Which comes first?
The Architect or the Builder?

It doesn’t matter if you find your architect or builder first. What matters is that you find them both first, introduce them as a team, and walk parallel paths. I’m saying: not architect OR builder. I’m saying: architect AND builder. Don’t move forward until the two of them are connected.

Many developers and some builders will have architects on staff. If you are building a custom home, I recommend an architect who does not work for your builder. When we were asking around, we heard feedback advocating for both: 1) Hire the architect that works for the builder so they can work as a team. 2) Do not hire an architect that works for the builder so they can have your back with the builder.

Our experience has been neither of the two points above. We found our builder first and he has been our #1 advocate and has had our back 100% of the time. 

Finding our Builder

Find a house you like and ask the owners who built it.

When we were looking at properties, several years ago, we looked at a piece of land and as luck would have it, was sold before we had a chance to put in an offer. Even though we ended up with a nicer lot, we still refer to Timberline Trail as the “property that got away.”

While we were looking at the Timberline Trail land, I noticed a house was being built down the road. It was looking really nice! 

Jon and Skip find Isak Heartstone, the Breckenridge Troll. Looking for Isak? You can find him on the Trolstigen trailhead; an easy .25 mile walk. Trailhead can be found at the ice arena lot. Click on the image for more detailed instruction.

Father's Day - 2020

Father’s Day weekend, June 2020, we spent a long weekend in Colorado. My father-in-law (Skip) came with us. We stayed in Breckenridge at _____. There were three significant events happening that weekend. 1) Quality time with Skip. 2) Hotels were finally opening back up from the COVID shut-down. 3) We found our builder.

As we were giving Skip the tour of our land in Fairplay and surrounding area, we decided to show him the property that got away. We noted the house down the road was completed and it looked great! Beautiful!

Skip said, “Why don’t you go up to the door and ask them who built it?” Such a simple concept! So we did. No-one was home so we were content to look through the permitting records to find the name of the builder. As we were pulling away from the house, the owner’s son pulled up and we were able to ask him about the builder. He told us it was Jim Carpenter, singing Jim’s praises with a ringing endorsement.