I agree with Worthy- you have some fixed costs that will not change if you just make the rooms a smidge smaller.

On the other hand- heard today that a certain political candidate if elected would like to impose and extra tax on homes over 2400 sq feet. So maybe you actually could save money! Hopefully nothing like that would pass our esteemed congress but you never know......

( really steams me as my 2000 sq ft old dump had a much larger carbon footprint than my new geothermal, super insulated, efficient 3400 sq ft home).

You will save money. The question is how much. You need to talk to a builder to find out how much you will save as it will depend upon a lot things. Your roof will be smaller so you will use fewer shingles, plywood, etc., you will use less siding/brick/whatever, you may or may not have fewer windows, you will have 250 less sf of flooring to purchase, 250 less sf of subflooring, your trusses will be smaller, your HVAC systems may or may not be smaller, you will use less insulation, you will have less wall area to paint, your taxes should be less (most assessments are based upon sf), etc.

Ponydoc - I doubt such an agenda would make it's way through Congress. Mainly because I doubt that many Congressmen and women live in houses less than 2400 sq ft themselves and wouldn't want to pay the tax either!

extra tax on homes over 2400 sq feet

Not far-fetched at all! Differential taxes are already in effect for land transfer/real property transfer.

In NYS, for instance, the tax is 1% for sales up to $500K, and 1.425% for properties over $500K.

In Toronto, which now boasts the highest transfer taxes in the US and Canada, the combined city/provincial rate is 4% of the balance of sale prices over $400K, plus 2.5% for the amount between $55k and $250k and 3% for the amount between $250k-$400k; the first $55K is taxed 1%.

That puts the tax at $8,083.55 for the average MLS resale home price of $395,342 in July 2008. For $1 million, that works out to $32,200 and for $1.5 million, $52,200.

The first estimate we got for our house was based on square footage. based on that we finalized the plans with thebhosue designer. The builder subsequently sent the plans out to subs. The estimate came in much higher because it isn't a simple house to build. For both we had the same figures in for lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, etc. I had researched and picked out everything and given the builder detailed totals. Which proves that square footage can be deceiving and not related to real costs.
I guess that's why I read here so often that every build is different!

In talking to our builder, the averaged out cost of our house will run about $105/ sqft on a 2800 sq/ft house.

Simply making bedroom room sizes smaller would save only about $50 sqft. The real cost is in aircond, bathrooms and kitchens, which is averaged out among the total square footage.

In our case for example, cutting low dollar space, such as a bedroom, does not equal 105$/sqft savings, but rather only about 1/2 that.

Incidentally, it's also why smaller homes might have a higher price for sqft, as compared to similarly appointed larger house.

it will save you some in permits and fees that are SQFT based (ex: school impact fees)

Thanks for everyone's input. I think I will be taking a look at the plan again. Our budget is sure to be tight so I don't want to start out with a house bigger than we had planned.

I wanted to loose some footage, and the easiest way to do it was to make the living room 2 ft. narrower. Full basement, so it dropped 2 ft. from the family room as well.

Now I regret it: I'm worried that the room will seem too narrow once the furniture is in, and since it was essentially a strip of house that was removed-- no corners, doors, windows, etc.-- I doubt that my savings were significant. I'm pretty certain the house would have 'lived better' as it was originally drawn.

$/ft numbers are mostly useful for getting a sense of the quaility of detailing in a house. Cutting 10% of the footage won't save anything like 10% of the budget.

If you are OK on budget, don't start trimming size to meet some random, self imposed size number. If you aren't OK on budget, look for ways to save actual money rather than footage.

Cut some corners, literally: exterior corners are pricey. Simplify roof angles, be choosey about your upgrades, don't try to make every single detail top-of-the-line.

We started with a 30X40ft plan and found it roomier than we expected. Then when we started getting quotes we found it much more expensive than we expected. We reduced our plans to 30X30 and we're very happy with our home and the budget was much more manageable. I don't know exactly how much we saved but the difference between being stressed about money the hwole build and being comfortable is huge!

Thanks for the advice oruboris - we already have only 4 corners and a simple gable roof. I will have to really look carefully at how the loss of a couple feet will change livability.
Thanks ajpl - our house plan is currently a tad over 2000 sq ft and we were originally planning a max of 1800.

We were building our retirement home several years ago and DH got a little nervous about costs. We were down to the wire in getting the plans back from the architect, who had taken way longer to get started on them than they intended, so we were pressed for time, getting ready for Christmas, packing, getting the old house updated to sell, moving to another state, getting our daughter in a new school--which means I didn't pay attention to the details. The architect assured me nothing would suffer from that last little "shrink."

I have 28" doorways (which necessitated buying a new "extra" refrigerator, one of which I already had, for the laundry room, to fit) and the expensive new sofa I bought for the hearth room overwhelmed it, so I had to buy a new one. I have probably spent--and I'm serious--fifteen times the amount of money we "saved" in shrinking the house in new furniture and appliances.

My 23 year old daughter, who doesn't live with us but of course visits, has no place to put her suitcase in her tiny bedroom, very little storage in her tiny closet, and her bathroom is ridiculously small. Her penchant for dating 6'5" guys makes me think if she ever marries they both won't fit in her room.

Two feet extra in her room, her bathroom, a study, and wider doorways and we'd be fine. Cutting the square footage was a costly mistake which I regret.

Taking Worthy's comment one step further, you might be able to do the math by taking the overall sqft cost and deduct the non-changing majors (HVAC, windows, doors, appliances). The figure you have left can then be divided to determine the adjusted sqft cost.

As an example, 2000 sqft @$105 per equals overall cost of $210,000. Taking figures out of the air to cost HVAC, windows & doors (low priced), appliances, mediocre roofing shingles, and tiling for kitchen and bath, I came up with a majors cost of $40K which was then deducted from the $210K; that gave an adjusted sqft price of $85. That means removing 250 sf from the original 2000 would save you about 10% of the dollars while losing 12½% of the space. Personally, I think that's a bad deal.

It is far more likely that you can save an equivalent amount (or more) by buying the least expensive for all replaceables. "Replaceables" means anything which is not actually structural, and which can be replaced without excessive effort. That means all appliances, kitchen and bath counters and cabinets, flooring, and doors. i.e. that lovely $2K front door should be put on hold and a $300 one used instead (or refinish a discarded antique for even less cash out of wallet) and using vinyl tiles instead of terrazzo. Some may disagree, but I consider roofing to be a replaceable -- unless you are spending big bucks for tile or metal, roofing IS going to be replaced at some point. Therefore it is not unreasonable to use elcheapo-15 year warranty now and in five or ten years replace with the wonderful bigbucks-50 year warranty stuff. The difference in cost is considerable. Unless you are planning to use insulative layers of window covering [$$], it is *not* cost efficient to not use sealed double-pane glass. However, using standard sized ready-made windows instead of custom sizes can save quite a bit (multiplied by the number of windows). Using elcheapo hollow-core interior doors can also provide a nice savings. Some savings can be less obvious, such as standard chrome faucets from a box store (the price difference can easily be $100 per, times the number of sinks). It can be painful giving up "I-wants" for the new house, but if you think of the less expensive stuff as temporary and the wanted stuff as deferred pleasures, it can be bit easier to accept the differences.

I like meldy's idea of postponing 'replaceables' for now.

I don't think you want an overall 'shrink', but look carefully at rooms where you could be happy with less space. Or rooms you could 'lose' entirely because you'll seldom use them.

You won't feel bad about heating, cooling, cleaning or paying taxes on space you use and enjoy.

BTW, how tall are your ceilings? (Another 'space' to consider.)

Maybe you'd like to post the floorplan?

Ceilings are 8 ft tall. We already plan on using basic fixtures etc. We do plan on metal roofs but I don't think we will give that up because of fire danger and because we plan on doing rainwater catchment. We also plan on being in this house for a long time so longterm costs are a consideration too.
Here is the plan. I have made some changes since but the sizes of the rooms are pretty much the same. I figure I could take a couple feet off each direction, bringing the total SqFt down about 250 without missing the space too much. Though I like it better with those feet still in the plan.
The extra thick exterior walls are strawbale. The thicker interior walls have built in book shelves.
The entry area is really a bit bigger than it needs to be and upstairs there is some spare space that could be reduce a little (though that open space upstairs is a craft area).
The thing in the middle of the living room is going away too.
I did realize that one way to save initially would be to hold off on finishing the 2nd floor.

I think I'd hold tight to the sqft that's already there, and shop intensively. Taking your time to find appliances on sale *can* save as much as 50% of the cost for those items. If you don't have a storage place, rent one or build a cordwood shed (it'll come in handy later).

Strawbale usually has plaster or stucco exterior finish. Are you planning to plaster the interior walls or do gypsum or drywall? Do a price comparison of those. And don't double-charge yourself: the interior plaster over the strawbale does not need studs and drywall!

Another place to consider for a short-term save is the trim work. Go for the simplest and most minimal possible and put the fancier stuff in later.

If I remember, you were OB and DIY? That should cut labor cost considerably, so what is eating the rest of the money? Transportation costs for materials? If so, ouch.

You're right, the metal roof is non-negotiable even though it's a major upfront expense. Sorry to say, but the bookcases might have to be thought about (and I'm a book-lover so I know how that feels).

If worst comes to worst, even after major sales-shopping, then yes, I suppose the upstairs could be completed later. I actually don't like that solution... it's sort of like washing clothes by hand: one can do so, but it gets old in a real hurry. Have you actually itemized the materials list?

Meldy - thanks for your thoughts. I will start keeping my eye out for appliances. There isn't a shed but there is this barn that could be enclosed a bit more. We haven't decided on interior walls yet. We plan on going for simple square pine/fir trim.
We are DIY OB, it is mostly we don't want to pay for space we don't need.
Does any one have or know where to find a comprehensive materials list. I am afraid of having my estimate be off because I forgot the little things.

We left some of our house unfinished. Our upstairs bathroom and the upstairs loft aren't completed yet. We consider those areas to be a luxury to the actual livability of the house and we'll be thrilled when we are able to put them in using cash. We're planning to work on the bathroom this winter!

To make sure your rooms are sufficient, make your plan to scale and then cut cardstock pieces of your furniture to the same scale. Do they fit?...do you like the placement?..enough room to walk around furniture, etc.? This is what we did and was able to cut off quite a bit of square footage.......my DH is an architect, so that helps...also make sure your roof line is simple...that always adds quite a bit to the cost of building.

There are quite a number of materials and check-off lists online. You can go through them, copy, and merge, to get a comprehensive list. (in fact, there have been several excellent ones linked in other threads.) I linked to one, to start you off.

Storage should be watertight, bugproof, animal-proof, and sturdy. You do not want to *anything* to get into the items stored. I suspect you will find it easier and less expensive to DIY a storage shed with solid walls, floor and roof. Don't forget to check items as soon as received to be sure the thing sent matches the thing ordered. Opened boxes can be shut and re-sealed with packing tape.

One thing occurred to me, concerning the second floor. Is that directly under the roof, thus requiring knee walls? If so, your usable floor space is going to be considerably less than shown on the plan. Phoggie is right about a simple roof ... your floor plan shows gables, which are *not* simple and will require more time and money to construct and to roof. You might want to consider a raised half-wall (botton half is knee space, upper half standard exterior) or even a shed-roof double gable with standard windows instead.

Here is a link that might be useful: materials list

I've made models in 1/24 scale (1/2"=1') out of 1/4" thick foamboard. It's easy to cut with a razor knife, and I stick it together with hot glue. You can buy cheap 1/24th scale dollhouse furniture. This is a better visual than 2D or even 3D drawings. You can even take it outside to see the light patterns at different times of the day. DW thinks it's crazy for a 55 y/o man to be playing with dolls LOL!

Thanks for all of the suggestions.
We had been debating how exactly we wanted to do the second floor. Half heigh exterior walls or just dormers. The dormers in the plan are shed not gable. But either way we need to have egress windows so some sort of dormer is necessary. The roof pitch is currently 10:12 with 2 ft overhangs and I did my math carefully so the plan should represent the area that has 7+ ft head room, plus dormers. Would we be better off with say 4 ft tall second floor walls and a shallower pitch?