How It Works

Most people who call me have never had a house drawn before. They have a piece of land, a picture in their head of the house they want, and no clear sense of what happens between the two.

Here's how it goes.

Before anything is drawn

If you own a lot and you're ready to start, we can meet on it for a free consultation. We'll walk the property and look at access, slope, where the house will sit, utilities, views, sun and snow.

If you bought from a distance and can't be here, I'll go look at it myself and send you a written read of the property, with photographs. Either way, you'll come out of it knowing more about your land than you did going in.

We start with your lot and your budget

Tell me how you want to live in the house, roughly how big, and what you want to spend. Bring me whatever you've collected: sketches, plans you found online, photos you like. All of it helps.

Thirty years of building homes means I can tell you before a line is drawn where a design choice costs real money and where it doesn't. Most people are surprised by which is which. These are the conversations to have early in the design, when we can plan around your budget instead of cutting the house to fit it later.

From a layout to a house you can walk through

We'll start with a basic layout: the rooms you want, how they sit next to each other, how you move through them. I'll turn that into a floor plan. Then we'll refine it together. You'll tell me what you want different, I'll work out how to do it, and I'll show you what changed and where the square footage landed. That back and forth is the design. Once the plan is settled, we'll work up to elevations and 3D views, so you can see the house from the outside and walk through the inside before it's built.

Then I draw the structural and architectural drawings

Foundation plan and details. Floor and roof framing. Beam and header sizes with the loads they're actually carrying. Point loads taken down to footings sized to match. Building sections from footing through roof. Electrical. Notes and specifications.

This is where having built homes for thirty years shows up. A set can look beautiful and still be unbuildable. I've stood on the job site trying to build from someone else's drawings, so I know what a framer needs to see and what earns a phone call at seven in the morning.

What you'll end up with is a complete, permit-ready set: floor plans, elevations, sections, foundation, framing, electrical, specifications and 3D renderings, stamped by a licensed Colorado architect as standard. When a site calls for structural engineering, I will bring in a licensed engineer. You get it all as PDFs to print, hand to a builder, send to your lender, and take to the county.

Plans are drawn to the code and snow load your jurisdiction actually requires. Those are not the same in the Town, in Archuleta County and in La Plata County, and Archuleta's change on January 1, 2027.

What it costs, and how long it takes

Plans start at $4,500. It's a fixed price based on the size of the house, and I'll give you the number before we sign anything.

Timing depends on the scope of the work, the complexity of the house, and how soon you need it. Realistically, most plans take at least a month.

Start here

Call or email and tell me what you're thinking about building and where. If you already own the lot and want me to come look at it before you decide anything, just ask.

David Harbur

970-946-3763

david@alpinedesigncolorado.com

Serving Archuleta, La Plata and the surrounding counties