Costs to build Victoria's Cottage

[callie]

We purchased plans for Victoria's Cottage and have been giving thought to various aspects of when we build our house.  We have a beautiful piece of farm land in western Tennessee on which to site the house, perhaps in spring of '07 - but have become a little bogged down on construction calculations.  Our question is specifically, can anyone who has already built the Victoria's Cottage (by yourself, without the help of a contractor) give us an idea of cost, pricing insights?  Thanks!

[PEG688]

Callie I'd suggest you take the plans to a [highlight]few[/highlight] lumber yards / suppliers in your area . Most here do lumber take offs at no charge , if John has not included a materials list , the yard should take the plans and give you at the least a a dollar number for the materials , they many give you a detailed break down of the materials they'd estimate you'd use . Of course I'd  add a 10 to 15 % additional $ to cover the little things they'd miss.

If your just looking for materials cost that would be the best / closest number you could get. Materials cost coast to coast could / would vary widely. Each region has it's way / use of materials / differences.

Your type of siding / wood / Hardi / vinyl / ,,type of windows / wood / metal / vinyl / etc would all lead to widely varing material costs.  

 G/L maybe you can report back on what your estimate, in your region would cost

PEG

[John_C]

Callie,
There are so many variables to look at.  In my current house, which I built 19 yrs ago,  the main electric panel in the utilty room and the electric meter are on oppisite sides of the same wall about 18 inches apart.  There was very little main service cable required. Had I built a mirror image of the same house I could have spent hundreds of dollars on main service cable because the power company would not have put the meter on that side of the house.

Tile distributors routinely discount any stock when they only have 100 sq. ft. or less.  It's harder for them to sell because there isn't enough to tile a whole room.  You can tile a fair amount of countertop with these "remnants".  I think I paid about 35¢ sq ft for the tile I used in my kitchen.  For my new house I will probably use an acid stained poured concrete countertop.  These things are considered an upgrade fron granite.  In Atlanta they are getting $90 to $150  per sq ft for them.  The raw materials are pretty inexpensive and there are very good tutorials online or through Amazon.. Barnes & Noble etc.

Recently I was pricing sliding glass doors at one of the big box stores.  The white framed door was just under $300.  The same door, same manufacturer with any other color frame was $659.....  "It's a special order".  

When I built my house in Florida we saw an ad in the newspaper that a developer was selling the appliances out of a model unit (I don't know why).  We bought the Jenn-Air drop in stove/oven for $150.   I doubt it had ever been used.

There are so many places where you can save hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Lots of folks here can give examples that you may be able to chase down in your area.  John's window suggestion is one I recently became aware of.   Good Luck

[Amanda_931]

N.B. Parts of West Tennessee are at risk for earthquakes.  So depending on where you are (near Reelfoot Lake, for instance--or all the way down to Memphis not far from the Mississippi river) you may get to think about building for that.  On the other hand, my friends up in Paris TN occasionally notice something, but their risk is way down.  As mine would have been if I'd bought in Benton County instead of Wayne.

We get very occasional ones on this side of the Tennessee River--friends had a noticeable one a year or so ago (Middle Tennessee).  The probability picks up again once you get into the Eastern time zone (East Tennessee).