We went with a local credit union bc we have had great experience with them in the past, and we have good hx with them (2 paid off car loans, and a refinanced mortgage on our current house). In fact, when they appraised (different appraiser though) our current house last year, they assessed it at $25K higher than we paid 2 yrs prior to buy it. We have put a few improvements in, but no where near that amt. We did appeal the initial appraisal bc the comps they used we felt were not even close to our new build. AND they did not do ANY comparisons to new builds. There is actually a new build right around the corner from us, but he is using private funds and insurance money, as his previous house burned down. So even though he is building upwards of a 750K home (much higher than our proposal), they did not take that into consideration. Most of the recently solds were on less than 1/2 acre in a tract, whereas ours is 2 full wooded acres in a substantially more upscale "development." (Not really a true development, but a large area that used to be undeveloped and farm land that is slowly being parcelled off and built, all by various contractors. None of the comps had higher than standard 8ft ceilings. None had wood stained trim or upgraded windows. All were vinyl siding. None had any built-ins....we have several throughout. Ours has increased insulation (closed cell foam and blown in versus mainly fiberglass), high quality windows, 2x6 construction, stone around the entire foundation, etc. I found several recent sales in the $140/sq ft range but they said they "comped" the same, and really did not seem to take the price per square footage into consideration. They only gave us $17/sq foot for our 1590 sq ft basement, even though we pointed out that we were roughing that in now and finishing it (probably ourselves) within the year to include a media room and in-law suite. I was also very confused by several adjustments they made to the comps prices. For instances adding $2200 to the value of one bc it was on a 0.9 acre tract, when ours is 2 acres. ADDING $32000 to the same one bc it was 7 years old and not new?? Adding $44,650 to it bc it was 3 bed, 2.5 baths and 30000sq ft where ours is 5bes 4 baths and 3893 sq ft. Very confusing. We did find one comp that is still for sale in a price range close to our cost to build (actually a bit higher) and similar in upgrades, etc they had this response: "The above listing is a perfect example of an atypical over improvement for the area. The marketability is greatly affected. Price is discounted, marketing time is abnormal." The house has only been on the market for 30 days, so not sure how that is abnormal. Yes, the price is about $100K higher than the assessed price, but I thought the assessed price was very low for the upgrades they had done, and wonder if they did it on the "down-low" - i.e. not pulling permits, etc and never had it reassessed. While the real estate market IS slow here (where is it not) there are still a fair amt of sales, and definitely NO WHERE near 50% of them being bank owned or short sales. Here is a direct quote from the appraiser in response to our appeal with higher comps and pointing out all of our upgrades: "The proposed construction is an over improvement for the area (super adequacy). It suffers from regression being the most expensive home in an area without a high degree of conformity to support the value. The cost approach may support the construction price, however due to the area and lack of supporting sales, the sales comparison approach will not support the construction cost." The bank liason actually seemed quite surprised with the initial appraisal AND appeal. He also said due to industry regulations, they are no longer even allowed to order a 2nd appraisal. I think part of the issue (why we are building in the first place) is that we have such specific needs and have found NOTHING existing that would satisfy those. We have NO plans of selling this house any time in the near (and by that I mean at least 15-20 years) future. But of course, the bank doesn't care about that. So, we are looking into how we can redesign our dream plans into a cheaper design. I will definitely post the plans here for input. I have posted them piecemeal up until now, but never the entire project. The original design had a steep A frame roof which we knew was a large chunk of the cost, so simply redesigning that would help, though not $100K of help. We are also going to sit down with our builder and find out what he suggests. Thanks for your input so far.

Well, getting back to my tub... I just removed the old caulk (well, most of it; I'll tackle the final scrub later), and I noticed something that I'd forgotten since the last time doing this - not only is the gap variable in height (in some places, barely thicker than a few sheets of paper!), but there are also some sections where grout comes all the way down to the tub surface. Should I try to chip that stuff out? It looks like the last time I just applied the caulk (a very thin layer) right over it. Not sure if that's a problem. I also did not find any backer rod thinner than 3/8-inch, which I already have. The clerk suggested I might try using screen spline. Has anyone ever done this? Any reason it wouldn't work? If I do decide to do layers, just to fill some space, should I let them dry in between? I'm not actually sure how I'd get it in there in the areas that are small in height (way too small for the nozzle) but big in depth. Thanks to ALL of you for your advice.

Do you use sinks at the same time or are you only choosing them for resale? I really hate my 60" double sink vanity. We'll be changing it to a single sink for more counter space and drawer storage. Would you consider the 49" Impressions counter? I can't tell from Kohler's spec sheet what size the sink base needs to be in the vanity, but you'd want to be sure the two drawer stacks were at least 12". That's what you'll get in the 60" vanity. Or do an all-drawer vanity.

Small kink...engineer was using the codes from the city on our mailing address not building address (our town doesn't have a post office)....SO my options should be slightly more open, as our windstorm requirement is 110mph, not 140. AND, talked to an architectural guy at Milgard...they do a DP test, but rate them into categories. All options are on the table again. :) And CPArtist - I looked into PGT - their closest showroom is over an hour away. They don't seem to have a very good reputation for warranty service. I was mostly looking at vinyl windows (perhaps fiberglass). which window line did you go with?