The build year

Twelve to fourteen months, and every one of them earns its keep.

Montana sets the schedule; we plan the build around it instead of fighting it. Here is the whole year, month by month, with nothing smoothed over.

Before dirtMonths 1–3

Design & engineering

We start on your ground, not at a desk. Site walks first, then design: either with your architect or with Mara in-house. The frame is engineered timber by timber, and we shepherd the county permit set ourselves.

Site walks in at least two kinds of weather
Schematic design, then a fixed frame design you sign off on
Structural engineering and energy modeling
Gallatin or Park County permits, septic and well coordination

SummerMonths 3–4

Siting & foundation

Excavation while the ground is warm and dry. Frost walls or slab-on-grade with hydronic tubing, utilities trenched, the driveway cut so concrete trucks and, later, a crane can actually reach the site.

Survey stakes and string marking a house footprint in a summer meadow below the mountains — June · The footprint staked in the meadow

Summer into fallMonths 4–6

The shop cut

While the foundation cures, the frame takes shape in Four Corners. Timbers are laid out with square rule, joints cut by hand and by CNC where it serves, and the whole frame is test-fit on the shop floor. Nothing ships until every peg drives home dry.

FallOne week in October

The raising

The frame goes up in five days after months of joinery. Bents are assembled flat, the crane stands them one by one, and the crew pins each connection with white oak pegs. By Friday the ridge beam is up and there is usually a small crowd of neighbors watching from the road.

Raised timber frame standing on its slab, autumn aspens gold on the hills behind — October · Raising week, day five

Fall into winterMonths 6–9

Enclosed before the snow flies

The one deadline we push hard for: structural insulated panels around the frame, standing-seam roof on, windows set. Once the house is tight, weather stops mattering, and the winter storms that shut down other job sites do not touch ours.

The enclosed house in dark siding under heavy snowfall, roof loaded with snow — January · Tight to the weather, trades inside

WinterMonths 9–13

Finish work

The longest stretch and the least dramatic to photograph: mechanical rough-in, plaster, stairs, casework from our own bench room, stone, tile, floors. This is where the budget conversations happen early and in writing, because finish choices move numbers more than framing ever does.

SpringMonths 12–14

Punch list & keys at green-up

Commissioning, a punch list we walk together, and keys as the meadow comes back. We come back at the one-year mark to check the frame after its first full heating season; timber moves in its first year and we tune for it.

The finished home at dawn in spring, chimney smoking, green returning to the meadow — May · Keys at green-up

Where would your year start?

Foundations go in each summer, which means design conversations start the fall before. If you want keys in spring two years out, this is the season to talk.

Book a site walk

Or call the shop: (406) 555-0147