If you want construction to start in spring, most of the work that decides whether it happens takes place over the winter. A house can't break ground until it's designed, priced, financed and permitted, and each of those steps leans on the one before it. Start them in late fall and a spring start is realistic. Start in March and it usually isn't.
Here's a month-by-month way to plan it. Every project moves at its own pace, so treat the months as a sequence rather than a promise. The order matters more than the dates.
November: the brief and the budget
Write down what the house needs to do. How many bedrooms, how you actually live, what has to be on the main floor, and what you'd give up first if the budget gets tight. Then set a budget range for the whole project, not just construction. Land, design fees, surveys and reports, permit and utility fees, landscaping and furnishings all sit outside a construction price.
If you'll finance the build, talk with a lender now. Construction loans work differently from a regular mortgage, and knowing what the lender will need shapes the rest of the winter. Our construction loan guide walks through the steps, and before you build covers the questions worth answering this month.
December: how the house gets designed
There are two common routes. In a design-build arrangement, one company handles design and construction together. With an independent architect, you hire the designer first and bring in a builder. Both work. They differ in how early the builder sees the design and who's responsible for keeping it on budget. Our comparison of design-build and an independent architect goes into the trade-offs.
Whichever route you pick, get the site information moving if it isn't already: a boundary and topographic survey, and a soils report. The designer needs the survey to place the house, and the soils report shapes the foundation. December's low sun is also the best time of year to walk the lot and see where winter light really falls.
January: early design and a price check
Early design sets the footprint, the rooms and the overall form, and it's the cheapest moment to change any of them. Ask for a budget check against this early design instead of waiting for finished drawings. Finding a gap now means adjusting a sketch. Finding it in April means redrawing a permit set.
February: construction drawings and the big selections
Once the design is settled, the drawings get detailed enough to permit and price. That includes structural engineering, a foundation design based on the soils report, energy code compliance and the mechanical systems.
Selections start to matter here too. The big ones, such as windows, roofing, exterior materials and the heating and cooling approach, affect the structure and the price, so make them before the drawings are finished. Interior finishes can follow, but the earlier they're chosen, the more accurate the budget. The selections guide lays out what gets decided when.
March: permits, final pricing and the loan
With complete drawings, the permit application can go in. Review times vary widely by jurisdiction and change through the year, so ask the building department for its current review times instead of relying on an old rule of thumb. Some projects need other approvals as well, such as HOA design review, a driveway or access permit, or a septic permit, and each runs on its own clock.
Meanwhile the builder finalizes pricing from the permit drawings, and the lender finishes its review, which usually includes an appraisal based on the plans. The loan typically closes before construction begins.
April and May: breaking ground
When the permit is issued and the loan has closed, the site can be staked and excavation can start. Front Range spring weather is unpredictable, and wet snow can turn up well into the season, so leave some slack around the start date. A few weeks of float is easier to live with than a foundation rushed in bad conditions.
If you already have plans
Owners who arrive with finished plans can skip a few months, but not every step. The plans still need to fit the lot, so a survey and soils report are still required, and the foundation has to be designed from that report. Plans drawn a few years ago may also need updates if the energy code or local rules have changed since. Finished drawings can be priced without waiting on design, which makes January a good month to find out where they stand.
What usually pushes a spring start back
- Design changes after construction drawings are underway.
- A budget gap found late, once the drawings are done.
- Site information that arrives late, like a survey or soils report ordered when the design is nearly finished.
- Permit resubmittals because the application was incomplete.
- Selections left open until pricing, which turns allowances into guesses.
If you'd like to talk through a spring timeline for your lot, tell us where things stand.
