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.

LOL... These reminded me of days when I worked for Continental Airline as a reservation agent. One night, the rain poured down and flooded the streets nearby the company. The res agents for the next shift couldn't come in and we were stuck and couldn't go home. So, we stayed and worked OT. One woman called, with a panic voice, she insisted that I go outside in the rain, using a binocular to look up beyond the clouds, and see if her DH's plane was able to land. "His flight number is ... , can you see it?!?". One unusual day, we had light ice condition in Houston. A lady called. With a concern voice, she insisted to either stop the plane from taking off or not allowing her DH on the plane. I calmed her down and explained that the plane is being de-iced and reminded her that these planes were built to withstand this type of weather condition. After all, these planes have been in worse weather at up North. "Oh, yeah, thank you" she replied. During hurricane season, we also had many people cancelling their flights. I reminded them that the plane can fly over the hurricane or around it. "It can?!?" (click). One unpleasant thing to hear as a res agent is when people make reservation in the restroom. Yuk! Sounds do paint a pic literally in front of you.

Alright folks, I have a DH who is totally obsessed about his ice cubes. He refuses to use anything other than a square cube out of an ice tray. DH drinks bourbon and coke quite regularly. His explanation is that the square cube is larger and will not melt as fast. Obviously melting will cause the drink to get watered down which is undesirable. We use the ice from the icemaker to fill our cooler when we need to. For us it's cubes from the tray for all of our drinking refreshment. Unless we are making a frozen concoction. Then we usually use bagged ice. We slam the bag around and beat it up some with a mallet before putting it in the blender. We can't use the icemaker ice for this because it's usually "old tasting" since it sits there so long. I guess you'd say that we, well DH especially, are totally ice cube obsessed. Would you say TICO?

Timing is everything - I just stumbled on this thread on the eve of our AC replacement. After our old unit died we have been sweltering but surviving by 1) timing opening our windows (big casement windows that let in a lot of air) during the cool part of the day, then closing them when the air coming in is warmer than inside house temps, 2) sleeping under a ceiling fan, and 3) dousing our forearms in very cold water, as armoured suggests. I will have to try the ice packs tonight per Rick's suggestion. Might have given Grainlady's ice chest AC a go if we'd known about it earlier. Useful ideas, all. Even after we get our new system, we plan to power it off and open windows unless it's steamy hot. Saving energy is a good thing, especially since our electricity is coal-fired. Also like the sounds of the outdoors and the absence of the hum of AC running.