Back to square one

This isn't where we expected to be this month.  In early July, we thought we had three great builders and a great floor plan.  It's now mid-August, and we've got just one builder with a price tag so high that we can't possibly build the plan as it's drawn up.  So now we're back to where we were this Spring, trying to simplify our plan and find a builder that fits both our budget and our desire for quality.

The bids are in

As we progress toward building a new house on our acreage, we found three custom home builders that suited our desire for quality craftsmanship.  We interviewed their references, which yielded no distinction among them (all were excellent), so we decided to let our bank account choose the winner.  We gave each of them a copy of our drafted house plans and sent them off to get apples-to-apples bids on what it would cost for them to build our house.  The bids are finally in, and they're not what we'd hoped.