✦ September Bathroom Event — free design consultation plus one premium upgrade included. Book by September 30. Call (520) 548-2125 left
Serving Catalina Foothills
The Foothills is a custom-home market, not a tract market — which means every project starts with understanding a house nobody has built twice.
Two things distinguish Foothills work from everything else in the metro, and both catch people out.
The first is jurisdiction. Despite Tucson mailing addresses, the Catalina Foothills is unincorporated Pima County — permitted by Pima County Development Services, not City of Tucson PDSD. Different requirements, different review process, different timelines. A contractor who works mainly inside the city limits will quote your schedule wrong.
The second is that these are largely custom homes on individual lots, many of them on genuine hillside. There is no standard floor plan, no known cabinet run, no predictable structural layout. Territorial and Santa Fe houses with viga and latilla ceilings, deep masonry walls, Saltillo floors and level changes everywhere. Mid-century modern houses with post-and-beam structure where almost every wall is doing something. Contemporary builds with structural glass walls.
Every one of those needs to be understood before it is priced. We spend longer at the survey stage in the Foothills than anywhere else we work, because the alternative is a number that will not hold.
What almost every Foothills project has in common is the view. The Catalinas to the north, the city lights to the south, and a house that was sited for one or both. Protecting and improving that relationship is usually the actual brief.
Permitting in Catalina Foothills
The Catalina Foothills is unincorporated Pima County. Permits come from Pima County Development Services, not City of Tucson PDSD, despite the Tucson mailing address. Requirements, fees and review times all differ.
Many Foothills properties fall within the Hillside Development Overlay Zone (Pima County Code Chapter 18.61), which regulates grading, cut and fill, slope disturbance, retaining structures, revegetation and driveway gradient. It adds review and can constrain where an addition or pool may go.
The City of Tucson / Pima County Outdoor Lighting Code is enforced firmly here — the Foothills sits directly beneath the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter's sightlines. Exterior lighting must be fully shielded and within lumen limits.
Some Foothills properties are on septic rather than sewer. Any project adding bedrooms, bathrooms or a casita requires the septic system to be evaluated for the additional load, which is a feasibility question rather than a late surprise.
Local Knowledge
Viga and latilla ceilings, deep masonry walls, Saltillo tile, kiva fireplaces and level changes throughout. Beautiful, and structurally particular: exposed vigas frequently are the structure, so ceilings cannot simply be opened, and running mechanical or electrical through solid masonry demands planning rather than improvisation.
The Foothills holds an exceptional collection of mid-century houses, many with post-and-beam structure, clerestory glazing and flat or low-slope roofs. Remodelling one well means understanding which walls are structural — often more of them than expected — and respecting an architectural logic that is easy to damage with an unsympathetic kitchen.
Steep driveways, difficult material access, engineered foundations, retaining structures and grading limits under the county's Hillside Development Overlay Zone. All of it is workable and all of it costs more than the same project on a flat lot. We establish it at feasibility so the budget is real.
Almost every Foothills remodel is at some level about glass, orientation and outdoor living. The discipline is doing it without creating an oven: north glazing is a gift, west-facing glass needs shading or high-performance glazing, and a properly shaded outdoor room extends the house for eight months a year.
Coverage
Areas we serve in Catalina Foothills: Skyline · Sunrise corridor · Ventana Canyon · Finger Rock · Pima Canyon · Campbell corridor · Sabino Canyon · River Road · Hacienda del Sol area · Catalina Foothills Estates · Cobblestone · La Paloma
What We Do Here
Local Detail
Where the work here differs enough to be worth going deeper.
Nearby
Also serving nearby: Tucson · Tanque Verde · Oro Valley · Flowing Wells · All service areas →
Planning a budget? See the Tucson remodeling cost guide.
Catalina Foothills Questions
Pima County Development Services. The Catalina Foothills is unincorporated Pima County, not part of the City of Tucson, even though addresses here use Tucson as the mailing city.
That means a different department, different submittal requirements, a different fee schedule and different review times from City of Tucson PDSD. It is the first thing we confirm, because getting it wrong produces both a wrong schedule and a wrong price.
A Pima County overlay (Code Chapter 18.61) applying to properties on significant slope, which much of the Foothills is. It regulates grading, cut and fill volumes, slope disturbance, retaining structures, revegetation of disturbed areas and driveway gradients.
For a remodel it usually matters when you are adding footprint — an addition, a casita, a pool or significant hardscape. It can constrain where those can go and it adds review time. We check whether your parcel is within it before any design work.
Yes, and they are among our favourite projects. The essential thing is respecting what the architecture is actually doing rather than treating the style as decoration.
Exposed vigas are frequently structural, so a ceiling cannot simply be opened up. Deep masonry walls mean electrical and mechanical routing needs planning rather than improvisation. Saltillo floors can be restored beautifully but do not tolerate careless work. Done well, the result reads as though it has always been that way — which is the whole objective.
Yes. The City of Tucson / Pima County Outdoor Lighting Code covers residential exterior lighting across the region, and it is enforced attentively in the Foothills, which sits directly beneath the sightlines the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter depends on.
In practice it requires fully shielded, downward-directed fixtures within lumen limits. It produces better landscape lighting than it prevents — layered and glare-free rather than flooded — and on a Foothills property with a view of the city lights, keeping your own site dark is what makes that view work.
Foothills projects generally run at the upper end of Tucson ranges and sometimes beyond, for reasons that are structural rather than about markup: custom houses with no standard details, hillside access and foundations, higher finish expectations, and county rather than city permitting.
As a starting point, kitchens run $55,000–$175,000+, primary bathrooms $35,000–$120,000+, and whole-home work $150–$250+ per square foot. We survey at length before quoting here, because a custom house cannot honestly be priced from a walkthrough. Full detail on the cost guide.
It affects anything that adds fixture load — a bathroom addition, an extra bedroom, a casita. The existing system has to be evaluated for the additional demand, and depending on age, size and soil percolation it may need expansion or replacement.
This is a feasibility question, best answered before design rather than after. It does not usually stop a project, but it can materially change the budget, and it belongs in the conversation on day one.
Ends September 30 · left
Sign a full bathroom remodel by September 30 and pick one premium upgrade, included at no cost. Not a discount — an actual upgrade to the finished room, specified and installed as part of the build.
Custom-templated to your finished walls after tile. The single upgrade that most changes how a bathroom reads.
Electric in-floor heat under the tile, on its own thermostat. Impossible to retrofit later without pulling the floor up again.
A step up in cabinetry and countertop material — the two things you touch every morning for the next fifteen years.
One upgrade per household, on full bathroom remodels signed by September 30, 2026. Upgrade is specified during design and installed with the project; it cannot be exchanged for a credit or discount. Consultations and written estimates are always free and carry no obligation.
Free consultation with a proper survey — custom houses cannot honestly be priced from a quick walkthrough, and we do not pretend otherwise.