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A mountain ranch home gathered around a lawn courtyard and fire pit beneath the canyon walls

Design. Build. Live.

People’s Choice Award WinnerParade of Homes

Our Approach

A refreshing, honest approach to custom home building.

We are in the business of building the home you actually want to live in, designed in collaboration, built with intention, and never handed down from a template.

We listen first

Our hands-on approach, focused listening, and open communication keep you interactive with every step of the build, never on the outside looking in.

We work as partners

We work together as partners, ensuring you are informed of every decision from the first sketch to the final walkthrough. No surprises. No black boxes.

We let perspective evolve

Experience is our foundation, but we let our perspective evolve through every partnership, so your home is genuinely yours and not a copy of the last one.

Why Colarelli

Six reasons families trust us with the biggest build of their lives.

Trust you can feel

Trust is the whole game. Our reputation is built one honest conversation at a time, no black boxes, ever.

You're never in the dark

Daily photos, cloud-based tracking, site web cameras, and on-site meetings. You'll know exactly where your home stands, every single day.

A team, not a solo contractor

A dedicated team stands behind every project, designers and builders who all answer to you.

18-month warranty

Six months longer than the industry-standard 12, backed by a claim history low enough that we're comfortable standing behind our work.

A deep trades network

Multiple vetted trade companies in every discipline mean your build stays on schedule, even when the unexpected happens.

Detail from day one

The concept estimate is just the start. The level of detail and information provided means your questions are few and the support is strong. The CCH team keeps it from being overwhelming.

The Land

It starts with the land.

Every Colarelli home begins with the ground it will stand on, how the light moves across it, where the views open, how a family will live within it. We read the land first, then design the home it was always meant to hold.

The Design

We draw it, with you.

Your home starts as a conversation, not a catalog. We sketch it by hand, engineer it into a real plan, let you walk it as a render, and build it exactly as drawn, you're in the room for every line.

A hand-drafted Colarelli kitchen plan showing the island, the range wall, and boxed beams

The plan

It begins as a conversation on paper.

The first lines are drawn with you in the room, where the light lands, where you'll gather, how the space should feel. Nothing is decided for you.

The Details

Down to the last detail.

The difference between a house and a home you love lives in the small things, the stone, the hardware, the fixtures chosen and set by hand. These are the touches that take a home to the next level.

A sculptural branch chandelier beneath the beamed, vaulted ceiling of a great room
The statement fixture
A glass-front wood cabinet framing a mountain view above a quartzite backsplash
The cabinetry
A hammered bronze vessel sink and gold gooseneck faucet against a bronze brick-tile wall
The fixtures
A hand-forged iron scroll with a twisted stem
The scrollwork
A hand-laid stacked-stone wall meeting a floating hearth ledge
The stonework
A custom steel cable stair railing with hand-tensioned turnbuckles
The ironwork
Hand-forged bronze door pulls with hammered edges on a knotty-alder door
The hardware
A quartzite waterfall island with a fluted bronze edge and dramatic gold-and-slate veining
The countertop

The Build

We build it together.

From bare ground to foundation and beyond, you watch your home rise, daily photos, structured site visits, nothing hidden behind the walls. Scroll through a real Colarelli build, stage by stage.

A wooded Buena Vista homesite beneath the snow-capped Collegiate Peaks

The site

The site, a wooded shelf beneath the Collegiate Peaks, Buena Vista.

Aerial of the home's footprint cleared and staked into the hillside

Footprint

The footprint, cleared and staked into the grade.

An excavator shaping the foundation on the Buena Vista site

Excavation

Excavation, shaping the foundation into the mountainside.

The poured concrete foundation showing the home's floor plan from above

Foundation

Foundation poured, the floor plan takes its first real form.

Aerial of The Collegiate framed and sheathed, rising on its wooded shelf beneath the Collegiate Peaks

Framing

Framed up, the house takes shape on the hillside.

The Home

Then, it's yours.

The keys, with no surprises. You pull up your own drive, open your own door, and walk into the home you helped design, the way you always pictured it.

A custom home glowing at dusk as you arrive up the drive

You pull up the drive, and it's yours.

Custom great room with soaring ceilings

Design, Build, Live

One team, one goal, your reality.

We build your home with you.

Your home is designed with a client-first mindset. The CCH team collaborates with you throughout the entire process. Whether you arrive with a clear vision or have no idea where to start, we're committed to building the home you've always wanted. Your goals are big and our expectations are high. Together, we'll create thoughtful, comfortable spaces to enjoy for years.

How We Build

The Groundwork

Nine steps, one partnership.

Explore the full process
01

Discovery

We start by listening: how you live, what you value, the home you picture, and your timeline. No pressure and no price-per-square-foot pitch, just an honest conversation about whether we're the right fit.

02

Site Feasibility

We walk the land with you and look at access, topography, utilities, soils, septic, and wells. Together they decide what a lot can hold and what it will take to build there.

03

Concept Budget

A concept-level budget grounded in real numbers, not a ballpark, so early decisions are made with eyes open and the plan lines up with your investment.

04

Limited Scope Agreement

A focused agreement that covers the design work and the plans and documents your lender and the building department will need, before you commit to a full build contract. We meet on site with your team, learn your style and how you live, and pair you with the right architect.

05

Design + Engineering

Your ideas on paper in three stages: schematic design, design development, and construction documents. Each ends with your approval and an updated estimate, and the last is a permit-ready plan set. Soils testing, septic and well design, and utility planning run alongside the drawings.

06

Permitting

We submit the plan set to the state, county, and local building departments, answer their review comments, and carry it through to an issued permit, so construction can start on a clear path.

07

Final Pricing & Contract

With a permit-ready plan and your selections in hand, we walk you through final pricing and a clear contract, line by line. You know exactly what you're building before a single wall goes up.

08

Construction

Excavation, foundation, framing, rough-ins, drywall, and finishes, with key stages inspected before the next begins. Along the way: daily photo and note updates in your online portal, structured site meetings, and a pre-drywall Matterport scan that documents everything behind the walls.

09

Orientation & Warranty

Before you move in, we walk the home with you: how to shut off the water, change the furnace filter, and run every system. Then an 18-month warranty, six months longer than the industry-standard 12, and we check in with you through your first year.

The difference, line by line

Colarelli vs. a typical builder.

See, at a glance, exactly what a collaborative effort adds to a custom home, on every line that matters.

Colarelli Custom Homes
Warranty12 months
18 months
Progress updatesOnly when you ask
Daily photo updates
On-site meetingsOccasional
Structured, with your team
Trades per disciplineOne, if available
Multiple vetted partners
Floor plansFixed catalog
Client-first design
Concept estimatesRough ballpark
Detailed from day one
Who builds your homeA solo contractor
A dedicated team

Every line, in your favor. That's what four decades of combined building experience looks like.

Start a Build
A custom Colarelli home at dusk on its Colorado homesite

The Envision Collection

For our Realtor & Developer Industry Partners

Picture the possibilities.

Land is one of the hardest things to sell, because the buyer has to imagine everything. The Envision Collection removes the guesswork, pairing a lot listing with a rendering of a custom home. Buyers don’t just see acreage. They see their home.

Where We Build

Rooted in Colorado, built on trust.

From Colorado Springs and the Front Range to Salida / Buena Vista, and, by request, the high country of Crested Butte, Vail, and Breckenridge.

All markets

Before you begin

Questions worth asking.

The honest answers to what most families ask us first. If yours isn't here, ask us directly. We'd rather tell you straight than have you guess.

  • Design and permitting take about six months, start to permit. Construction is contracted for 12 months, and most of our homes finish in 9 to 10. Because we keep multiple vetted trade partners in every discipline, your schedule doesn't stall when one crew is booked, the build keeps moving even when the unexpected happens.

Recognized & Accredited

People's Choice Award Winner
NewHomeSource Verified
Houzz Professional
BBB Accredited
Home Builders Association of Colorado