Thanks for the reply's. This will be a monolithic slab and about a 75 yard pour. The min requirement in my area and at 3200 feet elev. is 12"W by 16"D which to me is to little. So I have increased it to 16"W by 20"D after talking to the local inspectors and some concrete finishers in the area. I have already moved hundreds of yards of dirt in order to build a barn and so far over 300' of driveway plus the house location. I have started to level an area to build and hit mostly small rocks, (football size). I have dug trenches as much as 6' deep and find that the trench size is maintained at my bucket width. I ran into two rocks weighing in at around 1000 lbs and getting them out did widen the trench. The photo below gives you the typical soil I'm dealing with, very good until it rains. Because of where we live and where we are building and time spent traveling back and forth as well as renting, we need to work efficient and not waste time. This will be my third house build, one being on an island off the coast of FL. having no bridges. We know how to get it right the first time.

I posted on the decorating forum for you but also thought it might benefit others to know how bad it can get yet end so well. We had a lot of small irritations during our build but also had a couple of MAJOR problems. Our contractor said he would be done in 9 months....but then spent 3 out of 7 days in Texas (we're in CA) trying to save his marriage (he didn't). So basically we got 4 days a week if lucky. The total build from land purchase to key took over 3 years. In that time of course the housing market went to hell and cost of building sky rocketed. Because of that the GC who is a wonderful builder but a terrible businessman went over budget. We fired him, then he quit, then the bank said work it out b/c going with another contractor would be near impossible. So... we paid almost 30% over our estimate. After we were roughed-in on electric, plumbing and HVAC we found out our architect used the wrong elevation and didn't use "snow load" trusses. That cost tens of thousands of dollars extra (architect is reimbursing that). But it also caused a 3 month work stoppage while we researched retrofitting the trusses (and whether the framing would hold the extra weight) in hopes of not having to tear the house down and rebuild again (we would have just walked away if that happened). From that, HVAC was the only rough-in that had to be redone. That caused an ugly return register monstrosity over my fireplace which I'm in the process of "hiding". We moved into our home in August of 2007. Although it took over 3 years to build- it still took a while for me to believe it was mine and not some wonderful vacation that was going to end come each Monday morning. Yes we had punch problems....still have a few minor ones that we know will never be fixed by the GC. But I LOVE my home, the area and especially my neighborhood. DH said once he never understood people that wanted to just stay home on weekend, now he says he does. So hang in there, it's worth it.

You can always put in an offer, an offer is a starting point. It depends on how motivated the builder is. We purchased a home in a similar situation in 1991, the house was a custom house that was loaded with options and had been sitting empty for a year. We made an offer that was about 25% lower than asking price and were surprised when the builder accepted. The market at that time in the area we had relocated to was very slow. We didn't ask for any changes or upgrades, we just figured we got a great deal and we wanted to close before he changed his mind!!!!! If you ask for too much the builder may not accept.

You need an achitect first before a builder and now would be a good time to check them out .Many architects have builders they deal with and IMO a good idea when they are both on the same page. I will say right now no 2 island kitchen they are a huge PITA to work in so once you have a plan you like get an actual kitchen designer , not your architect not a cabinets salesperson.