diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 8b2aaf93e865d59388ecd77145c2bf3a5ba63c41..d2da3f7f7fc44abfad6e88f7583e9e3c59de58ff 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -10,10 +10,15 @@ set(DATA_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/data)
 
 set(OUTPUT_MOOSEBIN ${MOOSE_CORE_BUILD_DIR}/moose.bin)
 set(OUTPUT_MOOSESDIST ${MOOSE_CORE_BUILD_DIR}/moose-${MOOSE_VERSION}.tar.gz)
+
+# Options to pass down to moose-core
+option(WITH_DOC "Build documentation" OFF)
+option(DEBUG "Build with DEBUG support" OFF)
 add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${OUTPUT_MOOSEBIN} ${OUTPUT_MOOSESDIST}
     COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} 
         -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}
-        -DDEBUG=OFF
+        -DDEBUG=${DEBUG}
+        -DWITH_DOC=${WITH_DOC}
         ${MOOSE_CORE_DIR}
     COMMAND $(MAKE)
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${MOOSE_CORE_BUILD_DIR}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1784cc53eb6c870d69412783a9a9294226fb2124..639465c4cb92673a8e12f36e9b7781df3e214d2d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,6 +15,21 @@ moose from this repository.
     make 
     sudo make install
 
+## Fine tuning build process
+
+You can pass options to cmake from command line to fine-tune the build process.
+For example, by default, we don't build documentation. If you want to build
+documentation,
+
+    $ cmake -DWITH_DOC=ON ..
+    $ make
+
+Doing so, cmake will also build documentation (and later install it when `make
+install` is used). Building documentation requires `python-sphinx` and
+`doxygen`.  __TODO: Document cmake options__.
+
+# Uninstalling
+
 To uninstall moose, run the following command in the same directory where you ran
 previous `make install` command.