$400 is a great price if it includes parts. I just did mine, and it was 2 walls as well, the ceiling and front wall were already done. Cost me about $200 in insulation because 1 bag of batt wasn't quite enough to do it all (have leftover). About another $100 in sheetrock, mud, tape, screws, etc. That was just the first day Since then I have probably spent another $50 or so. Oh, and I already had most of the tools needed. If you don't have those you can probably figure another another $50 - $75 for all the drywall tools, you'll need a good cordless drill if you don't have one. The list goes on. Give the dude $400 and be done with it because I guarantee you'll have $400 in it before you even buy the paint.

Some of the new vinyl soffit materials look very good if installed properly plus they are totally maintance free except for an occasional hosing down. Price wise, it's a toss up depending on a lot of things. I'd guess it'd be less of a hassle for him to have his siding contractors finish the ceilings while they're at it rather than having his carpenters install the wood. I made a lot of money over the years installing vinyl over existing plywood ceilings. The longer you live, the idea of not painting gains greater appeal.

nidnay - at our current facility we have an 8 stall barn with a bathroom, 12' X 18' office, and 12' X 24' tackroom, with the barn being about 125' away from the back of our house (facing it actually). I've lived here for 18 years now and we RARELY EVER use the stalls, so we don't plan on building a 'stable' (or a barn with stalls). The horses are going to live out with shelters in each pasture. Our current barn had to have it's own it's own septic system. $$$ The current land we are looking at only had one perc site for 4 bedrooms. I don't want to pay for the test for a second perc ($250) plus the cost of having another septic system (about $4K), as well as creating a climate controlled office and bathroom in the barn (a mini split system is about $3K and a 2 piece bathroom probably around $2K). That is about $10K right there in a separate septic, a 2 piece bathroom, and office and climate control for both (as well as permitting, creating plans, etc.). All things that would have already been in the house at the square footage we had to build. Plus grading for a large barn was going to be expensive. We found a place next to the house to put in a modest shed row 'barn' for a tack room, feed room and grooming, that will work with the topography of the land for minimal grading work. We did this to keep things cost effective. It's just my husband and I living in this house, it's not like we have kids to keep separated from my business. We're both fine with this situation. The door up the stairs to the main floor will have a lock on it. And I don't have a lesson mill program, I focus on quality not quantity. I've been teaching for over 20 years now. I keep about 8 weekly students at any given time. I get to know my students and my parents well... my students tend to stick around for years. Same for my boarders. We'll have 2 or 3 boarders at the new location. At our current facility 3 of our customers have been with us for 5+ years. At one point or another I end up paying most of my students and all of my boarders to house sit / dog sit / farm sit for us when we go on vacation. I'm pretty confident they are not going to bust the door down to access the main floor of my home. And they won't be there at inappropriate hours of the day / night anyhow. Vigil Carter - I guess you didn't read my last post. We priced out a 1 story 'ranch' with the same builder. 2200 sq ft was going to cost $209,000 THEN another $15K because of the sloped ground to add more courses to the crawl space foundation. This 1700 sq ft two story house, without walkout basement, came in at $178K pre-basement. The cost of the completely finished 840 sq ft basement, with a grand total heated sq ft of 2540, came to a total less than the single story 2200 sq ft ranch. Though we could have gotten a separate entrance in-law space, the in-law space would have been way smaller (by over 150 sq ft) and I would not have had an office that was separate from my main living space. I lift 50 pound bags of feed and hay nearly daily and my husband is military / infantry, we are active horse riders and hikers. I think we can handle interior stairs for another 12+ years. :) At that point if it starts to bother us then we can add a master suit to the side of the house (which we had already spec'd out anyhow but we just do not need at this time).

Not sure if this pic is any help. most of the space is useless, but not those yellow spaces. This room is already framed. Standing in there, i would say the small spaces are 3.5 ft deep, 2.5ft wide, and 3 ft tall (at shortest point), finished would be about 3ft deep, 2 ft wide and slope down to a 2.5ft ceiling. Im leaning toward finished closet space for the big yellow with a half door, walling off the other yellow on that wall, then finishing the nook on the adjacent walls.