Design-build homes · Black Hills, South Dakota
Built for the land it stands on.
Kestrel & Pine designs and builds a small number of custom homes each year, from Spearfish Canyon to the southern Hills. One team, one contract, one fixed price.
Photo: Clay Banks / Unsplash
Who we are
We build six homes a year, on purpose. That is few enough to put a superintendent on your site every working day, and to keep the same people with you from the first sketch to the final walk-through.
Selected homes
No two alike, because no two sites are.

A dark, quiet house on the edge of the timber, built around one tall room and the view down the canyon.
In the portfolio

A family lodge in log, timber and native stone, with room for three generations under one roof.
Read the story
Low roofs, long stone walls and a two-storey window where the foothills meet the prairie.


Design and build, under one roof
One team. One contract. One number.
Most custom homes are drawn by one company and built by another, and the owner is left standing between them when the price moves. We do both, so the people drawing your house are the people who have to build it for the price they gave you.
- i.Designed by the people who build itDesigners and superintendents sit at the same table from the first meeting.
- ii.A fixed price before we break groundEvery finish chosen and priced. It changes only if you change it, in writing.
- iii.A written update every FridayPhotos, what happened this week, what happens next.
How it goes
Five steps, no surprises.
- 01Walk the landWe meet on your lot, or help you choose one. Slope, sun, wind, access, water and septic, before a line is drawn.
- 02DesignOur designers draw the house around the site and the way you live. You see it in plans and in 3D views.
- 03One fixed priceEvery finish chosen and every line priced. You sign one number before we break ground.
- 04BuildA superintendent on your site every working day, and a written update with photos each Friday.
- 05Keys, and afterA walk-through with you, a short list we finish before you move in, and return visits in the first year.
Inside
Rooms worth coming home to.
From the people who live in them
What owners tell their friends.
They walked the lot with us before we owned it and talked us out of the wrong one. The house sits exactly where they said it should.
One price, written down before the first stake went in the ground. The only changes to it were the ones we asked for.
Every Friday we got photos and a plain note about what happened that week and what came next. We never had to chase anybody.
Sample reviews. Kestrel & Pine is a made-up business, so these were written to show how reviews look on a site like this. On a real site they are your customers' own words, with their permission.

Where we build
Your land, or help finding it.
We build on your lot anywhere in the Black Hills and the foothills around them. Have not bought yet? We will walk a lot with you before you sign, and tell you plainly what it will cost to build on.
- Spearfish
- Deadwood
- Lead
- Sturgis
- Rapid City
- Hill City
- Custer
- Hot Springs
- Belle Fourche
Start a build
Tell us about your land.
Send us a few details about the house you have in mind. We will call to set up a first conversation, and that conversation costs nothing.
Photo: Michael Brown / Unsplash