quote:
If you're still looking for plans, remember that corners cost money, roofline elevation changes cost money, and auxiliary spaces like porches and garages don't necessarily add $$ to the appraisal value, but they certainly add to the cost.

Very true. The roofline some a-hole architect had on the pre-redrawn plan had about 8 extra gables. Redesign of the roof chipped something like $25,000 off our estimate. It seems like most builders can look at the base layout of a plan and the base elevation and make an "expensive or not expensive" judgement in like 15 minutes.

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Posted by hungryone

river parishes

Member since Sep 2010

11987 posts

Posted on 3/25/15 at 9:43 am to BeerMoney

Yes, they absolutely can. For someone doing a custom build within a reasonable budget, my best advice is to pick out a range of plans and then meet with your builder (or several, if you haven't picked one out & plan to solicit bids on the job). The builder can tell you which style/house type will be more or less expensive based on a simple sketch plan (the kind displayed for free on the web).

Exterior decorative details (box or bay windows, specialty brickwork details, columns, operable shutters, dormers, etc) can really increase the overall price. Cost is a reason you see so damn many square-box, faux French provincial houses going up all over LA. They're cheap to build--four corners, hipped roof, prefab dormers, no front porches or columns, simple windows--and people are sheep, thinking that their house must look like every other one built in the last 10 years.

This post was edited on 3/25/15 at 10:21 am

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