Let me start by saying I don't have much experience with log sided homes and how the breakdown works, so I'd just like get some clarification and then address the other aspects of your post. Builder Quote = $85,000 Materials = $95,000 Subs = $196,000 GC Fee = $30,000 What is included in each sub category (i.e. does materials just refer to the exterior envelope or does it include insulation, sheetrock, flooring, etc)? I'm definitely interested in what the builder quote includes. As far as the brother-in-law--how many houses has he built? Can you go see one or two and talk to the owners? No matter which one you go with, be sure to ask for and check with the references they give you. Ask around to local building suppliers to see what they have to say about them--you may find out some very enlightening things. There may or may not be wiggle room in your costs--don't know your financial situation, but sometimes if you pay the subs as the work is done vs. them having to wait to be paid (sometimes as long as 60 days) they will discount their fee. You can try negotiating with the GC on his fee--if it's the difference between getting the job or losing it, he may be willing to come down a little. Maybe you could take on some responsibilities to lessen the burden some to make up for it? Lastly, look at your finishes to help reduce cost--are there areas that you could live with downgrading for now and upgrade later (i.e.-laminate countertops now and upgrade to granite later, flooring, light fixtures, etc). Another option is just to sit down and talk with the builder and say, "We're already over the budget we set for this project. Is there anything you see right off that we could change that would help get the cost where we need it to be?"

My husband and I did this with no problem. We went through a mortgage broker and got a 6% 8 years ago then refied for 4.25%. As long as you are preapproved for the cost of the home and the home appraised for that amount, you should have no problem. The only problem arises if the construction cost is higher than the appraisal. In our case we paid less than the appraised value leaving us with equity on which to draw if we wanted to go that route to finish off the upstairs. (rates are higher for equity, so we did not go this route.) Having said all of this, remember that you are taking a risk. Houses with unfinished upstairs do not sell easily and life happens, so it may take you longer to finish than you think.

Keep in mind that a tax assessment number, even one supposedly set at "full valuation or market value", isn't done to set sales prices, or even truly related to it. The point of any assessment figure is to fairly rate the value of one house to generally similar others for the purpose of balancing the taxes paid by each relative to the others. You could have an assessment value of $13,247,236,758 and it would be perfectly correct if all other similar structures within your taxing jurisdiction had roughly the same assessed value. To properly grieve your assessment the key is to compare your house's valuation with other similar houses. If that's out of whack, then you have a case. Now, in some taxing jurisdictions purchase price and/or sale date has a stronger effect (CA is one state like this, IIRC), resulting in long-held properties having much, much lower assessed values. But your comment about the town re-doing the taxes every two years leads me to believe you're not in a state that leaves old assessments in place until resale. However, in both cases (i.e. whether there is town-wide periodic review or where values are only adjusted at resale) the principle is still the same: the assessment figures among all similar houses (or similar and resold within the same period if that's the criterion) should be the same. Historically towns have deliberately linked rising assessments to rising home values creating a spurious belief that the taxes should be the same as the purchase price. This was probably done to confuse (and soothe) irate taxpayers, and is now coming back to bite towns in their municipal butts as people with declining home values protest their assessments. Even in a down market (when describing purchase price), a higher-than-probable-sale-price assessment can still be correct as long as all similar properties within the same taxing district stay the same relative to one another. In fact purchase prices are not particularly useful assessment-setting tools since many have eccentric components (ill-informed or particularly desperate buyers and sellers, shared closing costs, repair allowances, extra furniture that is conveyed, just to name a few). The only things that properly belong in the assessment calculations are fairly fixed things like size, age, location, # baths, amenities like pools and fireplaces, and in some farily extreme cases, condition, etc. While these are also commonly factors in sale prices, it doesn't mean that all sale prices accurately predict tax assessments. HTH, and good luck, L

Just so you know, getting any plant established will require watering on a regular basis the first season, so plan on doing that and get the length of hose needed. One suggestion would be to lay hose under the mulch with a sprinkler set at the top of the slope and leave it there so that all you have to do is hook it up to the water and turn it on whenever it's dry. The fewer times you have to walk on the slope, the better, so you might want to ask your up hill neighbor if you can use his yard for access the first season since it's also to his benefit to have the slope stable in the long run. Or use the stake and board method below to build a temporary set of steps. Or a more permanent set along with a path across the midslope for easier access when needed. I have a steep sandy hill from an old river channel that was disrupted by construction in a few areas, and here is what we did. We began by doing things to stabilize the slope on a short-term basis. First DH created a bunch of 2' wood stakes and got long boards (just pine sawmill cutoffs) which he staked in place across the slope, slightly below the soil line, but mostly above. I followed with a rough mulch that knitted together well and didn't slide down the slope. Look for gorilla hair mulch or chipped arborists' trimmings, both of which work well. I did a lot of the work from the top of the slope since gravity helped me out. face on - Over to the left by the concrete wall ( which was poured as part of the building's foundation) you can see some of the boards. Looking across the slope you can see some of the stakes sticking up. There are boards under the mulch. Once you have done that, then you can start working on your wall and planting the upper part of the slope. I agree that a modular concrete block wall would be the way to go, though I would also check into a poured concrete wall to see if that may be cheaper and/or more stable in the long run. Read up on how it needs to be built to be safe - tying back into the slope and a proper foundation. Plan on getting all the materials and doing the work in chunks so that you don't have exposed soil for long periods of time. I would be more likely to do a two or three foot wall to decrease the slope's steepness and then use plants to stabilize the remainder of the slope. Multiple walls that together equal more than a certain height need engineering to be stable. My slope pictured above is in shade most of the day, so the plants I used there won't help you much. In another sunnier spot I used a combination of old-fashioned orange daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) which spread (unlike many of the modern daylily cultivars) along with Centaurea dealbata, a perennial magenta-flowered cornflower. Both spread vigorously and are in the range of 1 1/2' -2' tall out of bloom, and I usually weed the slope once or twice annually (takes about 20 minutes for 60'x15') and renew the mulch in very early spring every few years before the plants have sprouted to keep the weeds from getting a foothold. Here is a photo of the slope, freshly mulched early season before the plants came up. By now this is about 20 years old and only gets a few hours of attention per year on this west-facing slope. It is densely packed with plants and has flowers from late spring into summer, and I have added a few shrubs to the slope to provide interest when neither of the groundcovers are blooming. I got the Centaurea as a hand-me down plant from a neighbor and the daylilies were already on the property so I only had to divide and move them. You will most likely want to get started on your plantings in the spring, and if there is a plant source that will sell you flats or you know someone with either of these plants (or can find them somewhere like Craiglist), you can increase them over time with division.