Got an e-mail at about 6:00 p.m. tonight from the guy drawing up our plans. He said he will have the final version to me tomorrow. I had asked for a couple of small changes last week so now I'm VERY excited. While awaiting the official final version I've sent out over a dozen quote requests for everything from foundation to HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning).
Got my first bid back last week. It was from a subcontractor that does multiple things. That is appealing because if one sub can do excavation, pour walls, pour floors, and install a septic system that significantly reduces the number of different people I have to select and coordinate. Without getting too specific, in case they happen to find out about my blog, the bid was about 10% over what I had in my original budget. The good news is 10% isn't that far off. The bad news is 10% in this case equals $3000. I'm not unhappy with that, since it is the first bid and my budget was not exactly based on the most thorough knowledge of construction costs or the area we will be building.
The real BIGGIE will be the lumber package. It represents the largest cost in the entire project. To arrive at that number I need the full prints and a meeting with my selected lumber company. I am hoping to set up a meeting next week.
There are currently two items that are preventing me from officially starting this project. First is the lumber estimate and the second is closing on a lot we purchased in Cedar Falls less than a year ago when we thought we were going to build here. We have an accepted offer and are supposed to close in about 3 weeks. If all goes well that will provide us the cash to kick things off and hopefully break ground this spring.
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