My fiance and I have been looking to buy our first home for almost a year now. We have been looking for an older home (pre 1930's), because we love the historical feel, especially victorian architecture. A lot of us have that same dream. When I was a teen, I was dating a guy that was in a fraternity that was out of a beautiful Victorian. I remember the stairway, the flowers that were engraved in the wood. I remember the "dome room" and while it was a PITA to put furniture in, amazed me every time I went into it. I remember beautiful moldings, everything was etched and 3 or 4 fireplaces. It had a decent sized kitchen from what I remember, also had a servant room. Man I loved that house and swore that one day, if I could afford to have the house moved I would. The house was located in one of the worst neighborhoods. You had to lock your doors to drive there and run in the house. I bet that in it's day, it was one of the grandest houses. They ended up knocking it down, don't know when but I drove by about 16 years ago, there was nothing on the lot. Anyway, a lot of us have the same dream, to own a beautiful, grand house. Reality is the lack of things needed to live in it in today's world as Tricia said. Since you are not married with kids yet, it wouldn't really matter much, you would probably get by fine. Once you have kids and they start getting older is when you will notice how hard it is to raise a family there unless you luck out and get a house that has larger rooms where you can make closets, or one that has a decent kitchen. I wonder then if my fiance and I should actually change our dream to accomodate the current economy and the deals available? IMO, this might be a good idea, at least for now. Being newly married can be stressful. Unless the 2 of you are currently living together, you have to learn to live with your partner. How do both of you handle stress? Buying a house that you are working on all of the time is very stressful and could eventually start pulling you apart. You'll come home from work some days so tired but you have to sand & throw another coat of spackle on, or paint, or run out to the home store to buy supplies. Hubby & I worked on our last house starting 2 years after I moved in. We removed paneling, faux brick, painted, put in floors as well as putting a new floor frame on a concrete slab in the laundry area to build it up so that we could put a floor down. By the time we sold we were tired & cranky. Add to this a roof, electric upgrade, plumbing, which was a job in itself since there was only 1 shutoff valve, which meant we lost water for the day. We also did central air, a hot water heater as well as new furnace, and had planned to redo all of the baseboards as well. Are there any houses that are in between the old house and new construction for a compromise? You might be able to live a little bit more comfortably and not have to work as hard. It will also give you an idea of how the 2 of you work together as a team (or not). You can save the Victorian house for later on

Now that you have discovered you have natural gas, are you going to investigate who much it will cost to bring a pipe into your house? I don't see in the load calculation the R values for the walls and attic? Do you know what values were used for spray foam and batt insulation? Do you know how the spray insulation will be installed in the attic? Will it be open or closed cell? The firs quote is for a 4 ton single stage heat pump (XR15) while the second is for a 5 ton variable speed heat pump (XV20i) which is Trane's top of the line product. It is not a fair apples to apples comparison, but the price gap is big. You need to ask about the size for the second quote.

I take it you dont have a new home warranty? (They are required where I am up in Canada, but let me tell you, that 'warranty' isnt all its cracked up to be either). If you dont have a warranty, best bet it to get a 3rd party expert (or two) and serve your builder with copies and politely ask him again to remedy. If not, pursue small claims. (Sadly these are workmanship, not code issues, or I'd suggest you sick your building inspector on him). Good luck, I get what you are saying about yoru house - I'm waiting for a new home warranty claim to be resolved - spring came and my drywall got ruined due to a water intrusion issue! The warranty rep and GC are speaking to each other, but refuse to speak to me. (I have to wait for 'paperwork to come in the mail', grrrr...)

Talk to your excavator, they should be the only trailer besides backfill, and they can unload at the street or if you already have the drive installed, they can back in. Only thing helpful at the pad location would be a turnaround, that just depends on your soil type if you're not dumping gravel for that. If you have a basement or sloping site needing graded, the bucket or blade will be tracks so the pad condition isn't important. If just a slab on grade it'll probably be a backhoe so soft spots filled and stumps ground around the pad perimeter. Concrete and delivery trucks after that are probably all tandem axles so they're used to 3-point turns. For a well rig can't run a construction entrance to where that will probably be.