What will it cost? Almost there on the budget for our green house in Houston
I wrote back in October that we were entering the "quiet" phase of getting our house priced by our builder, Michael Strong of Green Haus Builders (
www.greenhausbuilders.com). Although not much has happened on the blog here, we have been quite busy in the background - selections, decisions, budgets.
One way of measuring our progress, is the building budget - the diagram shows the ups, and thankfully also downs, of the overall budget.
Our original goal had been $450,000 - admittedly unrealistic, not least because we are at about 3,200 sq ft up from the 3,000 sq ft initially considered. On the other hand, when we went above the $600,000 mark that caused us to consider some priorities. Although we are not yet done, it is clear that the curve will head up again before we are done, to accommodate some foundation number and a couple of other things.
So what's gone? We lost the metal siding and chose Hardi Plank, a durable concrete product that can be painted. We still kept the metal roof! The landscaping has gotten simple. We lost some high-end electronics. We reduced the stone to focus on the front of the house. We kept the great windows and the roll shutters. So we managed to hang onto alot of what we wanted. So we are beginning to feel happy. I will post the final budget numbers once we have them.
We are near the end of the architecture phase - we had a long meeting with our architects, RD Architecture (www.rdarc.com) to go over final details - electrician plan, cabinetry, millwork etc. We saw lots of lovely elevations of what is planned, and that really makes the house come alive as a habitat. Exciting! Soon it will be time to get the financing, and then its off to the races...!
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by Oliver Bogler
