you can cut finishes all you want, but the fastest way to cut bigger costs is in square footage. Sometimes this just isnt possible however as I understand. But think long and hard about sizes of spaces. Without reviewing your plan, you may be able to achieve some cost savings. You can cut finishes, but you are cutting hundreds out of various areas, and sometimes thousands, but its rarely more than people think. Depending on the home, but on average, finishes account for quite a small % of a project. When you cut square footage, not only are you cutting finishes within that space, but you are cutting foundation, slabs, floor structure, exterior wall framing and insulation, trusses, roof covering, etc. Unfortunately, (again, without reviewing your plans) I do not see anything on that list that will get you to $40k in reductions. One thing to consider is if there is any DIY ability in your build. This can save quite a bit of money as long as the capabilites are there (and the desire!). A lot of people do flooring installations, tile installations, painting, build back decks, finish out the basement themselves, etc. Also check into allowances for things included in your build such as appliances and floor coverings. See if there are any ways to reduce costs here that would include purchasing them yourself (not always a cost savings) or going with lower grade appliances than planned (again, assuming they were higher end anyway). The comment to talk to the builders and see what standard plans they have is also a good suggestion. You may be able to get away with tweaking one to work for your needs that would reduce cost.

I'm located in a hot Southern climate. We're technically north of Atlanta in latitude, but much flatter in altitude which can make a big difference. Someone south of Atlanta is likely to experience similar weather. I have friends in Warner Robbins, and our summer weather is usually within a few degrees of each other. Delta heat and humidity is brutal. We get MUCH hotter and humid springs and falls than most realize. And "humidity season" is about 10 months long. The Gulf is always swirling up massive amounts of moisture into the region. It's basically summer from April til October. Heating season is only 3-4 months long here while cooling season can run 8-10 months. There are months that overlap. Hot in the day and cool at night. It's not so much the temperature in those overlap months as it is the humidity. 81 degrees and 95% humidity is pretty darn clammy and miserable and so needs the AC to dehumidify the air. Same with 55 degrees and 90% humidity. It feels colder than it actually is because of the humidity and putting on a sweater only helps marginally. Gotta run the heat a bit to make the temp more comfortable. There are about three weeks in fall and three weeks in spring when you can actually open the windows and not suffer due to letting the humidity into the house. Planning for solar heat gain in the winter is practically ludicrous with those conditions. It's not that darn cold to begin with! Add in a bit of low sun solar gain to your average 40-50 degree winter high temperature and the house will get to 80 in no time. My neighbor's attached Southern facing un-HVAC'd sunroom regularly gets to 95 degrees on a sunny December day. In summer, even with decent overhangs, it's 130 in there by noon. Try to work with that for your home's cooling load! This is why I stated that solar planning for the South is more about minimizing the solar gain rather than trying to harness it for the brief heating period that happens. Your major energy dollars spent here are in cooling. Minimizing loads to the cooling system with the home's design is what pays off here---IF, as David says, the homeowner has the luxury of enough room to accomplish that. 95% of those building will do so on lots too small to do much more than trying to get the right windows for those Southern facing heat gainers.

I am not sure I would say the Marvin Ultimates have the least amount of complaints unless you were to evaluate that data against the number of times that window is used. Marvin builds a fantastic window, the but Ultimate, much like all of the premium wood options, gets used few and far between and probably by a more skilled builder or remodeler. As such, I am willing to bet that has some impact on the amount of complaints. If you contrast that to Andersen where they are very common place at Home Depot, Lowes, and most lumber yards, they get used more. Now...is the Marvin a nicer window...yes. I just wanted to point out this detail for consideration about your observed data. If you haven't looked at the Marvin Integrity, it is probably worth consideration along side the Andersen 400 and should be a bit cheaper as well and is usually a decent bit less than the Ultimate. Stay organized and take notes...you will make it through.

There really just isnt big tract build subdivisions in my area. This is a smaller town that we are trying to build in. looking about an hour away, yes there's tract homes within our budget that have the needed square footage. Besides that, i really dont think its a good comparison. The price on a tract home isnt factoring in all the work ill be putting into this house. I mentioned in the other thread, ive looked pretty thoroughly for homes that could work for us in this area and there just arent any. They are either too big, too small, or just cant be split the way we want. As for the sweat equity, yes i could do some of the work like adding kitchen cabinets in an existing bi level. My expertise is mostly cabinets, door building, door hanging, trim, tile, flooring, sheet rock, things like that. Im not a roofer, electrician, plumber, hvac specialist, septic specialist, well specialist. I honestly feel that my sweat equity can be much better taken advantage of in a new build where all the things i can do are needed, and all the things i cant do will be brand new and not possibly needing maintenance in the near future. An older existing house is more likely to need work in areas where my skills wont do much good. As for the sloping lots, thats just whats available at lower cost. For a nice flat lot, price jumps up another 30k or so. there just isnt much available in the area. My builder is the one that suggested a walkout basement could be an efficient way to get the space we need for lower cost. A sloped lot allows for a basement with plenty of light, perfectly livable, and 1 floor above. On a flat lot, you would still need 4 feet of crawl space, then 2 floors above it. With sloped and walkout, your adding another 4 feet of foundation, pouring a slab, and eliminating a whole floor. This second layout with fill is obviously not as efficient as the dug down walkout, and also definitely to the point of more expensive than building on a flat lot. The question is, how much more expensive? Just very rough estimate. Would it be cheaper to spend an extra 30k for a flat lot? As for classifying it as a "budget build", lets change that to building on whats available with budget in mind. Even if we end up building on a lot that has a not so budget excavation and foundation, im still going to do what i can to reduce cost where possible. Cadet heaters, laminate flooring, vinyl siding, etc. Another thing, ive been talking with bank and the budget could possibly be up closer to 300k.