Outdoor living design-build · Cedar Valley · since 2012

The best room of the house is outside it.

Golden Hour designs and builds the evenings you will actually spend: stone patios under string light, fire, outdoor kitchens, and planting that performs at 8 p.m. in August. 3D-designed before a single stone moves, maintained after.

4.9★
312 reviews
180
outdoor rooms built
3D
walkthrough before we build
12 mo
plant guarantee, in writing

Sound familiar?

A patio that is only used four months a year is an expensive place to store a grill.

Most yards are built for June and abandoned by October. Golden Hour builds for the shoulder seasons your valley actually has: fire for the cool evenings, structure for the view from inside, light for after the sun goes down. Design decides whether the yard gets used — we design first and prove it to you in 3D.

  • The 3D evening test You walk the design at dusk, in August and in October, before we build. If it does not work at 8 p.m., it does not get built.
  • Fire, kitchen, cover The three features that double a yard's usable weeks. We design them in from the start, not as retrofit regrets.
  • Built then kept Every build can carry a care plan — the same crew that built the patio keeps it looking like the render. Forever, if you like.

Selected work

Projects at golden hour

The Long Table
The Long Table — patio + string light
The Outdoor Kitchen
The Outdoor Kitchen — grill + bar
The Fire Circle
The Fire Circle — autumn ready
The Pergola Room
The Pergola Room — cover + light
The Stone Walk
The Stone Walk — arrival garden
The Lounge Terrace
The Lounge Terrace — couches, fire bowl
Outdoor kitchens

Outdoor kitchens

Grill, counter, sink and bar — the party stops migrating indoors. From $18k.

Fire features

Fire features

Fire bowls, pits and stone hearths. The feature that doubles your seasons. From $6k.

Patios & pergolas

Patios & pergolas

Stone, timber and light — the floor and roof of your outdoor rooms. From $14k.

The path

Design, prove, build, keep

1

The design visit

We measure the yard and the light, and talk about when you would actually be outside. Free, and frank.

2

The 3D evening test

Your design rendered at golden hour and in October — walked together, revised together, approved because you have SEEN it.

3

The build, clean

Four to eight weeks typical, dust-fenced, and the yard handed over at 8 p.m. on purpose: you see it at its hour.

The 3D evening test sold my husband — he stood in the virtual pergola for ten minutes. The built version is somehow better. We eat out there from April to November now.
The Fontaines · Pergola + kitchen, Cedar Falls
They asked when we would actually use the yard, and I said "October, with fire." Nobody had ever asked. The fire circle is the most-used thing we own.
R. & D. Okonkwo · Fire circle + stone
The care plan was the sleeper: the crew that built it comes monthly and the yard still looks like the render two years on. Worth it for the lighting adjustments alone.
M. Delacroix-Bell · Full build + care plan
180
outdoor rooms
2.4×
median season extension
12 mo
plant guarantee
92%
clients add the care plan

The investment, with financing

Design package + 3D$1,800

Credited fully to the build

Fire featurefrom $6k

Bowl, pit or stone hearth

Patio + pergolafrom $14k

Stone, timber, light

Outdoor kitchenfrom $18k

Grill, counter, sink, bar

Full yard buildfrom $45k

Design-build, 4–8 weeks

Care planfrom $140/mo

Monthly, the build crew

Financing that behaves

24–60 months through our valley credit partner, at rates printed in the agreement. The yard you can afford this spring beats the yard you never build.

What season should we build in?

Design now, build in the shoulder seasons: spring and fall builds land before the summer you want to use the yard — and our calendar fills from January. Winter design visits mean the first warm weekend is a ribbon-cutting, not a construction site.

How small a project will you take?

A fire circle and a small stone room starts around $6k and changes a yard more than most $40k lawns. The design visit sizes honestly what YOUR yard wants.

Do you do maintenance only?

Care plans attach to our builds — the crew knows every wire and root. If we did not build it, we will happily refer a good gardener; pretending to know a yard we did not design would be a lie with shovels.

Plants die. What then?

Twelve-month plant guarantee, in writing: anything we planted that fails inside a year gets replaced free. After that, the care plan keeps the succession going — gardens are edited, not installed.

This summer could end at 9 p.m. outside.

The design visit is free — and the 3D evening test is worth it alone.

Book the design visit

Tell us when you would actually be outside. That is where we start.

Golden Hour Co. · Lic. LC-77120 · Design-build + care · 4 Meadow Lane, Willow Creek

Golden Hour Co.

4 Meadow Lane, Willow Creek · Mon–Sat, dawn to golden hour (555) 621-8800 · Licensed & insured