If we had been able to build this house 2 years ago, it probably would have cost $100,000 less. Since we started the whole process, materials costs have gone way up and property values have dropped; not a good combination when building a house.
As the bank lady was looking through all of our numbers, she didn't have a really positive look on her face. I knew that the number that we gave her for the estimated cost of building the house was higher than we expected (much higher, in fact) but she said she'd have the people upstairs look at it and see if they'd recommend it for approval. Thank goodness we have "premium" credit scores and hardly any debt... if we had any debt besides the home loan, we'd be over the 55% debt to income ratio, and they wouldn't approve the loan. Then we'd really be back at square one.
As it is, we're looking at areas to cut back our estimated construction costs. We can't really cut back the major costs, such as all the work for the foundation, septic and water systems and I'm not willing to sacrifice the radiant heating system. It looks like we'll have to tighten our belts in places like cabinetry, tile, trim and appliances.
We'll figure it out even if we have to live in an unpainted (but warm and dry) shell of a house for awhile.
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