Monday, September 25, 2006

Sticker Shock

Well, we met with the builder today and got a bit of sticker shock, although I think we all had figured we were a bit to optimistic about the originally assumed price per square foot.

His estimate is about 20-25% higher than we had hoped.

A lot of this comes from the roof trusses, as they are about twice as expensive as the house he's currently working on and will take about 3 weeks to install instead of less than a week for simpler roof layouts. Ours has numerous valleys and ridges - more complex than your typical roof.

He has also budgeted on the high side for allowances such as flooring, cabinets, and roofing (assumed 50-year asphalt shingles, for instance - we may go for something more along the lines of 30-40 year). I have the feeling we would be able to trim some of the "fat" out pretty easily and get it closer to where we would feel a little more comfortable without too much sacrifice or effort.

I need to call about school fees - need to pay them when we resubmit the plans (he will do that on Thursday). My sister said their fees were over $11,000 when she and her husband built her house in the same general area a couple years ago. With a similar size house, I doubt ours are going to be any cheaper....

I need to follow up with a lender or two as well and get that process moving. It's possible we may start construction in less than a month.