What does the mortgage-holder on your current house say? My understanding is that you cannot make substantial changes without notifying them ... and tearing it down is pretty substantial!

Structural support is important. Roof must be able to support snow load (if applicable in your area which means beam size determined by span and slope) or strong winds. All support beams to deck should transmit load directly over beams from deck to ground. House attachment does not carry load well unless attached to vertical posts or into house wall joist. Sample graphics suggest posts against house wall to carry roof --if so that is good with house attachment serving primarily to stiffen against sideways wind load. Since there are no diagonal trusses on post make sure there are cross pieces on bottom of roof section to limit flexing on side wind(twisting to collapse horizontal box)

jhmjr, Sorry for the delayed response. I actually made a completely different thread for the final product. Here are the pics and a youtube video for you: We opened up the Pool June 24th, and thouroughly enjoyed the pool the entire summer. East Coast Pool Concepts out of Manalapan NJ did an incredible job from start to finish. I would HIGHLY recommend them for anyone considering a pool in NJ/NY/PA area. I cannot say enough about the quality job these guys did, the attention to detail, and the follow up. Even after the job was done, and I finished my payments, they were still checking up with me and stopping by to make sure all was going well. They build a great pool, they are great to work with and they stand by their work. Here is a youtube video of our pool: Natural Style Pool CNJ by East Coast Pool Concepts Here are the completed pics of our pool: Here is the before pic:

No, it will not be cheaper. I suggest you start by clarifying your goals. Exactly what rooms do you want? What level of finishings (builder basic vs. a luxury build)? Once you're settled on just what you do want, then you can move forward with either building or buying. You should also consider time and effort; building will require more of both, and if your only goal is to have a smaller house, I don't think it'd be worthwhile. You might expand your search to other neighborhoods -- maybe some with not so new houses -- as a way of finding something less expensive. Plus if you're building in an area of 2500 square feet 4 BR 3bth homes, and you put in 1900 square foot 3 br, 2 bath home, if the time ever comes to sell, you'll most likely have a more difficult time selling Maybe, maybe not. John wants a smaller house in Neighborhood X. Someone else might as well, and it's good to be the smallest house in the nicest neighborhood ... or it might allow a less-qualified buyer to get into the neighborhood and add on later. On the other hand, often new neighborhoods have sf requirements, so a smaller house might not be an option. Speaking only for myself, we had trouble with this too. We want a smaller house, and that "closed off" some neighborhoods for us.