Modern · New custom home
Solana Point, Alder Bay waterfront
A pavilion house on the point: a cantilevered walnut canopy, an infinity edge to the bay, and not one repeated detail.
2024
Classical & heritage · Renovation & addition
Fenwick Lane, Old Alder Bay
A 1928 Tudor rebuilt from the studs while keeping every bit of its character: clinker brick, half-timbered gables and a kitchen that finally works.
As early as schematic design. Pricing at 30% is cheap to act on. Pricing after the drawings are done usually means cutting the parts you loved most.
Only to protect the budget or the build, and always as options with prices next to them. The architect and you decide. We never change a detail on site without a signed instruction.
Custom homes
One team, one contract and one accountable number, from the first sketch to the keys.
Renovations
Old houses get a vote. We open the walls before we price the work, then keep every promise the discovery lets us make.
Interiors & millwork
Selections made calmly and on time, and the cabinetry, stairs and paneling built by our own carpenters.
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