I'm on the east side of my patio fence between me and my neighbor. I grow Lonicera, Clematis, Gelsemium, Akebia and Hedera helix on the fence. The first four all grew to the top of the fence before they bushed out. And all the flowers are on top or on the neighbor's side. It works fine for privacy but not so great for beauty. The ivy is another matter. It grows on both side of the fence although it is thicker on the sunnier side. However, it doesn't particularly care whether it grows vertically or horizontally so it also grows straight out along the ground (on both sides of the fence) and requires weekly trimming. After it reached maturity, it also required constant picking of old leaves. It is extremely HIGH maintenance and I wouldn't plant it again. Ever. Anywhere. Sigh. Teri

Sat night was cold, got down to 40 here but no damage to my two tender young mango trees. The four big ones are tough, plus were strung with C-9 Xmass tree lights. But last night it got down to 36 deg at 7 AM this morning with a small wind chill. I found a spare set of bulbs for the tiny Tebow mango I just planted out back, borrowed an extension cord, so he was OK. The newer Maha Chinook in a huge clay pot, had to get my neighbor to help load it onto my wheelbarrow ( heavvvvy ), and lug it into my shed. No heat but no wind either. All survived by the whiskers on their chinny-chin-chins. Took down all the lights and can finally breath a sigh of relief,..for another 10 months anyway ! ( smile ) However, as the Pine Island Nursery reminds me, sometimes mango damage does not show up for a day or two. So will breath the ultimate sigh of relief on Wednesday morning. ( smile ) This post was edited by jofus on Mon, Feb 18, 13 at 17:49

The curry leaf plants seem fine - I've been keeping the lights VERY close - but I think I may have fried the basil I had planted in the same flat. I scared myself into thinking they had basil downy mildew, but the plant pathology lab pronounced them "free of pest or disease ... healthy plants" - except for the brown speckles and necrotic edges of the leaves, LOL! I'm talking right up to the lights. With a fan running I had hoped they would be ok, and for the most part they have been. But I think I pushed it a little too far and fried the basil.

I was not so much thinking of the house size changing as I was what size/cost it would be to justify the $375K reduction in labor. Example being if the original quote was $1M for 5,000 sq ft so $200/sq ft. While this rule-of-thumb can change dramatically based on location & several other factors, I usually would break down the split to 40% materials, 40% labor, & 20% GC profit & overhead. This assumes you own the land (which it sounds like you do from your original post)so it is not part of the $1M. A +/- 10% variation from those percentages would cover most the US construction market. So if those percentages & the starting point of $1M are anywhere close to accurate, that means the original labor would have been $400,000 and to drop that by $375,000 to $25,000 is obviously not realistic. Now if the GC gives up 5% for a 15% profit/overhead & the materials are @ 35% (5% lower than in the original estimate) that means the labor is now getting 50%. Given the build dropped from $1M to $625,000 that gives the labor a price of $312,500. This is a labor $ drop of $87,500 which is much more realistic in a down market. If this is a $2M build then the labor could certainly absorb more of that $375K drop. The primary point being I doubt the 2 balconies & the labor costs resulted in the full $375K reduction. The builder is probably taking a reduction as well but did not want to say so to save a little face & I would still question the finishes. As housecrazy pointed out more clearly, it would be hard to capture in a contract all the specific details. Select red oak @ $6/sq ft versus $3/sq ft for red oak, a $20 water faucet in the kids bathroom instead $50, nails & staples versus glued down & screwed, $10 door handles versus $45 for interior doors, oak moulding versus pine moulding versus paint grade moulding, $150 double-hung windows versus $400, $0.39 receptacles versus $1.39 ones, 1/2" sheetrock versus 5/8", Advantech flooring versus typical OSB, $6,000 front entry door versus $600, & the list could go on & on. 1000's of items. That much detail is hard to capture in the contract so hopefully you have covered the ones that will keep the majority of the costs down.