Consider this and you might not have to depend on precipitation as much. Good luck! Wood Chips-The Secret to Effortless, Inexpensive Biodynamic Gardening October 05, 2014-By Dr. Mercola " Water shortage was in fact part of what inspired Paul when he first began. HeâÂÂd moved from Los Angeles to Washington State where he built a house and planned an orchard. The problem was, his well didnâÂÂt produce enough water for irrigation. âÂÂIt was August âÂÂ79... It didnâÂÂt rain the whole summer... And IâÂÂm saying, âÂÂGod, how am I going to grow fruit trees for my family without water?âÂÂâ His answer lay in the woods behind his house. Those trees were all lush and green, and when he poked around, he realized they were surrounded by deep, dark, lush, fertile soil" courtesy of all the fallen leaves and twigs that had never been cleared away. âÂÂI started planting my trees and covering [them]. At that time, I had straw and sheep manure; now IâÂÂm doing the wood chips,â he says. âÂÂMy orchard has not been watered or fertilized for 35 years, and itâÂÂs produced abundantly beyond what people can imagine... Wherever you live, thereâÂÂs something in nature that you can use to cover the ground with. If you have nothing but rocks, they make a great cover. You can grow wonderful gardens in rocks because rocks are minerals and they hold moisture... Whatever youâÂÂre growing, put it back. ItâÂÂs that simple. If youâÂÂre raising corn, chop the stalks and put them back. If youâÂÂre raising grain, put the straw back. Whatever you use, put it back... Any organic material lying on the ground will decompose, return to the soil, and the plants work out. ItâÂÂs so commonsense simple.â A link that might be useful: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/05/wood-chips-ground-cover.aspx

Location makes a big difference but I've never built in Canada.

This has come up many times. Seems like you get as low as 8% and up to 20%. It depends greatly on your local market. I personally think that builders at 8 and 10% are probably making some extra money elsewhere. I've also seen builders have a fixed fee or %age plus and then charge an hourly rate for their supervisor. Total crap but I've seen it and that was on top of an 18% fee. I paid 80k with a 540k cost on a 4000+unfinished basement. The problem with using that as a comparison is that in some markets that might be a basic house and in some it might be completely custom with far more complexity than a basic house. I am getting ready to pay a higher percentage to build in a more challenging area. In my mind I can justify that because it is a smaller house but more complicated at the same time.

The breakdown cost is usually the total opening amounts for (lights switching, lighting fixtures, outlets and appliance loads) plus the cost of the utility metering and service panel or panels Materials & Labor. Who ever does do the wiring harness installation and top out make sure that they do not back stab the wiring into the devices (outlets & switches) it is a weak link connection and can cause many problems like loss of power to downstream devices with usage and age. Mixing lighting and outlets on the same circurit breakers is not a good idea either even though it is code legal if the outlet power is lost also the lighting is lost. It is better to have dedicated circurit breakers for lighting and it also makes a faster connection to Green energy for lighting. Circuit breakers are designed to create heat during their course of operation the more wattage that is being consumed the hotter that it gets until it reaches its trip point or a dead short to ground. Placement of these circuit breakers inside the electrical panel is done with Step Down method taking the highest voltage and amperage downward from the main breaker. New construction and open walls is a clean slate to start with and is the time to consider what you need for todays needs and future wiring needs for electrical, security, internet, cable & satellite, Green energy solar & wind and any other wiring needs. www.dbelectric.us