What others have said?

My husband & I purchased our dream lot in Paradise Valley, AZ October, 2018. A private flag lot, saturated with mature trees in the middle of the Arizona Desert. We hired a draftsman to tweak an existing floor plan that we had thought would become our dream home. Shortly after working with the draftsman, it was evident that we needed to explore another route. The plan did not fit the challenging shaped lot, and our vision was not being achieved. We had admired The Ranch Mine’s architecture for years via social media, but never thought that we would get the opportunity to have them design for us. What started with a questionnaire about our lifestyle-ended with a home that blew away our expectations. Each step of the design process was met with professionalism, prompt action, but most of all open ears. Cavin & Claire have the unique ability to truly understand family lifestyle, deliver on the desirables, add elements to enhance everyday life, and deliver a finished product with WOW factor. After 3 months living in ‘The Hive’, we see the thoughtfulness of scale, daylight, and the materials used. We could not be happier! We look forward to building another home with this DREAM TEAM down the road.

Working with The Ranch Mine has been a fantastic experience. Cavin and his team took our basic idea and created a work of art. They are organized, professional and established clear timelines for each phase of the project. The pricing is clear and there are no surprises. The team is quick to respond to any questions and they are easy to work with. Our goal was to build a luxury rental in Flagstaff, AZ. The Ranch Mine has such a following, that people reserve the home just so they can stay in a “Ranch Mine home”. Because of the architecture, this home will be featured in Jan/Feb 2023 Luxe Magazine. The owner of The Ranch Mine, Cavin, is a visionary and a master of his craft.

We loved working with The Ranch Mine! They met with us, heard our vision and designed an incredible space beyond our imagination. Over the two years of design + build, they had excellent communication both with us and our construction team. The final product is stunning - Thank you The Ranch Mine, team!

Cavin, Claire, Geoff and the entire Ranch Mine team are incredible to work with. Creative, patient, resourceful and prompt across every stage of the home design and build journey. We had more fun than we should've and would trust this firm again and again!

I've been a fan of Cavin and The Ranch Mine for quite some time... and then three kids later as the needs in our home changed my wife and I knew we needed a professional for our remodel, one that would not only help create sensible solutions, but that also worked for our project aesthetically, and specifically for our family. I recommend them highly

Having just completed a house designed by The Ranch Mine, I can confidently say that working with Cavin & Claire was a wonderful experience that far exceeded my expectations. Not only did I get a beautiful home but the design experience was organic and fun. The Ranch Mine is a highly professional, intuitive, and creative team that I highly recommend. In the design phase, I was blown away by their ability to listen and implement the needs for my home. All done in harmony with a gorgeous, southwest aesthetic. Seeing this combined in a masterful and artful way was truly exciting. Building a home is a huge undertaking and, if I had had a rewind button in my hand, I wouldn’t change a single thing!

We’ve had a fantastic experience working with The Ranch Mine. Before selecting Cavin and Claire, we met with five architecture and design-build firms. What impressed us most about Cavin and Claire during these conversations was their willingness to explore any idea and to discuss the pros and cons of any possible direction. Before sketching a single architectural concept, Cavin and Claire committed considerable time to learn about the regular daily routine and the aspirational, dream-like daily routine of every person (and dog) to live in our new home. After that, the inspired concepts The Ranch Mine created not only surprised and delighted us, but proved their understanding of us. From their earliest design concepts, we were confident that our home would be refreshingly original and thoroughly tailored to our lives. Cavin and Claire’s enthusiasm, creativity, innovation, and patience set and maintained the tone for the entire project. Now that we have lived in our new home for several months, I can attest that Cavin and Claire’s process works. Our house feels terrific. The architecture in which we live successfully transforms average days into dream-like days.

This husband and wife architecture and design team created a stunning remodel of a mundane 1970’s hacienda style house, transforming it into a modern home with mid-century flair to fit its spectacular location. Patient and professional, Cavin and Claire led us through several beautiful redesign iterations until we captured the form, function and flow that make the most of the site’s sweeping views and steep terrain. A sophisticated palette of vein-cut natural stone, laser-cut metal work, exposed steel beams, smooth stucco, broad expanses of glass and a hanging garden created with integrated deck planters perfectly marry the lot’s disparate landscape. On the back side, the home meets the stark and soaring rise of Camelback Mountain’s head; in the front, it hovers high above the green canopy of Phoenix’s Arcadia neighborhood with the Valley of the Sun’s lights and downtown glimmering below. Interior details including concrete, terrazzo, Bisazza glass tile, quartz counters and marble baths capture both modern and timeless elegance. Simple but refined fixtures unobtrusively add dimension to the interior volumes. A complex remodel that left intact much of the existing home’s framework but reworked and extended nearly every room in the house required remarkable attention to detail that the Ranch Mine handled diligently and smoothly with our builder. Plans were accurate down to minute details, ensuring a seamless building process. The follow-through and cooperation with our builder was exceptional. The Ranch Mine team worked equally well with our pool and landscape designers to ensure a composition that is inspired by the home’s style and promotes the best in indoor-outdoor living. If we ever undertake another complex remodel or new build, the Ranch Mine will continue to be our first choice in modern home design.

My husband and I did a complete re-build design with The Ranch Mine. We fell in love with how their designs bring in the old with the new and pay homage to the community and surroundings of the property. There are many meaningful architectural elements that tie in throughout their home design. We feel like our home tells a story and has meaning beyond a normal design. So much detail and thought is put into textures, sunlight, placement, sizing and the angles of every part of the home. The entire Ranch Mine team made our home building experience easy, enjoyable and fun. We hope to be able to do another project with them in the future.

Working with Cavin and Claire was a dream. They made a large and scary process with a challenging site very enjoyable and easy. They spent time at the beginning getting to know us as a family and how we use and move through our home on the weekdays and weekends. Then all design was built around our lifestyle, not what they wanted in their portfolio. Being included in that process resulted in both a functional and beautiful space. Nothing but 5 stars across the board!

We had a 1970's Ranch house which was dark with low ceilings and a small kitchen. Our intention was to add a master bedroom and new kitchen and brighten up the space. We had several ideas and suggestions about how to renovate the space but could not have ever imagined the final outcome. We were following the The Ranch Mine on social media for a while and realized they have the creative vision to transform old homes into modern, beautiful and functional spaces. Cavin's vision for the extension and renovation was exceptional, our intention was to capture a view of the mountains towards the east side of our property but Cavin showed us a view to our North we never thought we had. He not only captured a stunning view but oriented the addition in such a way that we avoid the harsh Arizona sun. We could not be happier with the result, Cavin and Claire are great to work with, professional and approachable. They took the time to find out our requirements and worked within our budget to help build our new home. Looking forward to working with them again in the future.

We just moved into our home three months ago and couldn’t be happier. We had been following The Ranch Mine’s work within the Valley for years and knew they were the only architect that we wanted to work with. From day one of contacting them, they were professional, creative and most importantly acutely aware of how the home design needed to fit not only into our lifestyle but our budget as well. The finished product is stunning and is the first home we’ve opened up to all friends and family because we’re so proud to call it home!! The Ranch Mine made our dreams come true! Truly.

The Ranch Mine, Claire, and Cavin, has changed our lives. They are brilliant in their designs, generous in their time, professional in their approach, and amazingly easy to work with. We had been following some of their earlier homes and fell in love with their approach to building homes that fit the space, connected to the surroundings and were homes you wanted to live in. We talked with them about the area of town we wanted to be in, they helped us find a lot, explored our wish list of features we thought we wanted and gave us direction when we were at a loss. Our home is almost completed and the attention to detail and help Claire and Cavin are still providing is so appreciated. This is our first new build house and will be the home we retire to. We are so looking forward to moving in and living in this fantastic home. We are grateful to Claire and Cavin for their help and friendship in realizing our dreams. They made this process not only easy but fun.

The Ranch Mine helped us transform a mid century modern home that was suffering from failing pipes, a series of unfortunate DIY improvement projects, a poor layout and dated finishes, into our dream house. They guided us through a relatively stress-free total gut job and we had fun along the way. Our “new” home, which stays very true to their motto (Honor the Past, Challenge the Norm, Inspire the Future), is such a happy, bright, beautiful and comfortable space! We cannot thank Cavin and Claire enough for the great design, collaboration and execution of all the fine details and special moments in the space. A wonderful experience from start to finish.

I hired The Ranch Mine to design a new house on a vacant lot in a historic neighborhood in Phoenix. I had been living in the suburbs and was ready to make the leap to a more centralized and urban lifestyle. Working with The Ranch Mine was a very collaborative process with quick turnaround on design plans. Working with Cavin and The Ranch Mine I would wait mere days, if even that long (in some case hours) to see updates to the design and plans. Cavin and Claire worked with me on the vision of the house, managing to incorporate some of my fun wish list items as well. I wanted a mud room, remembering them from growing up in the Midwest. They added a mud room. I wanted an outdoor shower to wash off prior to or after using the pool. They added an outdoor show in a very creative manner. I wanted a hidden bedroom behind a shelving display and they added in such a room with such shelving that it feels like it was meant to be. And they worked with me on position of doors and layouts as I attempted to feng shui parts of my house and expanded a spare bedroom office into a full on second master bedroom. Claire and Cavin met me for a day of picking out designs, colors, and fixtures for the house, from flooring to tile to cabinetry. There was no pressure and they walked me through pros and cons of various materials and looks. We had to get the City’s Historic Preservation Council’s approval to begin construction. Working with The Ranch Mine this process was smooth without complications. Cavin and Claire joined me at a neighborhood association meeting to present and talk about our plans for this plot of land, and to ease any concerns the neighbors would have. During the meeting with the Historic Preservation Council, they were prepared and organized and could walk the committee members through the aspects of my home design that drew elements from other houses and landscape features within the neighborhood. That my very modern house cleared both hurdles with no criticism and no request for changes says a lot about their capability of working with city and Historic guidelines. During the build they remained involved as changes needed to be made. The washer and dryer originally spec’ed turned out to be too big for the space and within hours Cavin found new models that would meet all requirements and fit in the space. I made changes to the flooring at the last minute (wood to tile) and The Ranch Mine didn’t miss a beat. I’m now moved in and catch myself wondering in astonishment “Who lives in a place like this?” knowing that the answer is me and that Cavin and Claire made my dream and dream house become reality. I highly recommend The Ranch Mine finding them to be organized, focused on details, creative, and responsive. I’m happy to talk more about engagement with them to those contemplating hiring them to bring their own dreams to fruition.

The Ranch Mine very successfully completed my project of renovating / modernizing my Mid-Century Modern home. I found their entire team very easy to work with. Unlike most firms, The Ranch Mine was very open to new ideas. They were very helpful in their recommendations and I could not be more pleased with the outcome. I would recommend them highly.

We had met Cavin and Claire at a social function held at their “Curves” house which they had recently redone for the owner. Not only were we impressed with the appearance of the work, but we were engaged by their personalities as well. At the time we were struggling about what to do with our residence. We really loved the mid century modern lines of the 1959 home we had lived in for the previous five years, but its master bedroom was very confining, with a tiny bathroom and very little closet space. The rest of the house was very spacious, but as time went by, the claustrophobic feeling of the master bedroom was growing worse. Further, we have a large family and needed all the additional bedroom space in the home so expanding the master within the confines of the existing exterior perimeter walls was not an option. We went so far as to purchase a much larger home with a huge master bedroom suite. After months of renovations on that new property, we moved there, only to discover that we missed the soul and the unique character of our previous residence. So after only three months in the new house we moved back-a pricey exercise in futility that I recommend to nobody. As part of the decision process to return to our original home we contacted Ranch Mine and asked for a feasibility study to determine whether it would be possible to add the kind of master bedroom that we wished for. After studying the house and its position on the the lot, taking photos and careful measurements, and verifying city setbacks and requirements, Cavin and Claire were able to tell us with confidence that we would be able to achieve our hopes while preserving the aspects of our home that we liked best. The mission we charged them with was to provide bathroom and closet space that would allow two professional adults to efficiently get ready for work in the morning without colliding or interfering with each other. Additionally we stressed the importance of preserving as much yard space as possible for our family to enjoy. Finally, we were very adamant about creating something that would enhance and accentuate—not detract from—the clean lines of the house. We didn’t want to tack on a sticks-and-stucco box that would look like an afterthought done on the cheap. We are pleased to say that after only three concepts/iterations Ranch Mine hit a home run, attaining all of these goals, resulting in something we can truly be proud of. The living space they created is gorgeous to look at, and invigorating to live within. The bedroom area features high ceilings and tall glass sliding doors that frame a very flattering view of our yard and pool. The addition is accessed via a corridor, punctuated by rhythmic slit windows, that touches the house tangentially at the far southwest corner, minimizing any intrusion into the existing space and maximizing the extent of the lawn outside. The design echoes the roof line of the existing house and incorporates sandblasted block to tie in visually with the the original structure. Cavin and Claire also offered patient design assistance and responses to questions; numerous site visits were made by both to help us understand the process and visualize the design. On matters of interior design and finishes, Claire was very helpful in guiding us through all of the possibilities for floors, surfaces, fixtures and colors. She created several sketches, renderings and spec books as we zeroed in on the final selections. In conclusion, we can enthusiastically and without reservations endorse The Ranch Mine. We are very glad we chose them for our project and would do so again in the future.

Our 1950’s ranch home was in desperate need of a complete remodel. We wanted a remodel, but were lost. We hired Cavin and Claire to help bring our vision to reality. Everything, and we mean everything, needed renovation and updating. The floor plan was not usable space, the kitchen was a disaster, and the bathrooms just embarrassing. Cavin and Claire gave us vision, design, and continual support in every aspect of the remodel. They never left our side. Not only are they extremely talented, they are beyond patient, supportive, and truly visionary. Now, our tired, old ranch is a show piece that honors the 1950’s ranch design, but with a jaw-dropping contemporary personality. The pool house addition is just spectacular. We are beyond thrilled.

First, I will say that I’m impossible to work with. Partly because I’m new at this and of course I was expecting TV style Property Brothers results (cost timeline etc), and partly because I’m maniacally particular, impatient and stubborn by nature. My taste is ultra modern, simple, and unique and the Team at Ranch Mine gobbled up these challenging conditions and PRODUCED without flinching. We chose Ranch Mine over Construction Zone (also a local AZ design/builder) because Cavin and his team seemed to specialize more in reusing as much of the existing materials as possible, building in SMART, SUSTAINABLE solutions while hitting style preference. Their genuine interest in getting our concept and desires right the first time amounted to a pretty involved vetting session that made us feel like they appreciate our job and how it will impact our lives moving forward vs. the “ya ya ya we’ve got this covered..we’ll figure it out” lip service that came from the competition. Their out of the box green additions were a great surprise and we can’t wait to see them in action. Furthermore, let me say that Cavin’s Construction Documents (final stage in preparing his design for a contractor to put into place) were consistently celebrated with all 4 building contractors we interviewed. All were impressed at the amount of specific detail he included in the docs, and all seemed to independently agree that his efforts up front would surely help the project get completed as quickly as possible. It’s been a gift to work with Cavin and his team and I’d highly recommend Ranch Mine to anyone looking for the same experience I’ve described above.

Cavin and Claire are exceptional. From Start to Finish, they stayed on top of the details, making sure our expectations were exceeded. Even though we were a smaller project for them, they poured an abundance of attention into our project and were always there to help see it through to the finish. We have received nothing but great feedback from everyone about our project. We were even selected for the Modern Phoenix Home Tour after completing our project! We look forward to working with them again in the future.

We hired The Ranch Mine to design an addition onto our 1950 single story ranch home. We were looking to expand and remodel our kitchen, and add a dining room and master suite. They were excellent to work with in terms of understanding what we wanted and understanding our style. The addition The Ranch Mine designed made excellent use of the space and flows perfectly, and the transition from the old part of the house to the new is seamless. They also included a wonderful screened in porch off the dining room which is really another living space that we get so much use out of. They were great to work with, very responsive and efficient, and we loved their work. Our day to day lives have been greatly enhanced because of the great job they did with our house.

We hired The Ranch Mine to design a VERY budget conscious remodel of an early 1970s condo in Cave Creek, AZ. Almost nothing had been done to it since it was built, and though the bones were good it was dark, chopped up, and uninspired. You can see the open, light-filled, very enjoyable to live in space as redesigned at the link below. Cavin and Claire listened well, were very prompt in their work, and had great ideas. We did only three concept sketches, and the cost actually went down as we got to the final design. I especially appreciated their help sourcing materials that were key to the look and feel at very very reasonable prices -which actually declined as we spec’d specific materials. As an added bonus, they also did a “modern” landscape design for us which is still in process so no photos yet. And, the plans were very high quality requiring no revisions to pass City review or to allow builders to bid and build – this saved time and money. We also appreciated their continued help during construction consulting on colors (stained concrete floors) and various other issues. All in all, a great experience. I highly recommend them for great design ideas, timely high quality work, and responsiveness to Owner concerns. And, they are delightful people and a pleasure to work with!

We interviewed several renovation design companies and quickly settled on Cavin and Claire Costello (at the time Claire Aton and Cavin Costello), who constitute The Ranch Mine, to guide the renovation and expansion of our 1927 abandoned brick cottage in an historic district in Phoenix. They listened well but were not hesitant to make their design leanings known. As the project proceeded they continued to carefully guide our thinking and decisions so as to fulfill our vision. The work was collaborative throughout, including the contractor team. We are in the last week of completion and Cavin and Claire have made themselves available at each step. They have been adaptable to required change without letting the team sacrifice the overall outcome. For example, when we suggested that the main material of the addition would be adobe, they quickly educated themselves in its manufacture and use. There was full embrace of this unique and central aspect of the project. It was a professional and personal delight to work with Claire and Cavin and we would recommend them without qualification.

I worked with The Ranch Mine for my remodel of a recently purchased home in Scottsdale, AZ. It was a complete overhaul of the house and my design tastes are very modern and minimal. I am definitely not a traditionalist when it comes to my home design preferences. I saw on their website (TheRanchMine.com) that The Ranch Mine could produce beautiful designs that were more traditional, but I was curious if they could meet my preferences and budget. After meeting with them, I knew they were going to be exactly what I was looking for. They were very professional and worked with me from start to finish on my design concept. They did a great job of “walking the fine line” of leading the project, but always putting my needs and choices first. They were very conscientious of my budget and everything they did was to ensure that it was met, from design through final construction. I can not say enough positive things about this company. The care and professionalism they took for me before, during, and after construction has been awesome. They “nailed” my vision and created my dream home. All of this was done at an incredible value with great service! Thank you for all of your great work guys!

We worked with Cavin and Claire from The Ranch Mine for our full house renovation master plans and just completed the first phase, the kitchen remodel. We are taking a traditional southwestern ranch home and making it more contemporary which they really excel in. They were great to work with. They brought up ideas we would never have thought of and they really listened to what we wanted. They nailed our kitchen materials and finishes on the first try. We are looking forward to continue to work with them on the rest of our place.

Creative, responsive, cost conscious, The Ranch Mine was a great find for us. With them we were able to create our dream house, we completely remodeled a 50’s ranch into a modern, livable space. When people walk in to our home for the the first time, they say wow!