House Building Project

Part of why our builder is willing to do this house for us on a cost plus basis (his cost plus 10% profit, which comes to about $79 per square foot) is that we are doing a lot of the legwork in selecting fixtures, cabinets, etc. Today we spent at Franklin Building Supply, picking out kitchen and bathroom cabinets, windows, interior and exterior doors.

Previously we picked lighting fixtures, switches (including motion detector wall switches) at Grover's and flooring at a floor coverings place whose name I have forgotten.

What is very interesting is how rapidly you can spend a lot of money to get very little advantage. The tile that my wife picked out? The retail price is $0.99 per square foot (I think our builder pays about 30% less). I can't say that the $5.99 per square foot tile was dramatically better looking, nor did it feel dramatically more durable.

We considered wood interior doors today--but when Rhonda found out that wood doors were in the $275-$550 range, while painted doors were about $70--she immediately decided that they didn't look that good. There are eight interior doors in the house--figure going to wood would add about $2400 to the cost. In addition, once you have wood doors, you want the moldings around them to be wood--and that adds up quickly as well.