Olivesmom, you are fighting an uphill struggle. The small North Carolina house is appealing due to its simple, iconic "house" shapes and other simple, straightforward residential design motif. Due to this simplicity of shape, it can have a variety of exterior materials and finishes (including the great red windows with green trim on one side and the equally great green windows with red trim on the other side). In other words, the design of the house is quite simple, which allows some creative diversity in materials and finishes. On the other hand, the builder's houses that you have posted are very complex and competing shapes and forms, and they are very large, further complicating the idea of unity and harmony. When these complex and competing shapes are combined with a variety of materials and finishes (as they almost always seem to be on stock plans and builder's tracts), the final result is anything but simple, unified and harmonious. These large, complex and competing shapes almost always require a very simple and consistent use of chapes, materials and finishes if unity and harmony are desired. Far too often, however, builders and owners seem to want to have as many shapes, materials and finishes as possible with the result that the finished house often looks like an advertising display for residential product manufacturers. Thus, if you stick with the large builders house, you need to simplify and unify as much as possible. For exampe, one of the first things to do is eliminate the arched garage door openings. There are no other arched shapes in the design of the house, as far as I can see, and thus, the arches are a completely foreign and inconsistent element which add to the discordant look of the exterior. Adding "borrowed" projecting shed roofs over selected windows to the existing design is another aesthetic inconsistency. For them to add to the overall character of the house, all of the gabled dormer windows should be changed to similar shed dormers. These are just a couple of examples. Do you see the issue and what needs to be done? Good luck on your project.

Our home is 2178 sq ft and we are building it for $220,000. We told the GC we really wanted to keep it at or around $200,000. Now, the GC knows my sister and he is doing a lot of work himself. We also are going with laminate counter tops, and no 'extras' right now, like crown molding, etc. We went with a shingle roof instead of metal roof. We limited our paint colors and we are painting DD's room ourself (she wants a themed paint). We wanted to be able to do a little bit higher end but it is always something we can change/add later on down the road. We really wanted something we could afford right now and I really am not a fan of granite but I love natural stone. Can't afford that right now! LOL! The only problem we see so far is the flooring. We are on a VERY tight budget and I know we will go over on that. Our cabinets, the builder is staining them himself instead of the cabinet maker. We also have been buying light fixtures here and there out of pocket and the plumbing fixtures I plan on getting off of ebay. Where there is a will there is a way! Oh, that price also includes our septic, and well. We own the land. I really think it all comes down to your choices on things as to really how much you are going to spend.

Love love LOVE your granite and copper sink!!! Love your kitchen cabinets! As for the copper backsplash...in my eyes it would detract from the other really awesome features. I think it would dominate and that would be a shame. Can you return the copper tiles? How about a neutral backsplash and use a row of the copper tiles as a liner maybe 10-12" above the counter? Usually a backsplash ties everything together for a cohesive look. I'd want that gorgeous granite and sink front to be the stars :) Having said ALL that, I went against the advice of the majority of replies concerning my husband's bathroom remodel and we absolutely LOVE it! Wouldn't change a thing (except the painter :o)

Unless you have significant trade skills and will help to construct your own home, I think building a custom home is something for the rich who want what they want at a premium price. Most people cannot afford the premium in a custom home, and it certainly is a losing investment nine times out of 10. Reading your remarks, I think you are clearly the person who should be looking for a premium-built used home that is selling below its cost to build. Such homes can occasionally be purchased at steep discounts. I was toying with the idea of retiring to Nevada, and one home I saw had outrageous build quality. They had high-end stone masonry everywhere and things like custom arching beams. They spent about $375/square foot to build but because the neighborhood had homes with $150 to $200 build cost, the resale value of the home was $240/square foot. I would rather pay $250/square foot as an investment, and buying $375 for $250 is the way I would want to invest $250. I think the problem for people building a custom home with a tight budget is they can be easily fleeced on the home build quality without ever knowing what hit them. For example, to get costs lower the builder may switch to 2x4 framing on 16" centers instead of 2x6 framing on 24" centers. The 2x4 home will be much less insulated and will have very shallow window bays. It will feel cheaper. The odds are you would never ask about the framing. The homebuilder saves a ton of money on his material costs by switching to 2x4. You end up with a home that does not feel quite right and never know what hit you until much later down the road. Where custom home building really shines is in the ability to select high-end materials and building approaches that are never seen in tract homes. For example, when you do the framing you can use new stud designs that incorporate closed-cell foam into a truss design inside the studs. Normally a wood stud in the framing has very poor insulation and directly acts as a heat/cold sink that bypasses your home's insulation. The newer style studs (e.g., "T-Stud" is a brand) have an R-value of 20 (versus 6 for a normal stud) and have four times the strength because of the engineered design. Alternately, you can insulate the outside wall of the home and use SIP insulated panels on the roof, to directly overcome the insulation problems with normal studs. These things can greatly increase the comfort of the home, but they also increase build cost, and in any case, they are rarely done outside of a custom build environment. In a perfect world, in addition to an architect, it would be great to find a home builder that you could hire as a consultant - at an hourly rate - to help educate you about key variables in building a home, and that person could help you to understand budget impacts of various build choices, as well as help you specify things to the builder and architect. I wonder if there are retired home builders who do this on a consulting basis, even remotely.