From what I have heard and experienced, totally normal. Feel lucky your builder has been out to fix though, because mine hasn't showed up yet (was supposed to have been here in November to fix some things!!). :-P

I have all stained woodwork and doors, and I have natural hickory floors. I love the look, but it I know some people would find it heavy. I also love the look of painted trim, and stained doors. I also think it looks nice to have white windows with stained trim, or the reverse with stained windows and white trim. A combination of painted and stained elements satisfies both of you. I think you can use any finish for your kitchen faucet as long as it doesn't sit directly on the sink. If you have an undermount sink, your faucet will sit on the counter.

Lots of good suggestions have already been posted. Here are a couple I don't think anyone has mentioned... Lights in our walk-in closets will be wired to door switches so that the light comes on automatically when you open the door and goes out automatically when you close the door - like a refrigerator light. I'm hoping this set-up will also help me train DH to CLOSE his closet door instead of leaving it standing open all the time! Several outlets in the soffits way around the house for plugging in Christmas lights - all are wired to a single switch for ease in turning lights on/off. Extra lights in our stick-built attic space with a switch by the access door so we don't have to use flashlights to find stuff stored up there. Everyplace I've ever lived had one light in the attic at most. Even with it on, the thing you're looking for is always in some other corner that is dark. Mirror defoggers in the bathrooms (a very inexpensive luxury!) Outdoor lights specially positioned for reading when one is sitting on our porch swing. A floodlight positioned to shine up and into the stained glass window that is in our the stairwell so we can enjoy it at night. Lots of extra electrical outlets around the exterior of the house.

Waste..... Foaming the walls is a waste. Go to any green building forum and it is almost universally felt that foaming walls is a waste of money. The foam salesmen are about the only ones that disagree. In my east facing house with 2x4 fiberglass batts, the walls and attic only account for 20% of total heat gain (energy audit). You are going to spend $10k to make that 20% come down to 15%. I have a similar size house in NC and I spent about $20k on Carrier Infinity 15/16 with heat pumps and 90% NG furnace and zoning and humidifier. So I think the $36k is absolutely crap. But $11k is a bit ridiculous also given the specs. In fact- I just can't believe it. Manual J is required in NC by code - so I don't know what to tell you. It is standard around here for quotes/bids. Oversizing sucks. 2 stage helps compensate. An is an air quality thing more than anything else. It is rarely cost effective. Texas is big - what is your area and ideally what is your HDD and CDD? Here is what I would do - presuming you live in a 90% cooling area. - Build with 2x4s and sheath the house in 1 inch rigid foam. If it really hot, you could go to 2 inches of foam. - Focus on minimizing East and West windows. If you can't - then really focus on low SHGC windows. All windows are low-e nowadays but SHGCs vary considerably - there are basic windows at .2 and .45 - a rather huge difference. Overhang the windows as much as you can tolerate. Big deep porches. Do those things and you should be able to get down to 2 2ton units which you should be able to get for $10k for seer 15 or 16. Most people don't find it worthwhile to get seer 18 equipment. Usually with new construction, you can spend that $5k (or whatever) on shell improvements (windows, overhangs) and get a better permanent ROI. There is no disagreement anywhere that 2inches of rigid foam on a 2x4 wall filled with blown cellulose outperforms a 2x6 wall with spray foam (and does so at a lower cost). Lastly - why an unvented attic? Because the ductwork is there? The best practice is to get the ductwork out of the attic in the first place. It is cheaper and far more cost effective. My personal house (4000+basement) would cost $10k to spray foam the attic at a estimated annual savings of.... $70. How about that ROI....