George I don't know, I haven't researched the Euro Ariel..they do both say professional and both are made by P&G, I will have to check it out...you will be getting your tide prof soon, omg I double zip lock bagged them, than put them in bubble lined brown mailing envelopes, hubs took them to the post office, the next day I was ask to come to the post office and was ask permission to open one, I gave my permission, they only opened one, looked, sniffed and said thank you, gave me tape to reseal and told me my next package would be postage paid...I'm like omg you people are thinking this is drugs..they said they were sorry, but its a small town and they have found a lot of drugs passing thru the USP service...I was furious..they offered me a free postage package any size within reason and gave me a book of stamps..I guess I understand, its a small town and since I live outside of town they don't know me but hell that pissed me off...now I crack up when I think about it, I'm running a detergent ring thru the mail, lmao.I told them yes I'm addicted to Tide. By the time I left I had them all laughing, and I had a voucher for postage paid package up to 31 pounds and a book of stamps 12 postage paid long envelopes and a keychain with a tiny map of my town.This could only happen to me. Remind me to tell you the story of an older man that ended up in my grocery cart at walmart holding a box of Tide/ bleach. Haha.

As others have said, how property taxes are figured varies greatly from state to state, and in some places county to county. You are best off figuring out with the tax assessor how they figure taxes on new construction to begin with. In our area for instance property taxes are intended to align with the resale value. As houses sell, the assessed value of these houses and their neighbors is adjusted to reflect the market value. For new houses, they estimate a market value based off of a series of factors and calculations. Ground floor square footage is assigned a per square foot value based on the construction type; second floors and finished basements are assigned a value half that of the first floor. Finished attics are assigned 1/4 of the value of the first floor. Features like extra plumbing fixtures, fireplaces, patios, and porches add value. Then an architectural factor is applied to the house based on it's condition (would be an A if brand new) and it's general quality of materials. Lastly the value is multiplied by a location factor based on neighboring sales and construction costs and added to the value of the land. So as you see, this is a very complex and location specific method for determining taxes. There's really no way for certain to know what construction decisions could decrease taxes without talking to you assessor's office. oh, I will note that when my parents built, they were as vague as possible about their interior finishes in the set of drawings that they submitted to the county as possible in an attempt to keep the assessed value down.

It's a common issue. It took over a year and a half for my house to be built far enough for me to be able to move in. Even if your GC wants to work all the time only on your place, he has to wait on subs and professional electricians, plumbers etc. On supplies to arrive. For inspections to happen. In my locale, permitters and inspectors only appear to work one day a week or pretty close to that. And yes, my GC had his slow moments I still can't account for on top of that. I took over the painting of the basement and a few other minor things after I was legal and living here. (Pro work in the way of aesthetics in an unfinished basement was not necessary, since I never plan to "finish" it anyway. I like seeing where pipes run so I can spot leaks before they get out of hand.)

@John Hrivnak, ArCH, AIA, MBA, NCARB, LEED AP - This is a problem with anecdotal evidence. You are not going to architect your way out of a bad builder. When we look at the advantages and disadvantages of design/build firms in aggregate it is pretty easy figure the trade-offs inherent in the model. This is not rocket surgery, it is a simple backward or forward vertical integration business combination and they have been happening a long time now. Somewhere deep in the past a wine maker said. "I think we would be more profitable if we grow the grapes." THE GOOD Every combination requires synergy, so the two parts being better together than they would be apart. In the case of the winery owning the grapes it is a change in the decisions around growing and harvesting grapes. Essentially you can tailor your wine to your grapes and your grapes to your wine. In design/build firms plans will be tailored to take advantage of builder proficiencies and enhanced communications. The designer will be able to anticipate areas where the builder may struggle and will design away from that when possible and communicate more clearly when not. Plans are more likely to hit cost targets as the design process is automatically designing to efficiency. There will also be more communication between the builder and designer during the design phase when they are in the same office. THE BAD Every combination has a sacrifice because of the exclusive nature of the combination. In the case of a winery, if you own the fields and have a grape harvest that is not particularly fantastic while a competing grower has a fantastic harvest, you are still required to use your grapes. If you sell your grapes and buy the others you have destroyed all of the value in the combination. In design/build firms that tailoring of plans to building efficiency will limit creativity. An architect for a design build firm is not going to design towards something the builder is not good at doing. They are going to design to strengths and away from weaknesses. Those strengths and weaknesses might not be shared by every builder. This is a tangible weakness and should be given serious consideration (e.g. If a builder has a preferred window supplier the designer is likely to find a way to incorporate those windows in the design even if a different window would be better). --- This entire thing assumes that quality is equal across the board, which it is not. I can assure you that the answer above is correct, yet it is also meaningless in your decision. Your decision is going to be based on your needs and your market. In your market you may well have several architect driven design/build firms (forward vertical integration), or you might have cost conscience builders providing design services (backward vertical integration). Do your due diligence and then pick the arrangement that you are most comfortable with. I would advise that you take pricing quotes with a grain of salt, the best value is not likely to depend on a quoted upfront price. Also I personally would not look at portability of plans from a design/build firm. This seems like the worst of all worlds... You limit design to strengths of one firm and then don't use that firm. Just my 2 cents... Good luck.