The Build Project

Pat Buchanan of Buchanan Construction Systems has been building custom homes in Boulder since the early '90s. He started as a framer, moved into supervision six months into a five-year build of a 16,000 square foot house near NCAR, and went on to work for years with Tom Stanko at Harrington Stanko. He says he still quotes Tom to subcontractors about three times a day.

Alex and Pat talk about what happens when a builder steps into design. Pat walks through an architect's flooring spec he couldn't stand behind: 5/8" engineered plank, a 2mm wear layer, a pine core, 9" wide, over radiant heat. One substitution rippled into the paint colors, the cabinets and the schedule. They cover the liability that comes with changing a spec (the Spearin Doctrine), and what Alex calls being the steward of the design.

They also get into Pat's 5% target on budget and schedule, why he sets a tile order date 12 weeks before install with a confirmation meeting four weeks before that, how his escalation allowance went from 7% a year to 30 to 35% after COVID, and why he recommends an owner's rep to every client. Pat also explains what a CLT roof fabricated in Austria bought him: a roof installed in two weeks, at roughly a $200,000 premium. The conversation closes on panelization and double-stud walls.

The Build Project gives the mic to everyone who builds a house, from the architect to the person sweeping the floor. Hosted by Alex Molkentin of Fernhill Build Studio.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:50 From framer to supervisor on a 16,000 sq ft house
05:21 When the carpenter becomes the builder
09:15 Lessons from Tom Stanko and Harrington Stanko
16:35 Stepping on design toes
19:46 One flooring spec, a whole project changed
26:17 Budget and schedule within 5%
28:51 Escalation after COVID
34:43 Why a builder wants an owner's rep
40:04 Picking subs
46:03 How the builder's role is changing
51:48 CLT roofs and commercial methods in custom homes
55:02 Panelization and double-stud walls

Every house is assembled by people, so every house accumulates error. Traditional trim was never only decoration. Overlapping profiles and reveals were the mechanism that absorbed that error and made the result read as deliberate. Contemporary detailing deletes the mechanism. It does not delete the error.

That is the argument running underneath this conversation with Mark Schaefer, one half of FS Woodworks and one of the finish carpentry companies we have worked with the longest. Mark's number for flush base is three to four times an applied baseboard, and the useful question is not the multiple, it is where the money goes. It goes upstream. When the visible tolerance drops to zero, the work does not disappear, it relocates into sequencing, framing material, shop drawings, and the order in which decisions get made. Doors hung before drywall and before flooring, reversing a hundred years of residential sequence. Framing that would have been forgiven by a piece of applied base now has to be straight on its own. A company paid for finish carpentry ends up doing much of its real work months earlier, in drawings and phone calls, before anyone puts on a tool belt.

So the episode keeps circling one distinction: skill that shows, and skill that was planned. A carpenter scribing tight into irregular stone is visible talent and it photographs well. A builder who sets a piece of plywood at the stone line six months earlier, so the stone gets laid to the wood and the joint is straight once the wood comes out, gets the better result and leaves no evidence behind. Mark's preference between those two is not ambiguous, and it says something about what he thinks he is actually selling.

The back half is about who carries the risk that this kind of detail creates. Full time site supervision. Floor protection paid for properly or not attempted. Pocket doors at roughly $2,000 a door in hardware, and what happens to a door cage when the person hanging the drywall is paid by the board. Whether a homeowner has been told they are living in a prototype. Then labor, which is where Mark is most direct: fifteen people, W-2 for anyone who wants it, workers' comp, paid holidays, no health benefits yet, and what he says that costs the two guys who own the company.

His rule is the compressed version of the whole hour. If engineered studs are not in the budget, flush base should not be either.

Two things about this version. It leads with an idea rather than a search term, so the discoverable words are doing their work in the middle of the copy instead of the first line, which is the right trade for an architect audience and the wrong one for cold homeowner search. And the first paragraph now carries the thesis, which means it is the paragraph to reuse verbatim as the blog deck and the YouTube description opener so the three surfaces argue the same thing.

Most of my conversations on The Build Project are with architects. This one's with a framer and it might be the clearest case I've made for why a builder belongs in the room early.

Steven Reyes runs Reyes and Son Construction, the rough-carpentry crew on our last several custom homes. We talk about what pre-construction looks like from the field: showing up to a job with twenty questions instead of a hundred, holding a flatness standard on a tall double-stud wall, and the moment early on - "we'll fix it" - that told me he was the right trade partner.

We also get into the parts of the trade that don't make the brochure: the labor shortage hitting rough carpentry harder than almost anywhere, building a family crew (his dad's been framing for 30+ years), running residential projects on commercial-grade systems, and why the hardest standard is usually the kindest one.

What does it actually mean to be the guide instead of the hero in luxury residential construction?

In this impromptu episode, Alex reflects on a concept that’s been shaping the way Fernhill approaches custom homebuilding: trust through honest guidance. Inspired by the StoryBrand framework, this conversation explores why the client - not the builder - has to be the hero of the story, and why the best builders act as guides through a complex, emotional process.

Alex shares real-world examples from current projects, the importance of communicating difficult truths, and why saying “yes” to everything is often a red flag in construction. From navigating budget realities and design decisions to building long-term trust with clients, designers, and trade partners, this episode is a candid look at the emotional intelligence behind great building.

He also talks about:

If you’re a homeowner, architect, designer, builder, or someone interested in the human side of custom homes, this episode offers an honest perspective on what makes project - and relationships - successful.

In this episode, we talk about what actually makes residential projects work.

We break down why bringing the builder into the project early leads to better outcomes, why the traditional bid model often fails on architecturally driven homes, and why trust and transparency between architects, builders, and clients matters more than most people realize.

We also dive into one of the biggest challenges in high-end residential construction: clients want clarity on price early, but real pricing requires real design coordination. We unpack the tension between design ambition, budget expectations, contingency planning, and the realities of building in places like Boulder and the greater Colorado market.

This conversation also touches on marketing, education, and why architects and builders need to do a better job pulling back the curtain on the process so clients can make better decisions before construction even begins.

In this episode we discuss:

Architect–builder collaboration

Why bidding custom homes can create problems

The limits of price-per-square-foot estimates

Pre-construction strategy and early contractor involvement

Budget alignment and contingency planning

Marketing, brand trust, and educating clients

Building better teams in residential construction

If you're planning a custom home, remodel, or architecturally driven project, this episode gives a real look into the conversations that shape successful builds.

What’s the real difference between commercial work and luxury residential....besides the square footage?

In this episode, I sit down with Jason Ragan of Ragan Design Studio to talk about what happens when you take 12+ years of commercial experience (higher ed, corporate campuses, spec office) and bring it into the residential world.

They unpack why client communication is the real product, how parenthood changes the way you lead projects, and why “trust” isn’t a soft concept - it’s the most practical risk-management tool you have.

You’ll also hear our take on cost-plus vs GMP, why residential documentation is rarely detailed enough for fixed price, and how “luxury” often comes down to process, clarity, and boundaries.

To close, Jason shares a Rose-Bud-Thorn that’s equal parts grounding and real: family is the rose, the studio is the bud, and the thorn is something every builder and designer understands - there’s never enough time.

What started as a series of conversations about building, architecture, and collaboration quickly became something deeper. Nearly every episode pushed me to think more critically about the construction industry, how trust is built (or broken), and what it actually takes to deliver great work in high-end residential construction. In this episode, I share the core principles that emerged across dozens of conversations—ideas that now guide how I think about leadership, process, creativity, and alignment between architects, builders, and clients.

In this episode, Alex sits down with Boulder architect Nick Fiore of Flower Architecture for a candid conversation about what truly makes a good home. They break down the difference between style and substance, the invisible decisions that shape a building, the builder’s real influence on a project, and why trust and honesty matter more than any design trend. From climate-specific building science to client psychology to the philosophy behind long-lasting architecture, this episode offers a grounded, human look at what it takes to create meaningful homes in Boulder.

In this episode, We sit (virtually) down with Reece Barnes, Head of Construction Network at Adaptive and host of the Builders, Budgets & Beers podcast. What starts as a casual conversation quickly turns into a deep dive on project financials, AI, and what separates sustainable luxury builders from everyone else.

Reece shares how growing up around construction shaped him, why he originally hated working in the trades, and how he eventually found his lane selling software to builders. Drawing from 50+ podcast episodes with builders and construction accounting pros, he explains why financial clarity is the single biggest differentiator between builders who scale and those who stall.

We get into:

Why so many residential builders struggle with financial systems, and how to fix it

How AI is already changing job costing, billing, and office workflows

Cost-plus vs fixed-price, and what clients usually misunderstand about both

What residential builders can learn from commercial processes and standardization

The real value of efficiency: why fewer hours should not mean less profit

How consumer education and transparency build trust on large custom projects

The key questions every client should ask a builder before signing a contract

Reece also tells the origin story of Builders, Budgets & Beers, how the show evolved once he took it over solo, and why consistent, honest content is becoming a serious advantage in the construction space.

Perfect for custom builders, architects, trades, and anyone planning a major custom home or remodel who wants to understand what is really happening behind the scenes on budgets and financials.

Connect with Reece: