Ridge House
- Place
- De Luz
- Lot
- Owners' land, 6.1 acres, hillside
- Home
- 3,900 sq ft, one story, 4 bed
- Style
- Modern hacienda
- Monthsplanned → delivered
- 15 → 15½
- Budgetcontract → final
- $2.18M → $2.21M +1.4%
- Note
- Half a month lost to a late well permit.
Custom home design-build on your lot in the Temecula Valley
One contract covers the design and the construction, and the price is fixed once the design is done, on land you already own in Temecula, Murrieta, De Luz or wine country.
4.9 · 87 reviews · CSLB B · since 2006
One contract, start to finish.
You sign one contract for design and construction, not two. Marisol Aldana's design team draws the house to fit your lot; Owen Hart's crew builds it. The same company carries the project from first sketch to final walkthrough, so nothing gets lost between an architect's office and a builder's bid.
We do not price a build off a sketch. Once your plans, engineering and finish selections are complete, we sign one fixed price for the whole project. Allowances, the dollar amounts set aside for choices like kitchen appliances, plumbing fixtures and flooring, are written into that price before you sign, so you know exactly what each line covers before you pick a single tile.
- One contract, one company. Design and construction under Aldana Hart, start to finish.
- Marisol designs, Owen builds. The same two people carry your project the whole way.
- Fixed price after design, once plans, engineering and selections are complete.
- Allowances set in writing before you sign, so every line item has a number attached.
What your lot adds.
The house is one number. Getting a house onto raw or unimproved land is another, and it varies more than the house does. These are planning ranges from recent site walks, not a quote for your parcel.
- Grading & pad
- $25,000 to $120,000, depending on slope and how much cut and fill the pad needs
- Retaining walls
- $80 to $220 per linear foot, where the grade requires them
- Septic system
- $38,000 to $62,000 installed, outside sewer service
- Well
- $40,000 to $90,000, only if the parcel has no water district service
- Utilities trench
- $60 to $140 per linear foot from the road to the pad
- Driveway
- $35 to $90 per linear foot, gravel to paved
- Chapter 7A fire-zone upgrades
- $15,000 to $45,000: ember-resistant vents, Class A roofing, defensible-space grading
- SCE service & transformer
- $8,000 to $35,000, more if a new transformer has to be set
Permits: who signs off.
Who reviews your plans depends on which side of a city line your lot sits on. Both routes are workable; they just move on different timelines.
County of Riverside
De Luz, La Cresta and other unincorporated wine country parcels
- Typical review
- 4 to 7 months for plan check and permit issue
- Hillside lots
- A geotechnical soils report is generally required before grading is approved.
- Fire zone
- Most De Luz and wine country parcels sit in a high fire-hazard severity zone, which adds Chapter 7A review.
City of Temecula or Murrieta
Lots inside either city's limits
- Typical review
- 3 to 6 months for plan check and permit issue
- Hillside lots
- Steep in-city lots can still require a geotech report; we check this on the site walk.
- Fire zone
- Some hillside neighborhoods inside both cities carry fire-zone overlays as well.
These are planning ranges, not a promise from either jurisdiction; a county or city can move faster or slower depending on their current backlog and how complete your submittal is.
The build, month by month.
A 3,600 sq ft home on a gentle lot, from first meeting to keys. A steep hillside lot in De Luz or La Cresta usually adds one to three months, mostly in permits and grading.
Site walk and design
Plans, engineering and permitsCounty of Riverside for De Luz and unincorporated land; City of Temecula or Murrieta inside city limits
Grading and foundation
Framing
Roof, windows, systems
Finishes
Walkthrough and keys
Fixed price signed at the end of month 6.
Built on owners' lots.
Two homes from the collection, both on land the owners already held before they called us.
Boulder House
- Place
- La Cresta, Murrieta
- Lot
- Owners' land, 5.0 acres, granite outcrops
- Home
- 3,400 sq ft, one story, 3 bed
- Style
- Modern farmhouse
- Monthsplanned → delivered
- 14 → 14½
- Budgetcontract → final
- $1.62M → $1.65M +1.9%
- Note
- We kept all eleven boulders and built around them.
Questions
Can you build on a lot I already own?
Yes. Most of our homes are built on land owners already hold, from a flat half-acre in Murrieta to steep acreage in De Luz. We start with a free site walk to check slope, access, septic or sewer, water and fire zone, then tell you in writing what the lot adds to the house cost.
What if my lot is steep?
We build on hillside lots regularly, mostly in De Luz, La Cresta and the Santa Rosa Plateau. A steep lot usually means a geotechnical report, more grading and retaining, and one to three extra months in permitting and site work. We size that range on the first site walk, before you sign anything.
Do you do the architecture or do I bring an architect?
Either. Marisol Aldana's team designs most of our homes in house, from first sketch to permit set. If you already have an architect or a set of plans you like, we can build from those instead; we just ask to review them for site fit and cost before you commit to a price.
How is "fixed price" fixed?
We do not price a build until the design, engineering and finish selections are complete and the site has been surveyed. Once that is done, we sign one number for the whole project. It only moves if you change the design or we hit a site condition no survey could show, like buried rock, and every change is priced in writing before work continues.
What does building on acreage in De Luz cost on top of the house?
Plan on roughly $90,000 to $400,000 beyond the house itself, depending on slope, distance from the road and whether the parcel has water district service. Septic, grading, the driveway, utilities and Chapter 7A fire-zone upgrades are the biggest lines; a flat pad near the road runs at the low end, a steep parcel far from utilities runs at the high end.
How early should we call you before we buy land?
Before you write an offer, if you can. We will walk a parcel you are considering, free, and give you a written feasibility note on slope, access, septic, fire zone and a site-work range, so the cost of the lot does not surprise you after you already own it.