Frankly, Warmboard has not been doing you any favors if they're telling your potential builders that "everybody and his brother has contacted us about that house. By doing so, they're signaling to the builders that you send the project out for bid to a HUGH number of contractors which means their chances of winning the job are pretty low from the get go. In that case, why should they bother spending all the time/energy necessary to put together a bid. I think you need to start over and contact the builders you think you might actually be interested in working with and set up a preliminary meeting with each one. The point of the preliminary meetings is get to know them and decide whether or not you think you canwork with them. There will probably be one or two that, by the time you've talked to them for half an hour you'll KNOW that you don't ever want to be in the same room with them again! Something about them will make your skin crawl or you'll get a sense that they're just not honest or something. Also at the preliminary meeting, let each one know that you will be asking for formal bids from THREE (or at most, FOUR) builders. This lets them know that, if you ask them for a formal bid, they have a reasonable chance of winning the job. Ask each one to take a quick look at your plans and specs (right there in the meeting) and let you know if anything jumps out at them that would be problematic or that they feel they would need more information about in order to give you a solid bid. Also ask each one how long it would take them to prepare their bid IF you should ask them to bid. Do not give your plans to the builders at this initial meeting. If you give your plans to the builder right at the meeting, he's going to assume you're doing the same thing with every builder you talk to...which means you weren't serious about only getting bids from your top 3 to 5 candidates. Once you've narrowed the field down, send (or take) a copy of your plans and specs to each builder and request a formal bid... and also set a time limit for getting the bids in to you based on the longest time frame given to you at your initial meeting. Let them know that if the bid is not received by the deadline, they are out of the running. (If a builder can't get his bid in on time, he won't do anything else on time either!) And, let them know your timeline for making a decision once all the bids are in. If the builders say they need three weeks to submit the bids, I'd give myself twice that long after receiving the bids to make a decision. That way if someone flakes out and doesn't submit a bid, you still have time to seek additional bids from alternate candidates so that you're not stuck without alternatives.

I have a differebt take on it & would do it again in a heart beat, that said.... It is not for everyone & you need to be honest with yourself if you can "handle" the project. DH and I worked wonderfully doing it. I think it worked well because literally I was the brain he the muscle. Not that he isn't intelligent, I'm just etremely organized & do well with contacts, paperwork, follow-ups, contracts, schedules. I research tons and ask many questions. We built an amazingly custom home with 4300 sq ft finished with another 2500+ to finish in the basement. We saved so much money and detailed everything our way. Custom cabinets, floors, 4 different granites (yes, bathrooms too). Trim decked out everywhere. We passed final occupancy in 11 months and I was then 8 months pregnant with our 5th son. Yes, it was crazy at times. We lived, breathed and slept and worked about 18 hours/7 days per week. We both got some sleep. I was at the home 2-3 times every day. I was ALWAYS available and my dh's work was very flexible with him that year. He did a lot of sweat eguity for us too. The older kids (oldest age 9 at the time) helped and did homework out on the subfloor, etc. Literally you must be able to put your life on hold and handle a fast-pace & stressful time. It isn't rocket science either, and you do not have to understand the complexity of each thing going into the home. You may end up knowing almost everything in the end. ASK questions and do your research. The key is to hire great subs. It is not that difficult to do the research to make sure you have good subs and then "trust" their work to an extent. It doesn't take that much investigative work to find the best subs in your area. If you hire the best you will not be displeased. They have a reputation, are the expert in their area and will give you a quality product. Call the local "good" custom builders and ask who they use. Stop at your neighbos and ask them. Drive around during the day to custom home construction sites and talk to them. What electrician/plumber/etc do you see people using? Research them, get bids from atleast 4 differnt ones for each job. DO NOT, I REPEAT GO WITH THE LOW BALL BID! Those, are the ones that do inferior work & CAN'T be trusted. We learned twice doing this. Use your gut instinct...I felt funny about our exterior sub and our granite installer. We were getting tight on the budget and they were substantially lower, so we went with them. Long story, but very difficult situations with both. As stated by previous poster. You are the boss and need to be able to fire or whatever else may be needed. Yes, you do need to know about the construction process & timelines, and be able to catch on and ask questions. Dh knows a fair amount and took over the electric after the wires were pulled and he took over the plumbing after only the rough in. So, we wern't just flying without any knowledge. But, you seriously don't need to know more than the electrician, etc. If you hire a GC, they surely aren't going to know more. The electrician is the expert in his area and should know the most. There is something wrong if he doesn't. Just like a brainsurgeon knows more about the brain, else you would just go to your family doctor for everything. The main GC's job primarily is management. That in my opinion is why there are so many bad ones out there. They were subs who are trying to be a GC. They can't manage effectively, many use scraps of paper (lossed, always), write only on your framing wood, etc, etc. Also, who cares most for your home. You DO! Most GC's will find any way to get more money for everything. Your insulation, HVAC, etc will be of such a better product and for less money than a builder will most likely charge you for. Our trim is all solid wood and thousands less than all the GC's quoted for MDF. Like I said it isn't easy. It is stressful, time consuming and challening. The hardest part for me was before the dig started. The subs weren't hard to hire, but getting past our county. It took hours of work and 3 attempts to obtain our starting permits. Another negative is I think it is easier to go over budget being your own GC. It is easy to say add it in when you are offerred upgrades/options on site. At the end there are other expenses too that add up. If you followed all my ramblings, start researching and educating yourself. Answer questions honeslty if you have the time, organizational skills, can work with your spouse, etc. Perhaps it might be worth it for you to save/earn (however you look at it) $100,000+++ for a years worth of work and basically a year lossed from your life. For us $150,000 saving was worth it and we will sell and do it one more time (if and when the market justifies it). Best wishes in your decision.

Wow, I'm very excited I found this thread. I'm working on building a passive solar home. As of right now, we're still in the design stages but we look forward to getting started quite soon. I would love some opinions on our extreme building methods though! Initially, my wife and I had planned on building a Simple Survival Earthship, which is more or less a bare-bones solar home. But we recently came across some information that should accomplish the same thing, yet be way cheaper and quicker. I would love to hear what this group of experts think! The concept is a machine-compacted home. The Earthship design used tires as a form to hold dirt, which you would pack tight with a sledgehammer. The end result is a 3-foot thick thermal mass wall. This requires a good deal of tires, time, and chiropractic treatments. Instead, we would use a bullldozer to accomplish the same ends, in a much faster timeline. The walls will be similar to a pond/dam wall. Heavily compacted clay walls, track-rolled with a 3+ ton machine. Instead of months and months of pounding dirt into tires, it can be accomplished in an afternoon. After the walls have been compacted, the backhoe uses it's bucket to cut a straight vertical wall out of the compacted clay. The end result is a 5 foot thick compacted wall. On the interior and exterior of the wall, we would then plaster with a breathable plaster. This should eliminate any moisture issues. The floor of the structure will be a stained concrete. Also, the house will be aligned on an East/West access, facing south, with an attached solar greenhouse. The house's interior will be bisected lengthwise by some form of brick wall. The north side of the house will be devoted to the "cool" rooms (bedroom, bathroom, laundry) whereas the southern rooms will be devoted to the "hot" rooms (kitchen, living room, lounge). Adjacent to the home is going to be a heavily shaded, mulched, misted area which will act as our shade house. This shade house will provide cool air which we plan to draw into the home through cooling tubes (buried three feet down, running roughly sixty feet long, sloping downward into the home). The roof will be composed of metal (still deciding the details) which will be used to collect rainwater, stored in cisterns located amongst the shadehouse. All greywater will be recycled and divided between the greenhouse and the shadehouse plants. Half of the greenhouse will be devoted to relatively hardy tropical plants (bananas, etc.) and the other half will be used to house aquaponics systems. We plan to generate our electricity via solar panels. Question Time! The home itself is going to be bermed into a hill. Should I be concerned about below-ground water flows? Or should my compacted earth wall be sufficient? I haven't decided upon the materials of the central wall running the length of the home yet. It will most likely be a structural wall which will assist in holding up the roof. Should I go with cheap, concrete blocks filled with cement, and then cover with a brick veneer? Any other suggestions for a cheap, yet effect thermal mass wall? Any other ideas of how to get an effective, yet nice (pretty, non-crappy) wall. We plan on centralizing all of the plumbing along the west wall, located near the cistern set-up. To bring the plumbing to the outside and to transfer the cool air in, we've decided upon burying pipes into our compacted earth wall. Can anyone foresee any issues with that setup? We hope to move water in and out of the home via gravity. Any estimated costs on such a structure? We figure the actual earthworks will be no more expensive then say $3,000. After that's done we'll need to build the central wall and stick a roof on. From there the plaster will follow. The house will be roughly 1200 Square Feet, with enough overhang to shield the house from the summer sun. It will more or less be my experimental starter home. Any idea of a cost estimate to stick a roof on this thing? After the main structure is built, we will invest in the attached greenhouse followed by the shadehouse. I would love to hear everyone's opinions on such a structure. Has anyone heard of such a home being constructed? In theory it should work no different then an Earthship or passive solar home. Yet there is virtually no material out there using this kind of technique. I'm trying my best to foresee any possible traumas. If all goes well what we'll have is a "relatively" cheap, fireproof, tornado proof, self-sufficient, off-grid home. Although the initial investments will be huge, the long view of the houses expenses will be way minor compared to normal home upkeep costs.

@joyce_633 - I think it depends on the tract builder (more commonly called production builders where I am). We are building with a production builder, but we have always known what the “bones” were and had opportunity to change those bones. We narrowed down to about three builders and were able to sit down with them and their plans and specs and talk about them with their construction methods. For example, two of the builders we talked to build with open trusses which was important to us to give more flexibility in the space and meant for example ceilings would be “true” to their height without drops or soffits for HVAC. Also meant far less support columns so it was easier to move walls to where they worked for us etc. The builders would tell us what their standard insulation for example was (and as we are in a colder climate and it is competitive they were all comparable) and what we could upgrade to. Ditto for everything from HVAC to electrical. We did use a builder’s stock plan, but we really could have input on how to modify that plan and specifications (as long as all to Code!). Ours was a good experience. We don’t have a very fancy house by any means, but that is not our style, and I expect it will be a happy comfortable home for us and our lifestyle. i have been to and in my house almost every single day since stake out and have been able to also see exactly what is going on. We have never built a fully custom home and I do not anticipate we ever will - personally I know I do not have the heart for it! - but I don’t think all production builders - or markets - are the same, and some will work with clients to do either semi-custom or even fully custom.