The Building Process

How a custom home actually gets built: sequencing, communication, systems, and the decisions that keep a project on schedule and on budget.

Overhead drone view of a house at weather-barrier stage, its walls and roof fully wrapped in blue pro clima SOLITEX ADHERO 3000 with yellow-taped window openings cut into one elevation. A tracked excavator and skid steer sit on the graded dirt pad alongside stacked sheathing.

The Building Process

How Long Does It Take to Build a Custom Home in Boulder

Alex Molkentin

5 min

Dusk view of a house across a lawn: a deep cantilevered flat roof with a timber soffit runs over a stone-clad wall and full-height glazed doors, with a clerestory band above. A stone-coped lap pool with three arcing water jets sits in the foreground beside broad terrace steps.

The Building Process

Why some custom home projects succeed and others fall apart

Alex Molkentin

3 min

Video title card from The Art of the Build: Alex Molkentin seated inside a timber-framed window opening of a house under construction, in a Fernhill Construction t-shirt with a lavalier mic clipped on, pines and a compact loader visible on the site behind him. Overlaid text reads "Beautiful isn't enough".

About Fernhill

The Art of the Build

Alex Molkentin

6 min

Dusk view across a lap pool with arcing water jets to a two-storey house: a white stucco upper volume above a stone-clad base, a timber-soffit entry canopy over glazed doors, and a single-storey glazed wing to the right with a clerestory band, its interiors warmly lit.

The Building Process

Experience Matters. Systems Matter More.

Alex Molkentin

3 min

Aerial view of a hillside build site cleared among fire-scarred ponderosa pines, with an excavator working a rock cut, spoil piles, cable reels and contractor vehicles on the pad. The Front Range and Longs Peak rise beyond a valley. Overlaid text reads "Risk Management".

The Building Process

Seeing Risk as a Design Tool

Alex Molkentin

2 min

A double-height living room with pale concrete-block walls and a dark stained timber ceiling. A book-matched walnut chimney breast rises above a blackened-steel firebox surround, flanked by full-height walnut shelving packed with books. A grey sofa and two rust armchairs sit on a light rug over polished concrete, between a narrow slot window and full-height glazed doors.

The Building Process

Better Communication, Better Construction

Alex Molkentin

3 min

An open living and dining space with light concrete-block walls and a dark stained timber ceiling on exposed beams. A grand piano stands in the corner by full-height black-framed glazing; two rust upholstered armchairs and a leather daybed sit on polished concrete, and beyond a wide opening a long dining table with oxblood leather chairs faces a book-matched walnut wall under a wrought-iron chandelier.

About Fernhill

Collaboration Over Competition: Building the Team

Alex Molkentin

3 min

Courtyard elevation at dusk: a low glazed wing under a translucent polycarbonate canopy carried on steel rafters, with narrow brick piers between full-height black-framed doors and warm light spilling from the rooms behind. A polished stainless water feature stands in a bed of black river rock beside a concrete path and mown lawn.

The Building Process

How Technology Improves Residential Construction

Alex Molkentin

3 min

|

Newsletter

|

Monthly updates

One email a month

What a project actually cost and why, a detail worth stealing, and whatever we got wrong recently. For homeowners and architects planning work in Boulder County.