The longest journey begins with a single step!

A groundbreaking day! We didn't really break ground today, but we DID break THE ground for the first time. Early March, mid 70's, sunny and breezy. What better time to think about a Christmas Tree! It was finally nice enough to think about digging in the dirt so Sue & I made a field trip today after Church & planted last year's Christmas Tree! Great Fun! Sue read... I sweated. Then we both took a nap in the grass, in the sun. All-in-all a successful outing and the first of many times I'll take a nap on that hillside.

Ahhhh. The budget????

18 months later, we now know better. In October 2007, we thought you could build a custom home for around $125/ sq ft. That's what the web resources said. That's what the Architects said. The "devil in in the details", however is very true in home building. While I have no doubt that the spartan little homes on flat downtown 'in-fill' lots that are the prototypical "green" home can be built for that, we were clearly naive to plan on it for our home. The cost of site work and all the unfinished spaces don't fit into tidy calculations like 2290 sqft x $125 = ~ $300,000. Boy, did we miss the mark!

In all honesty, we DID know there would be extra costs associated with our lot: gently sloping vs. flat; a new development vs. in-fill; 3+ acres, off the road vs. 1/2 acre in town. We knew all that, but didn't fully appreciate the magnitude of the cost impact of those details. Soooo.. we naively pressed on thinking that we could build this house, lot and all for around $420,000.