Pre-Construction

The work that happens before anyone breaks ground: pricing the design while it can still change, testing scope against budget, and deciding what gets built before drawings are finished.

Interior living space: a linear gas fireplace set in a white plaster surround below an abstract painting, and beyond it a floating stair of oak treads on blackened steel stringers with slender vertical balusters. Three log-round side tables stand on a black-and-white geometric rug between a grey sofa and a cord-woven lounge chair.

Pre-Construction

Design-Build vs. Architect-Led: Choosing in Boulder

Alex Molkentin

Jul 27, 2026

6 min

About Fernhill

The Art of the Build

Alex Molkentin

Jul 2, 2026

6 min

The Build Project episode card: a split frame of two men in caps and headphones at RODE microphones, one seated before a whiteboard of marker punch-list notes, the other beside a large houseplant. Overlaid text reads "Building family" and "A conversation with Steven Reyes, Reyes & Son Construction".

Pre-Construction

Twenty Questions, Not a Hundred: Pre-Construction

Alex Molkentin

Jun 24, 2026

9 min

Cost & Budget

Why Scope Drives Budget, Not Your Builder

Alex Molkentin

Aug 23, 2025

3 min

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

Pre-Construction

How Great Projects Are Built Before Construction

Alex Molkentin

Feb 20, 2024

3 min

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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.