I ordered a book (aloes of south africa) from kalahari. It was cheaper (even with shipping) than buying the book from a source here in the USA. However, my credit card company freaked out and said someone in south africa was using my credit card. But once I okayed it, the transaction went through. Then, the next day, the credit card company called again and asked if the transactions I made around in my home town were by me! Good vigilance, but yes, that was me too. Kalahari sells lots of different stuff.

deanie I did the exact same thing and had similar experiences. You have to put yourself in their shoes - how can they possibly give you an exact number without knowing the specifications for the house and what your quality requirements are for the finishing materials? I used the square footage ball parks for rough budgetary planning. The contract price won't be known until you have a plan (so they can do a take off) and you have made selections on the finishing materials. The end cost won't be known until the house is finished. Note that many posters on the GW have had a large (10 to 20%) difference between the contract price and the finished cost. I would use the ballpark numbers to get an idea of the range of house you might possibly afford. If you can barely afford a certain square footage now at the planning stage - then beware - becuase the house will likely cost much more than your ball park estimate. The residential builders have volume on their side to keep costs down. They do have higher overhead, but don't assume that custom means lower cost. Custom building is at least the same cost (but usually higher) than large residential builders for the equivalent square footage. But a custom builder customizes the product to your requiremments and should provide much better quality (assuming you pick a good builder). Residential is a production line, with a limited set of menu options,and quality that can range from crap to decent. The ball parks you have sound reasonable for Tenn. Just add 20% to the highest number you have received and that should be good enough to determine if what you want to build is possibly achievable. If you can't make the the budget close with this - then you might either pick a smaller house plan or think about trades on materials (like siding vs brick/stone). Also - keep in mind that there may be more costs that are not included with the builder square footage numbers. They may be quoting you costs for the structure only. Ask them if the ballpark figures include everything including site development (lot clearing, septic, driveways, etc). I found that most of the builders quoted me square footage numbers that did not include these items - and they can be significant depending on your lot and utility situation.

saftgeek - I hate to admit it but you are all too correct about far too many attorneys! I was a high school teacher for 20 years before deciding to go to law school and I have been deeply appalled by the how truly unethical and dishonest some lawyers are. In the six years I've been practicing law, I've run into more dishonest, downright sleezy lawyers than I met incompetant teachers in twenty years of teaching school... and people are always knocking teachers for being incompetant! Shyster lawyers make me ashamed of this profession just as incompetant teachers sometimes made me ashamed of the teaching profession. I would urge you or anyone else who has evidence of a lawyer behaving dishonestly or unethically to report them to their state bar association. It might not do any good but then again, it just might. At least in Texas, I think our state bar tries to disbar the unethical lawyers whenever they can find them. It certainly sounds like your ex-boss was exactly that type. I also truly am not trying to paint GCs as dishonest. I believe the vast majority are honest folks who do their best to do a good job when building a home and, if they make mistakes, try their best to fix them. BUT, as in all professions, there are some people building homes that are either lazy, dishonest, or so downright disorganized that the homeowner who ends up hiring one of them needs to be able to go to court and get help. And, unfortunately, the contract promulgated by the Texas Association of Builders is specifically designed to protect these bottom-feeding GCs from facing the music for their bad behaviour. The funny thing is, I KNOW that it was the TAB's lawyers who drafted the d--n contract that protects the bad builders, so when I'm knocking the contract, I'm also slamming some of the members of my own profession! I actually suspect that most builders who use the TAB form contract do so because it is available to them cheaply and they don't know any more about what it really says than the homeowner does. And, so long as there are no major problems with the build - nobody is any the worse off. But, I defy any honest person who has ever READ the TAB contract to argue with a straight face that it is a fair and balanced contract. Among other things, it requires the homeowner to waive the "implied warranty of habitability". Basically an implied warranty of habitablity means that courts have said when two parties enter into a contract for one to build a home for the other, there is an implied understanding between them that the finished home will be inhabitable. The owner doesn't have to make sure to insist that language be put into the contract SAYING that the house must be able to be lived in when comleted...the courts will assume that since the contract was for the building of a home, the finished product must be something one can inhabit or it is simply not a "home." But, just in case someone WANTS just a shell - or something like that - to be built, courts will allow the parties to agree to waive the "implied warranty of habitability". Asking the homeowner to waive the implied warranty of habitablity might be fair if the homeowner wanted to build something totally new and different and the builder said, "you know, I can build that for you but I don't think it'll be something you can live in when I get done, are you SURE that's what you want?" But, I think you would have to agree that, except in those rare instances, a house should be inhabitable, just like a car should be driveable, a suit should be wearable, and a wedding cake should be edible. Would you agree to buy a new car from a manufacturer who insisted that you agree to waive the "implied warranty of driveability"? Would you purchase a suit from a tailor who refused to warrant that it would be wearable? Would you order a wedding cake from a baker who refused to guarantee that it would be edible? Why would you buy a home from someone who refused to warrant that it would be habitable????? Nevertheless, the Texas Association of Builders - with the help of its attorneys no doubt! - realized that implied warranties can be waived and that most homeowners don't ever really read or understand the contract they sign. So they put language into the form contract that waives the warranty of habitablility on every single home built under it. That means the homeowner may think he is contracting for a turn-key home but, even if the house he gets is so defective that he cannot possibly live in it - say the sewage pipe has broken in the wall so that there that raw sewage has contaminated all the insulation - the homeowner cannot argue that the builder breached the contract by building an UNIHABITABLE house. Fair????? The TAB contract also requires that the owner agree upfront to "binding arbitration" in the event of a dispute. This doesn't sound too bad...unless you happen to know a couple of facts about binding arbitration. First, arbitration is MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE than small claims court even though most building disputes are going to be over amounts small enough have brought the claim in small claims court. Second, arbitrators are selected and PAID by the parties to the dispute which means that arbitrators make more money if they are selected for more cases. If an arbitrator wants future work, they have to make sure that the party that is more likely to bring them future business is happy. Care to guess which party is more likely to NEED to hire an arbitrator for a second or third or fourth construction dispute? Some studies have shown that homeowners win less than 5% of claims that go to arbitration but win about half of claims that are tried in a court of law. Even those few homeowners who are nominal winners in arbitration almost never win enough money to actually repair their homes! The TAB contract also requires that the builder receive his final payment, in full, (i.e. NO RETAINAGE) at the time of the final walk-through even though it also specifies that a punch list of items to be corrected/completed/repaired will be made at this same time. In theory the builder is supposed to return and finish the punch list. But, WHY should the unscrupulous builder bother? After all, he has already been paid in full AND the homeowner can't even sue him in small claims court due to the binding arbitration clause I already mentioned? Do you think that is fair? I could go on and on about other clauses that are in the TAB contract but I suspect I've made my point. A builder who insists on using the TAB contract after having some of its many unfair clauses pointed out to him may not actually BE dishonest but, IMHO, neither is he the kind of straight shooter I really want to deal with. Straight shooters are willing to play on a level playing field.

Regarding budget, that is hard to say, I don't see where you posted specifics. On vinyl product, performance and quality is not an either-or proposition. High quality vinyl will have great performance, low quality will not. Mid range will be mid-range. -Better vinyl composition -thicker outer walls and superior design -more, better weatherstripping -TIGHTER MANUFACTURING TOLERANCES -thermally superior spacer options (composite, or stainless steel at minimum) -fully welded sloped sill ... and so on and so forth are just some of the things that separate quality. All of those little parts ultimately add up to better performance ratings and a longer life of the window.