Hello again all, Wow!! Thanks so much for the trades everyone! Please double check that I've got the details right from all the posts: Gardeng8 I'm looking forward to your: monkshood, Karl Forster grass, obsidian heuchera, ws siberian wallflower and Yvonne's salvia (any chance that you could find more to trade so I could get a 2nd or 3rd one? I'm getting some from Jeff too, but if possible I'd like to have enough to put some in my front yard too to give the other hummer in the neighbourhood somewhere to drink (she gets chased off by my regular gal), I'd give up the heuchera for that :-). I have you down for my: dark blue agastache, Hummingbird red nicotiana, sweet william pinochio, and hot pink cranesbill geranium. greylady-gardener/lois: I'm excited about the virginia bluebell and honeysuckle vine, do you have any more of the: short (approx one foot) iris-plain yellow. I have the following set aside for you: spiderwort navaho princess, sweet william pinnochio, gaillardia burgundy, agastache Heather Queen signet/heather: I have us down as trading your: mini purple iris, unknown name red lily, yellow canna, and hopefully you still have some of the medium height dark purple iris or if not some of the brunnera 'Jack Frost'- if you have more of it, for my: cuphea Starlet, rue, burgundy leaved coral bells, French tarragon, Hummingbird red nicotiana rosco_P: I have us down for trading your monkshood and kerria for my: sundrops, Lorraine sunshine. Is there anything else in my list that you would like in exchange for a 2 or 3 cardinal climbers? flowergirl_on/Merja: Thanks for the trade of your:tall white phlox, leopard's bane, white peachleaved bellflower, aster tongolensis star of wartburg, and white datura for my: lavatera Mont Blanc, giant snapdragons - chunks, cerinthe major, Monet's Choice orange cosmos, and Hummingbird red nicotiana nyssaman Jeff - Thanks for setting aside a couple of Yvonne's salvia for me I don't know what gives with my germination of these, the salvia coccinea pretty much all germinated in the same conditions !? I've set aside a couple of the cerinthe major for you, I got the seeds on a trade as a darker blue than the usual one. frogged: Yes I do have Signet Lemon marigolds - they are supposed to be pretty bushy with single yellow flowers I'll set some aside for your yellow iris barb from london: Welcome back! On the off chance that there is something of interest on my list I'd love some of your: dwarf purple iris - possibly darth vader. Mom of Three: I'd love some of your manure if there is any left, yellow daylilies, sunflower Carol - 3 if possible, or pink ground phlox if you have another division, for my: dark purple columbine, gaillardia blanket flower, hot pink climbing rose, groundcover sedum Dragon's blood, Hummingbird Red nicotiana, and some rose of Sharon. Bev_W: Do you have any Red cypress vine Ipomoea quamoclit (seedlings in 3" pots) left? I spring sowed them but they succumbed to something... I'd love 2 or 3 if possible, if not I'd like some Verbena (blue, perennial, ground-cover type, gorgeous) or Phlox paniculata (seedling of 'David") or either: Penstemon whippleanus "Chocolate Drop", Penstemon smallii "Violet Dusk" I have a bunch of white cleome and 2 cuphea starlet set aside for you, does anything else of mine tempt you? Thanks to everyone for the great trades! It's like Christmas to me to get such wonderful stuff. Cheers, Heather/Blueiris3

$360,000 to build + $200,000 for 40 acres with 330' lakeshore in MN. The cost to build includes about $30,000 for gravel driveway, $7,500 for underground electricity, well for $6,250 and $10,500 for septic. 4 BR/2.5 bath. 1,450 sq ft main finished, 1,100 2nd level finished, 1,450 basement unfinished, 780 bonus room unfinished. 2-car garage unfinished, 28'x28'=780 sq ft. Colonial variation with 6 dormers. 9' ceilings throughout including basement. Open floor plan two story great room/kitchen/dining room. Master BR and laundry on Main Floor. Split-faced block, Hardiboard siding. 8/12 pitch with architectural 40-yr shingles. Upper mid-level finishes. Large porcelain tile, BR-111 Amendoim wood floor, 48" stainless steel double oven stove with custom 48" range hood, maple stair treads and railings with white balusters, maple fireplace hearth surround, custom mudroom lockers, geothermal HVAC including radiant floor in basement plus desuperheater, garage and bathroom tile floors, closed cell sprayfoam insulation, quality vinyl argon-filled casement windows. Finished building August, 2009. Hopefully plan on never moving. I was nervous building in a severe market collapse because I didn't know what would happen if our appraisal was less than what it cost to build. Local lender really helped as well as one-time close construction to permanent loan as they had an incentive to get it closed. I was technically the GC although we had an experienced, quality builder. I did the tile, wood floors, built master shower, painting, basement waterproofing, interior and exterior drain tile, much of radiant tubing and below slab insulation, closet systems, pantry, low voltage wiring including Cat6 and coax to multiple locations in each room, security wiring, music system and speaker wiring, fireplace mantle, hearth and surround, etc. On-site every day after work and many days before work too and every weekend.

Virgil said: "More to the point, cost vary due to complexity, quality and frankly, lack of thought resulting in change orders during construction." Exactly. Are you building a basic house with clamshell molding or no molding around the windows, inexpensive carpeting throughout, minimal tile, laminate counters, etc or are you building a top of the line house with 10" crown moldings, 8" baseboard molding, calcutta marble tile in the bathrooms, Sub zero quality appliances, hand scraped hardwood floors throughout, and fireplaces in every room? Are you building in a HCOLA area or in you in a rural area where land and labor are inexpensive? A great example is my house which is custom. If I go with his basic features, which are still very nice, my cost per square foot will be $217 a square foot. Not cheap but it does include granite, tile, wood floors, a pool with hot tub, security system, a Bosch appliance package, tankless water system, semi custom cabinets, Kohler quality fixtures and many other options. However if I add every single option at the maximum price, meaning I decide I can't live without the $50 a square foot tile, or need more expensive wood flooring, the elevator, a full outdoor kitchen, upgraded moldings, a fancier staircase, etc, etc, the price could jump to as high as $279 a square foot. I can go outside my target area to an area that is 5-10 miles from where we're building and can build a house for 1/2 the price per square foot. Same zip code even. So as Virgil is saying, it really means nothing what the square foot price to build is.

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.