boy i'll second that, jeffinmonterey. we waited over 6 months for our city to approve our plans and grant us the honor of a permit. they also put us into the design review fasttrack (which dinged us 1800 bucks) all because they couldn't visualize and, ostensibly, are biased against modern design. need to keep the mayberry aesthetic up you know. luckily our architect really pushed us into doing a model early on so when we plunked that down on the table during the design review meeting, the two bluehairs looked back and forth between their bi-focals and said "you know, this doesn't look anything like your drawings." they were wrong, though, it did. anyway, sorry for the rant. we interviewed 4 architects. three i found on the AIASF website and one was a friend of a friend who is a one woman operation in the city. we wound up going with her because we liked her vision and her personality. all four architects came to our house to scope things out and wound up staying between 1 to 2 hours. we did pay a retainer to get things going with the one we chose. she works on a percentage basis, 12% - 15% of the finished price tag. we never felt completely comfortable with that so we agreed to pass the baton after her initial drawings were complete. they were actually very detailed. my husband and i felt we didn't need so much hand holding through to the end and we have brought her in to tweak some things along the way. for that we pay her an hourly fee. we have had some stumbling points when things moved from her to the contractor's draftsman but our contractor is great at working these things out as we progress. it's been about 5 weeks since they kicked us out to start and the framers are really buzzing along. so far i'm quite happy. i'll happily pass on names and numbers if you'd like to contact me directly.

I think it can be done. My husband and I just finished building a 1900 sf home in Western Oregon for 109/sf. excluding land. Including the land ( 2-3/4 acres) it came to 145/sf. We acted as our own GC, but hired some of the work out. I'm not sure, but your area may be lower in cost than ours. Our home is a single story- basically a square with a simple roofline. There was already a septic system installed and city water available (so no well expense). A well and septic would have been easily costs us another twenty thousand dollars here. We did purchase our framing material, windows and siding In November of 2014 and I know pricing has risen here since we began. We also didn't anticipate the permit fees- eight thousand dollars,- we had paid two thousand just seven years before, so again, more than we thought. Like you, we wanted to lower our electricity bills. To do this without tremendous expense, we went better than code for insulation - R-60 (blown in) in attic, R-24 in the 2x6 walls and R-38 in the floors. We air sealed top plates and filled in every hole, nook and cranny in the whole place. We also paid the truss makers extra for two foot overhangs on our roof for our south-facing home. No hot sun streaming through the windows in the summer. We went with pretty standard vinyl window but paid for a upgrade for a better, lower u-value. I have no way of checking this, but it wasn't much difference money wise. Another thing we did is went with ductless units for our heating and cooling. We received a energy credit - I believe it was around 2500 dollars. We also installed a electric water heater with a hybrid heat pump that will supposedly Is 70% percent more efficient than a regular electric. Little things that can make a difference is installing LED lighting for all interior and exterior, energy star appliances, and if you can buy land with some mature Deciduous trees, they can make a difference on your power bills. We haven't lived in it full time yet, but we are hoping for a bill in the 90-100 dollar range per month. We'll see how that goes. Just know that things always seem to end up costing more and that it will be a big possibility with your build. When we started out we thought we could do it for 90-100/sf. We spent our personal savings on this home, so it was scary. We didn't have to touch our retirement, and we are mortgage free, but we are broke now and will be working a couple of more years - and we didn't get everything we wanted - I had to kiss my dream kitchen goodbye. I like my IKEA cabinets, but they sure aren't quarter sawn oak. Good luck and I apologize for such a long reply. If you can, please update your progress on here..

Are these your furnishings? Do you have the budget for some new furniture? Here are some things to consider: --If that isn't your bed, then get a full rather than a queen. --Move the bed towards the window. --Get a long, low bookcase with open shelves that you can use as a room divider and bookcase. It doesn't need to be as tall as this one but you get the idea. You want somethingto let the light in. --Get apartment-sized, dual purpose type living area furniture that has simple lines, is up on legs for openness. If you're going with gray in the bedroom, then a smallish, gray tweed sofa with colors from an art work would look great. --Next table on legs can open up as coffee table: --Do get a large, amazing piece of art that will greet you when you come in the door. An abstract citiscape of San Francisco (or not) a SF map, but something big to pull the eye upward. --If you have any kind of entryway, get a dual-purpose entryway desk height console with a bright chair you can roll underneath or out to living area. Ikea has rolling legs you can attach to their tabletops. Make that your desk and rollout dining table. Something like this, but possibly narrower or on a round tabletop.

I would recommend painting the Murphy bed the same color as the walls, although in an eggshell or satin finish instead of flat, which will be a little more durable. The idea is to have the Murphy bed disappear and behave as a fourth wall. I think that will help the overall space feel a little bigger and it will also help the whole space feel brighter. I think renters love a light and bright space. Wood floors of any sort will be very inviting to renters as well. I would stick with natural oak floors, personally. They’re classic. The first few floors you showed have a lightened or “pickled” look to me that may be making a temporary comeback, but I think that will quickly look dated before too long, just like it did in the eighties. Regarding the satin brass handles... that could be a nice touch, and will help update the piece as well. I’d stick with a fairly simple and classic style, but if brass finishes go out of style in a few years again, it will be easy, and fairly inexpensive to switch them out again.