Great points above. Sensing a trend that its mostly about Overhead and Profit which might be true sometimes but certainly not always. If I had to bid on some plans right now, it would be a higher than typical price as I currently have enough clients who will work in my preferred Cost Plus arrangement. My overhead is extremely low but I also use preferred contractors who cost more. Building a good home is a combination of the right products, right labor, and right knowledge. There are increasingly stringent building codes which are creating an ever widening gulf between builders as I see it. Minimum building codes are pretty easy to achieve but it will cost more money. Many of the things that make a better home cost more money and its impossible to specify all the materials, labor and knowledge in a set of bid documents. Does your detailed specs and plans include how to protect your freshly poured slab on a hot day or cold day? Type and # of anchor bolts. 3" washers? Does the Radon pipe just stub under the slab somewhere or is it tied to a sub slab drainage to daylight? Very cheap insurance that I would not install if it wasnt in the plans or specs. Do the plans call out the type of sill sealer? I would never use an off the shelf version with what I know. How about sheathing fastener schedule? Its pretty cheap to use the newer APA recommendations but might have my carpenters skip it on a bid job. Just how detailed is that wall section of yours? Ive never had one to bid on that I would feel comfortable following to a tee in the field. How about sloping window pans for the rough sill? What type of flashing tapes? I find its best to mix brands depending on application but wouldnt want to waste my money or time on something I wasnt getting paid for. A 12 SEER unit could easily outperform a 16 SEER unit depending on what HVAC sub you go with or how much you babysit them. Surely you have the Manual J in the specs and blower door test goals? Its surprising the difference you might see between houses in this area in terms of comfort, energy efficiency and durability. Do the plans spell out how to meet ASHRAE 62.2? I dont think I could build a house without meeting this minimum ventilation standard but I know I would use a drastically different way to achieve it on a bid job. It wouldnt cost me as much and would not work as well as the slightly more expensive system I would recommend for most clients. Fixed bids are very likely to omit some important details that take place below the finished surfaces. In addition to what others have mentioned (and many more) the difference in prices will surely reflect a bit of this discrepancy between builders too.

Thanks everyone. I do need to go back to the low bid and find out exactly what his process is. The high bid is from a cabinet enhancing company. The person who came out was so professional and explained their process in detail. He also explained who would be doing it, etc. He was talking about the importance of their cleaning process, how many coats of paint, then two coats of urethane, etc. The low bid did a friend's kitchen and her neighbor's kitchen and they were both very happy. Paintergirl...I'm in FFC too. Nhance said the doors would be taken off and done off site. They are sprayed. The boxes would be done here w/...shoot I'm forgetting what he called it, but some kind of special sponge? We have 24 doors (varying sizes) and 7 drawers. He said one of the most important things is the cleaning of the cabinets, then 2-3 coats of paint and 2 of urethane. He said everything is low VOC and practically no smell. He said he has whites that are basically pigments. He also said that he can match any BM color or he can use BM Aura...that it's how you finish them that's most important. I really don't have any of these details from the low bid. Paintergirl...is there a preferance to taking the doors or doing it on site? Is there a special kind of paint that should be used? thanks! Thanks everyone!

My experience in selling our house in Oct 2009 was atypical for our area ( nothing was selling in out area or neighborhood, but I think will relate to your situation. The house was built in 1990. I have not read all of the responses but here goes. We painted the entire house to a neutral walls and white trim because it needed it. We did not paint the brick FP. We removed the wall paper in the FR but left the wainscot and folk wallpaper in the Kitchen and Bfst nook. Realtor had a cow and said house would never sell, but this still looked great. Maybe not HGTV but I was tried of taking wallpaper down... We replaced all of the carpet- bedrooms, finished lower level and FR- with a neutral flat more commercial berber from HD. Because it needed it and looked worn. This was cheap with free install. We had already moved out of the house and the upstairs had no furniture but all the windows all had white wide slat wood blinds. The living room had my Persian area rug and the piano. The dining room had a garage sale round dining table with a floor length canvas drop cloth for the table cloth and four black dining chairs. Oh and an ivy plant in the center. The family room had my old sofa with a white slipcover and my old leather ottoman with a copper tray on it. Oh yeah and two throw pillows. I changed out the kitchen knobs. I spray painted the light fixtures bronze, these were cheap shiny brass. Our house was spotless. Inside and outside and empty except for the mentioned items. The realtor listed it on a Friday night and it was sold by 7pm Sat night to the first people who looked at it Sat am. For asking price. Within 5% of two comps. We became friends with the buyers as we built a house on our adjoining property and they said they chose our house because it was newly painted and had new carpet so they didn't have to do that. They loved the wallpaper in the kitchen but immediately changed out the kitchen knobs. They wanted to buy my "dining set"... This house was under $500.000 and we spent under $3,000 to do the carpet and I did the painting. I will say that if the house was a more expensive and more upscale neighborhood, I would still have emptied and minimally staged. Nobody is buying your décor and even if you have to pack up and put everything into storage and live like Spartans I would do that at least. When we started cleaning it became apparent that the paint and carpet needed to be done. Once a house is emptied unless its newly painted even if clean it still can look grungy IMO. Sometimes people give a painting cash allowance at closing - that might suffice for some buyers. Most of the staging/updating I believe if for a certain price point. You know to help buyers choose between several closely comparable properties. If your home is appealing to a certain demographic because of a higher price then wouldn't those buyers want to pick their own flooring, paint colors fixtures etc?

You have small windows on a large house. Yes I think there is not enough light coming into the house. I will ask our architect friend about widening the guest bathroom by 6" and replacing the entry door to 36" (from the current 32"). That should create a 3' x 4' clear area between the toilet and vanity. The shower door is currently 30" wide and the shower has a 36" diameter space inside the walled area. The plan is to use a curb-less shower design. That's all fine but it's an obstacle course to get around the toilet to the shower and there is not enough room on the shower side to get in and out of the shower. A wheelchair needs 60" turning radius. And go watch people sometime who use walkers and how hard it is to maneuver. This bathroom as drawn will NEVER be friendly for those with disabilities. Look others have been treading lightly. JDS who is an excellent architect in your neck of the woods tried to say it nicely and so did Casey. I'll be more blunt. It's not a very good design as it is now. Now having said that, I will say I feel your frustration. I've been adjusting and changing my plan for a year now, partly because of zoning miscues, partly because we just decided to add more land and mostly because I started on here like you with a very poor elevation that read nothing like the craftsman I wanted. Of course my needs are different than yours. My house is in SW FL and this is our forever house in that we're both in our 60's already. Here's the thread that gives links to all my threads (second post down): Link to the Saga of Cpartist's craftsman home And here's the link to the latest since we bought additional land: Cpartist's latest saga My point being to take all the offered advice and really think through what you need and want. It can only get better if you're open to changing what is there. Also one other thought. I might be wrong but I was under the impression that underground garages are harder to keep dry, etc?