Hi, If you are working with an architect and the architect has built homes in the area, then he would know the building costs. If he has not done many houses in your area, then he could be way off on the building costs. I built in New York, and hired one of the worlds best architects, my brother. If you go to Hong Kong, and look at the Shopping Area there, he designed it all and surpervised its constrution. At the time he worked for Foster Associates, headed by Sir Norman Foster. He has also worked for James Stirling in the U.K. He designed for me a house, but in the end I could not afford to build it. It was 2 x over budget. Why because the techniques used were "non-standard" it was a modern home and most builders were frankly scared of the project. So a few came in cost-plus, or at very high numbers. I still think by brother did a great job, and we are none the worse for it. It was fun also and if you are in need of a good engineer, I worked with one in Connecticut and recommend him too. We had a good team, just had no idea of local costs. So after three years, and $US 50,000 I was back to square one. We hired a local architect with experience in home building in the area. We build a "standard" home with standard techniques. The house came in over budget, it always does. However the bids were much closer. To give you some idea one builder was 20% below, and another 100% above. The other six were about the middle. Our architect knew all the builders and their histories. e.g. one GC had been through a divorce, needed work, and he bid real low. Our architect said avoid him. Others build for Martha Stewart, they were expensive, but were at the highest quality. In the end we stuck to the middle of the pack. Note if a GC or builder really wants to rip you off, there are always ways he can hide it. You need to trust your builder, and he needs to trust you. We moved in about three years ago now and our GC and builder was very good. Sure we had problems, but in the end it worked out. My recomendation is to do the following: 1) Figure out which bits cost what. Rough is O.K. Doing this will probablly get you a better idea of where possible cost savings are. If one part is a major cost component, that is where you can get the most gains. 2) Simplify the design. A square house of two levels upstairs and downstairs gives you the most bang for the buck. Yech that looks bad. Not to worry this is just the ideal goal. Maybe you can change some of your design a bit to bring it more in line. Get rid of all the doormers, the indents here gables there. 3) Do you have site specific costs which are blowing your budget. E.g. rock. I needed to blast and move rock. That was expensive. Are you siteing your house in the correct place. Maybe moving where you place your house will save on your foundation. 4) If you have an architect ask what he thinks. You have to be brutal sometimes. See this wing here, cut it out removing 1,000 sq feet. Dump the basement have a crawl space. I think if you budget for about $US 250 per square foot, then you will be O.K. Obviously this will vary across the US. But if you are way off this quick check then I think you will have issues later. Way off means at a minimum $US 170 per sq foot. Much below that for a custom one off house, I think is not a good start. 5) In your plans make them detailed as possible. However ask your architect for a pricing schedule for tile, and finishes. E.G. Hard Wood floors, schedule for $US 10 installed per sq foot. Lighting fixtures schedule for $US 6,000. These are no more than guesses at what you will spend, but at least they are accounted for in your budget and will lower the surprises later. There are always budget surprises, that is the nature of the beast. Just fewer surprises. Again be brutally realistic on these numbers. The advantage of schedules is that it removes these unknowns from the builders estimates, hence the estimate is easier for the GC and more accurate, and hence more competative. 5b) Get prices for house options. E.G. unfinished bonus room, you can finish later. West wing section [$US 80,000]. Porch [$US 20,000]. That way if the bids come in high, you can lop off chunks of house, brutal I know. Or have unfinished sections that you can finish later when funds allow. But at least your patient is still alive. 6) Bid out your design to a few builders. In the end I had eight builders bidding. If you are still off on your budget then it is redesign and regroup time. Good luck. All the best, Mike.

Matti, I tried to reach out to you and Georgie. Chemocurl was working with me on the other side with new computer techniques. I even made a Halloween card that included Georgie's dog and others for Georgie using my new training.I got in trouble for posting the final result of my training but I was thrilled to have chemocurl as my friend. Very patient and I learned a lot and liked that she is so darn real and tries to be kind and encouraging. I was moving right into Georgie's backyard and she asked me where I was going to live. when I told her where I was moving to I got no answer. I understood and moved on. When georgie called out for me I told her I was on the Computer Help side. No answer and when I came back to trivia it was not the same for me. Jasdip was clear I was not wanted even though when she was having personal problems I offered her a place to run to. Georgie, never spoke to me again and jasdip missed the fact that I won 2 days in a row. Not much to analyze. For a long time the questions were repeats and too easy to google and I didn't want to be a part of people who did that. I enjoyed the smart answers to the dumb questions that were impossible to answer. Quite a mess but possibly a misunderstanding on the part of you and georgie and me. Someone suggested journaling every morning and and what I wrote back to you all it was off the page in a couple of minutes due to an onslaught of everyone writing at once. I got lost in the shuffle and was off the page before anyone could read it. I probably was not the only one whose posts were missed. A bad idea that I guess stopped. But I am on other sites like Computer Help and Decorating where one can go off the subject and talk about any thing off topic from decorating on a side channel. I will continue to come over here but I miss so many who got passed over and left. It is great to have a core group and I find Alisande and others spot on with good questions so when it comes to someone being ill or losing a spouse I am there. Like Phoggie who lost her husband. I don't see her and because she was brought to this site maybe by raven she got taken care of and was able to move on. I miss mommyme if that is the right name and wrote her when she got ignored and sue va who doesn't answer my e-mails. I remember the big build up when you join. The hellos and glad to have you but they don't last for some of us. There is a core group of wonderful people like Glenda who has always something going on. Inspirational and would love to meet her. And others who never recognize my questions or praise. But I feel the need to tell them they are clever like lazypup and his frog.It would take another 10 years to be recognized by some. Sorry, Susan that I hijacked this. It may be that I only want a few to know how I feel. But I suspect people are concerned about your health and will find this rant but may pass over to get to your new info. You have been a great help for many people I understand and taught them to journal about their life. Good stuff. It seems that so many are glad you did that. Let's see you figure this out. I am hoping for new news and good treatment. Yes, you are someone I would like to meet also. Please keep journaling your time of day and reactions. And if your BP is important stay with it because mine fluctuates so very much without a bit of caffeine in my body. Enough... Ellie

Glad you are feeling better. Starting yesterday I noticed my throat felt sore and today I started to have that little tickle and a cough. Hope it isn't something that is going to last weeks. I feel pretty lucky though cause I haven't had a bad cold or virus for a couple years now.

Grannymarie, your plant looks happier now. About watering....I use skinny wooden skewers on any plant that is in part soil, to see if the soil is still wet. You can't tell by looking. Just stick that skewer in, let it sit for a minute and pull it out. If it's warm and soil is "sticking" to it or it seems damp, don't water. When it comes out cool and dry (and has been at the bottom of the pot), water. I let my Sans get completely dry between waterings, and I have killed more than I want to admit by not doing so. In general: 1) Most of my Sans are in relatively large PLASTIC pots, from 6" to 12"; 2) they are outside all the time, in SW Florida which from June through Sept. is high 80s / low 90s and HUMID; 3) they are in bright light all the time; 4) Most have pea gravel top-dressing, which helps retain moisture in the pot, I think. I generally water at the earliest every 10 days, but more often it is 14-16 days from watering to watering. Again, use that skewer. And again, I cannot recommend highly enough Stush's practice of using an alfalfa/potassium mix. (Just search for Stush/alfalfa/potassium up top and you will find it.) It has stimulated both root and leaf growth beautifully. (Thanks, Stush!) I have a large, variegated Sans Masoniana that had 4 leaves when I bought it and after using Stush's vitamin mix, it has grown 2 additional leaves, both large and healthy, though not as variegated. I love it. I am going to experiment with it on a couple of other plants in a C/S soil/perlite mix and see what happens. Good luck with your cute Sans.