It has been a week of one step forward and a thousand steps backward.
The step forward has been getting the acre cleared of all the huge weeds. We ended up being able to hire a neighbor who hires himself and his tractor out for just this sort of thing. It was fast and affordable.
In the last photo, you can’t see the last few yards that slope down to the river’s edge. You can see the tops of the tall shrubs and short trees next to the water.
It all looks so hopeful and ready. But there are serious setbacks…
To help you understand, let me take you back to our first meeting with the architect. The meeting where we told her our budget. Based on her experience and what we had seen about price per square foot, she came up with the design that is now nearly finished. To be perfectly clear, we had very specifically talked about money and what we wanted to spend. This was reiterated at all planning meetings.
Unfortunately, when she spoke with 2 different contractors over the last couple of weeks, they projected a price double of that amount. We were in shock!
There are a few suggested reasons for this huge discrepancy. According to the contractors,
- the design has a lot of cement,
- the building lot is “not close to Boise” (they say they will have trouble getting people to work ‘out there’, and
- they are very busy.
According to other sources, the contractors might just be bidding super high because the market is so hot right now and they think they can.
As we have continued to look at similar new builds, they are not charging anything near what these contractors are quoting. We hope to talk to at least one contractor who actually works in Marsing and doesn’t view it as a foreign country.
How much dream can we hold on to?
We still don’t know the answer to that question. We have talked about a few options.
- We could save about 20% by Greg being the general contractor, but he really doesn’t feel up to that
- We might be able to find a builder who sees the house as basically the 2 story house with a daylight basement that it is.
- Our architect might come up with a one level plan that is acceptable (I really love the 2 story plan)
- We could find a cookie cutter house plan.
To be honest, our minds are still spinning at the moment. The disappointment is deep.
There are undercurrents to my disappointment that I spent hours unraveling in the garden today. It was somewhat a relief to gain insight into how this tied into various threads in my life, but I won’t go into that now. Suffice to say, I finally recognized how it was all connected and that is helping me.
Was it our last meeting with the architect?
That remains to be seen. She did send all her drawings with us. We are still waiting on a fast sketch of a single story plan.
Here is what we were dreaming of:
Some things seem more certain than others
It is still a solid plan to build on the Snake River lot. The timing of that will be up in the air until we nail down a house plan. But I don’t think I will be able to function well if it is all unknown for too much longer.