We gave up a finished basement. My husband is quite the handy man and will do it himeself in about a year. He did our last house and it looked like a professional job. That saved about 40,000.

Robin - If you are really serious about not being able to go over at all or you will be SOL, you really need to reconsider your plan. Esacavating is the big question mark when it comes to building. You will probably find in your contract that the price quoted to you is for escavating the perfect lot without any problems. If they hit rock you will be responsible for the extra cost. There is no way to foresee these problems and escavator will protect him/herself from financial loss in the contract.

We had a budget for the house and put extra money aside for decorating. Well my "decorating" budget has turned into the "we better do this now and the OMG we forgot about this" budget.

I'm really glad we put that extra $$$ aside, otherwise I would be freaking out about now. However the money well is about dry so I reserve the right to freakout at a later date.

Well, we eliminated a bedroom (from four to three), we're not installing the built ins in the great room, not installing cabinets in the laundry room, and are using a laminate on the kitchen counters for now. We figured the cabinets in the laundry and greatroom and kitchen counter tops can be done later.

Masonry fireplaces - we did zero clearance fireplaces instead and wrapped the exterior of the chimneys in blue stone. Inside we'll cover each fireplace with tile.

Built Ins - I really wanted a built in kitchen nook and it just wouldn't work with adding sq. footage to the house. Other built in's are being scaled back.

Landscaping - we'll have to do it in phases, just can't do it all at once the way we want it.

Great, great help from everyone. I'm much more into the durability and functionality of the house than the aesthetics/cosmetics. So, my brain is starting to slowly send out sparks now. I don't know how much this will save, but just to mention a few ideas that haven't come up (I think):

No drywall, just stud walls, in our semi-detached garage (cars don't need drywall; code won't require it since a covered walkway is all that attaches garage to house.)

Garage doors (2) don't need to be insulated, just good quality steel. Mother's old uninsulated steel ones lasted 40 yrs. We won't last that long.

We salvage light fixtures from an old house on the land for DH's hobby space and woodworking shop. Likewise the old house's kitchen cabinets for those spaces.

All light fixtures can be changed later; for now ours are simplest ones HD and lowes have. Also will shop Restore if our contract with builder works out favorably and if electrician can deal with it.

The designer has quoins on front over windows, but that's unnecessary. I think we'll need to keep the brick coursework , though, because without it all that brick is gonna look pretty plain.

Screen porch ceilings, which I wanted hardiboard sheet goods for, could actually be painted plywood.

Designer may think west side of house needs windows, to continue the design around the house like they did yrs ago, but we don't really want them on that side. It's not too visible from the street, so why pay for them?

We've long ago planned for no crown molding and for only the simplest baseboard and window/door trim, so can't simplify that.

What else??? Workout, old brain, workout....

Hazel2,we are making our decks small,but laying them out to be added onto in the future.With a little planning, you can enhance the looks of the deck when adding on to make it as if it were all original.This is an area we have decided to cut down for now.

As charliedawg said, excavation and foundation can be big unknowns. Our builder made that very clear from the beginning.
When my sister built, they did not know if they were going to have to use dynamite (she's in the Rockies). Fortunately they did not, but some things you can't know until you're committed.

I would tell anyone considering this, "add 10% to 20% to what you are planning to spend." If you can't do that, I would recommend buying an already built house. Some things you can control (cosmetic finishings) and some things you have absolutely no control over whatsoever.
Best of luck!

When we first met with our architect we had all these inspirational photos of timber frame homes. But somehow during design he morphed (and we ok'd) the house further and further away from that look. My kitchen is the only room that even resembles a TF because it will have an alder roof (plus tung oil oak floors and dark brown stained alder cabinets). The roof will be stained light like the floor so it's not to cave like. But, lately the painters and GC have tried to talk us into doing a poplar roof so they can paint it white like the rest of the ceilings through out the house. Yesterday they asked DH instead of me and he almost told them ok but decided to "check" with me first (love that man!). I "love" my house and that roof gives me just a tiny bit of a TF look. I think it will add a rustic feel to our home and frankly don't want to give it up. So, we told GC this morning to do a knotty alder stained roof....period!

bj inatlanta:

I would caution you on some of your suggestions for reducing costs. You always have to think of resale, even if you think you're going to live in this house forever. A finished garage is a plus and the painted plywood in the porch may not hold up to weather, depending on your climate.

I agree with you on the re-used light fixtures and cabinets for workshop space. Just my thoughts....

denise54:

Thanks. This is a humid climate and I originally wanted the hardie product to better withstand that. Might need to keep it afterall, even is I have to downsize the porch.

We're at the point where I can see we're going to have to make a few choices between what we want most and what's best for resale. I was just thinking that the garage drywall could be done later on, esp. since it's basically detached from the house so it won't create a mess for us to breathe and live through.

It's really hard for us to make concessions for resale purposes if it means we have to give up things that are important to us now. If/when we have to sell this house it'll probably be to move into assisted living or such, so this is truly our last chance to get what we want. I don't know how to make some of these choices.

i disagree denise. If you cannot afford to do it without cutting costs, your resale will be nothing. Almost everything bj lists can be easily upgraded at a later time.

Resale means more to some than others. I am building my house for my family, we will deal selling it when we sell it. It may be because I am in california and anything and everything sells, for a lot of $$$. Here the land is almost always worth more than the house that sits on it.

we decided to do the tile in the bathroom after move-in. we have hired someone cheaper than it would have cost to do it during the build. we also waited to do the built-in entertainment cabinets flanking our fireplace. those are going in next week. and my husband will put the stone front on the fireplace himself.

we'll probably add more crown molding later, too.

other than that, we put everything we wanted into the house as it was built.

Some things we did:

* Backed off of the kitchen appliances. Went with KitchenAid/GE instead of the high-end stuff we were looking at. Decided to keep our existing Kenmore fridge (about 5 years old) instead of buying a new one just because the Kenmore didn't match. (We considered painting it, but we'll probably save up and replace it next year.)

* Went back to PT pine instead of Trex for the deck.

* Moved the house over on the lot about two feet. Because of the slope of the lot, this reduced the amount of excavating that had to be done.

* Changed from maple/clear oak hardwood floors to bamboo.

* Added sweat equity. We agreed to do the interior painting and woodwork finishing, all of the landscaping, and installation of the low-voltage wiring (phone, cable, alarm systems, network).

* Agreed to take a basement bath unfinished.

* Agreed to do part of the exterior in stucco instead of all brick. This obviously reduced the amount of brick that had to be bought. However, since part of the brick would have been over the first floor roof, it also eliminated the steel that the city would have required to support that brick. That was the bigger savings.

* Changed from foam insulation to fiberglass batts.

* Changed to a less expensive roofing. (We started with metal, went from that to an architectural shingle, and then went to another, cheaper architectural shingle. That actually turned out to be a good change, because we liked the second shingle better, and it was cheaper besides.)

* Changed to a less expensive carpeting in the guest bedrooms.

- Really cool professional appliances

- Standing seam metal roof

- Wood carriage style garage doors

- More landscape/hardscape

- Circular driveway

- Pool

- More square footage

- Texture. We are doing hand trowel in the main/public areas and orange peel in the private areas. I'm really wishing I bit the bullet and did the hand trowel everywhere because it came out beautifully.

- Wood casement windows

- Wood floor throughout. We are doing wood in the livingroom, master bedroom and bonus room. The rest of the house is stained concrete.

- Frameless shower door in secondary bathroom

- Nicer light fixtures. I think this is probably one of the easier things to upgrade later.

- An interior designer to help me pick out these d**n wall colors!

Mikeyvon: I'm glad to hear your viewpoint. And I hadn't realized it but we are building in a very popular area in the close-in suburbs of a Atlanta, GA. Not the land value of Calif.; but some of the best for here.

It's an area that's almost completely built-out and builders/individuals are starting to tear down old houses and build new. Plus, there are some very expensive houses going in around us. That's one reason we chose the area, and spent more for the land than people usually do. More and more I think it was a good decision.

That should help resale possibilities a lot, so maybe I can worry a bit less about building my house for resale.

We are about to break ground, so I can only comment on our savings to this point. I am sure plenty of things will come up that we will save or splurge on later.

Less complicated footprint (and got little more sq. footage for cheaper building costs)

Less complicated roof line (traded for more windows)

No two story foyer (creates a spacious master bedroom)

A partially walled staircase to save on railing costs (which I like better, created a neat niche on the second floor for art)

Home situated to area with no drainage issues to reduce concrete and landscaping costs (SO happy about this one! The brush that was removed left us with a beautiful view of our pond.)

Granite/Marble will be used throughout, but using discounted 'leftover' pieces... in other words, I won't have complete control of the colors from room to room, but I get the fun of shopping around.
--------

We figure these trade-offs are a part of building. It saved plenty of room in the budget for things that are a *necessity* for us like wood floors and upgraded trim.

Great thread!

maybe the entire project---
might have to go back to what zone8Grandma wrote and just buy something and maybe rework it sooner or later depending on costs---
don't know that it is worth it to go through all the hassle of building a house if you can't get what you want...and from what I have seen about building costs in this new subdivision where our lot is, think it is going to be much more expensive than builder let us believe...

Screen enclosed Pool w/spa - a must have in FL but for us it will be HAVE LATER

EPS exterior foam trim around windows, crown, columns on the rear and side elevations, maybe have to cut back on the front or just do later

Stone on front of home

Stone paver driveway

Ceiling mounted rainshower in master bath but not giving up the rest of the shower system

That's my list for now. Hope it doesn't get any bigger.

One thing you might try is to see if there is a building supply salvage place around. We tiled a bath using tiles from a salvage place, at a cost of $0.40/sq ft.

I did not see this mentioned, but we dropped 2x6 framing for 2x4 framing. Another item that regretfully (now) got dropped was radiant floor heating in MBRB ... my bride continues to remind me what a short-sided decision that has turned out to be. Finally, we dropped the inclusion of stone into our exterior look and stayed all brick ...

daltex mentioned omitting some stone on the exterior and using all brick. We're hoping to do all brick, but are wondering if we might have to switch to part HardiePlank siding. From reading the installed cost, it looks like about half the price. Did anyone consider all brick vs. part Hardie?

Soapstone masonry heater - wonderfully efficient, beautiful, soft, steady heat from burning wood - and way too expensive. Did get the soapstone counters for the kitchen though.

Claire

This was from another posting - but seems to apply.

Things to watch: Hard surfaces - granite & tile, cabinets & carpet. It's easy to set a budget but much harder to follow when it comes down to making a selection.
If you want/need to come in under budget, I suggest that you plan to upgrade later. Basic trim (can be added to later), Formica & vinyl in secondary bathrooms & the laundry - with in mind that you can easily replace at a later time. If you approach it right you can pull off a look that appears traditional, not cost-cutting.

In my laundry room below I used Formica that appeared to be crackled paint, with a coordinating tile backsplash that we installed ourselves. Not shown = sheet Marmoleum on the floor.

http://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/customers/settingdisplay.html?setting_id=58&category=kitchen

A mental health professional!!

What about exterior design features? I've seen giving up stonework mentioned, but what about other things? We're still in the design stage and I keep telling the architect to do it a less expensive way: I'd rather spend our money on things inside the house, like space, for one.

We've already asked for a simpler roofline. Architect has designed a line of coursework down low to go all around the house (it's all brick, at least for now, for low maintenance). I don't know what that costs.

Anything else anybody saved money on in terms of exteriors??

So far (we are hoping to break ground in the next couple weeks) instead of 4 sides brick, we decided to do only the front in brick/stone, with 3 sides vinyl siding. Since I only have 4 allowances (kitchen cabs, kitchen counters, appliances and lighting) and the rest is a fixed price on items as spelled out in the contract, I am hoping we won't have to give up anyting else we didn't already plan to. However, we are keeping our fingers crossed that we don't hit rock when excavating our basement, because if we do, I'm sure we'll be cutting a whole lot more!

We are done, and scaled back several things as we went along.

Hardi Shingle accents instead of brick everywhere, I like it because it made the exterior more interesting to me

Faux stone skirt on the house instead of real

Painted vinyl windows instead of wood

Scaled back size of driveway (large lot)

Rustic grade oak floors- went with the vintage feel of the house but much cheaper than the walnut I originally wanted.

No heated tile in bathroom- don't miss it

bj-I, like you, live in a humid climate. Don't put in plywood on the porches because you will end up replacing it due to warping, sagging, etc. Use Hardi board or exterior sheetrock.

Extras found along the way:
Check with local appliance stores for scratch and dent or floor models. I found some great deals that way.
Purchased plumbing and lighting fixtures online. (Saved about $100/fiture)

Giving up:
circular drive
finished bonus room
custom cabinets

Txgal06: Thanks for the tip on the plywood. I've wanted Hardi all along.

If $ is tight toward the end, I'll skip the new refrigerator and take mine with me. Ditto, the freestanding range. I'll buy scratch and dent replacements, low end models for our current house. It's in an area where people aren't that choosey.

Also checking into Restore (Habitat's storefront: mostly new stuff) that just opened here. They email me weekly with list of what's new in store that week. Light fixtures, etc. I think will be easy to find there.

Giving up a warming drawer. So far that's all but I may have to give up more extras as we get all the bids in. Trying to build on a cash basis so we won't have a mortgage.

Seems like I've upgraded at just about every turn and it's getting frightenly expensive. We're at the sheetrock stage and haven't picked all the finishes yet so there's still time to give things up as expenses keep mounting. So far, the big give up has been the walnut floors that I feel in love with. We're going with oak instead. I'm also scaling down the baseboards, crown, and trim around windows and doors. I haven't started bidding the cabinets and am scared that I'm not going to be able to afford all of the cabinets I so want.

Be careful out there. Many plumbers won't guarantee products you supply. You really don't want to worry about shower valves failing behind your expensive tile or leaks from an upstairs tub.

soonermagic -- Trust me, the things you obsess over now will be forgotten after you get past the selection process. It's like buying a new car. You get so "into" the features; look at every other car on the road; read Consumer Reports. Then you buy something and life returns to normal. It's pretty much the same with building. A year after you move in you won't remember all the deliberations.

We cheated on ceiling mouldings, buying manufactured product for the upper and lower parts and inserting a crisp real wood piece between them. Used manufactured wood for the window casings, too. Not recommended for door casings or baseboards, which get more punishment. We used manufactured wood doors, too, since we were painting anyway and don't have kids bashing into them.

Our driveway is gravel instead of cement or blacktop. I love it! Bluestone chip ties in with the bluestone front stoop and the "slate-look" architectural shingles. The apron at the street is blacktop but will be brick eventually.

Our steam shower is an all-inclosed fibreglass from Kohler rather than tile. Could have cut the steam unit too, as the enclosure gets plenty hot and steamy from just the hot water!

Our kitchen cabinets are stock. I wanted painted, so why buy stain quality? I did get some glass-fronts and have lights inside similar to the undercabinet ones. Cabinet man fashioned a library wall out of stock cabinets; built and spray-painted them in his shop and assembled them on site.

Skipped the expensive carriage-style garage doors. Lead carpenter applied wood design to cheap, flat-front doors. The rectangular door tops disappear under arch tops of cast stone. (Used cast stone instead of limestone all over -- except door sills, which are limestone.)

I very much regret buying the "on sale" oven/microwave. Be careful with things you will be using every day. Buy best quality you can for things that are going to be "built-ins". You don't want to have to recreate cabinets or fronts (or shower tiles) because of a defective product.

A separate library and separate music room, which we had in previous houses. Piano, lap harp, and half of the books will now be in the living room with some freestanding bookcases elsewhere. I hope it works! Not too sure, but we're downsizing.

Also, I wanted a contemporary house; it has become much more traditional because the contemporary touches I wanted were too expensive and we've gone with the standard more traditional stuff.

we skipped having natural gas and went with the builder's standard stove and dishwasher, which aren't bad any way. final walk-thru tomorrow!!!!

When we first started the process I took off square footage wherever I could, (I wish I had not removed from our great room)then I took off the front porch and added the square footage to the back porch putting a shed roof on the front and saving on concrete knowing we would use it more in the back. Now that we are almost finished I would have used all brick with Rock accent because we spent an extra 15K on rock than we intended. I would have used regular water heaters and it would have saved 3K, since I am still unsure if the tankless are a good idea. Those are mine, it seems to be everything is a tradeoff, you have to figure out what is Most important in your priorities and go from there.

We gave up in floor heating. Just way too expensive when one still needs to add in the air conditioning venting costs. We will have the electric mats in the bathrooms and mud room though.

Also, we gave up (and this sounds weird), an oil furnace. We have one now in an older house and we love it. It is so warm compared to gas; however, it is more expensive so this house has gas heat.

Lastly, I really wanted a wood burning oven in the kitchen; however, the space and cost were up there so that is for another day. I decided a walk in pantry was more essential. I'm hoping I can improvise with our wood burning fireplace though.

Teresa

We have reached the point now where I can answer this question at least to some extent. We have the house pretty much planned out, and they are supposed to begin digging Friday. (!) Here are some things we have eliminated to save money so far. I can mainly think of two:

We were planning to have an underground cellar/storm shelter about 12x12 with an entrance from inside the house. We gave that up cause it added several thousand dollars to the foundation cost. Instead we may opt to have our utility room reinforced for storm protection.

I fantasized for a long time about having an expensive, high-end range in the kitchen. That was one of the first things to go cause it can always be added later. (I really wanted an Aga in a gorgeous color like the cobalt blue.) Instead, we are taking our old vintage stove from our current house with us at a cost of 0. I can always change it out later, and I prefer the look of it to anything I can afford to buy new. It is white, and I will compromise by getting small KitchenAid appliances like the stand mixer and toaster in blue.

There are lots of other things we're doing that I suppose are cost-conscious but that I don't consider a sacrifice cause I planned them that way from the beginning.
For instance:

We are getting Andersen 200 series windows. The 400 series would have been cool, but they cost a lot more.

We are using Hardiplank siding. I think for our house style it will look great and might actually be preferable to wood in terms of maintenance and durability. However, if cost were not a factor, I would have probably considered wood or even rock.

I am doing a lot of shopping on ebay for lighting, plumbing fixtures, etc. It is a little bit of work that I probably wouldn't be doing if cost were not a factor. Again, though, it's not really a sacrifice cause I enjoy it. I just bought an antique cast-iron clawfoot tub for $85. (We just have to drive four hours away and lug it home this weekend.) Etc.

In exchange for these things, we will be able to have other things that we decided were more important - a real masonry fireplace, a couple extra feet of space, a big attic, 2x6 walls, nice beefy trim, etc.

Gave up Tulikivi($$$)... went with Hearthstone Heritage Soapstone in basement instead.

Gave up Hardwood floors in MBR went with Berber carpeting for now, will get hardwoods later I am sure.

Gave up Hardwood for family room decided because of Dogs & family that Pergo like flooring would work better there for family gatherings.

Gave up fancy designer lighting for what is on sale ! Also purchased Kraftmaid Cabinets off Ebay for Bathroom & got Silestone counters from e-counter.com & saved tons of $$$by DIY. Purchased undermount tile warming kit from Costco had electrician do wiring & I put it in , but still had professional tile installer do ALL of tile work in Bath, Laundry & Front foyer. (I am good at some things, but I know my limits!)
Gave up 42" Neo Angle Jacuzzi shower in MBR & had framer frame out 6 x 4 shower!

Added Decra Roof Stone coated Metal roof.Cost 30K (50Yr warranty) Plus in the long run I won't ever have to deal with this in my lifetime, I hope. Foundation cost 35K we budgeted for 20K Partial basement is also a FEMA Approved SAFE ROOM incl in cost. Decided that full brick front was better than brick/siding in our neighborhood. Wanted low cost maintenace & very little power washing. Added Vista Alarm system with Alarmnet Cellular & Alarmnet IT backup via WISP & Satellite. Luckily family relative runs an alarm company. Helpful to ease my peace of mind when I am out of town on business. Having an attack dog as a permanent resident of the home isn't bad insurance either. \[Only costs $25 a month feed + $10 a month presciptions to keep him on the JOB. He is actually less than the alarm monitoring fee!!\] Budget shot of wack by WAR\=Fuel costs/transportation costs & price of materials in general. Found out that I would have to be GC/owner\-builder because cost of 2 additions & a basement was put to builders & 300\-400K were the bids I got back from 4 different ones. This will end up costing $250K even with me being the GC/DIY & going with the upgrades mentioned.

We wanted to use more green building materials, but we had to give some of them up due to cost. *sigh*

We gave up:
- Environmentally friendly kitchen cabinets
- Ice Stone for kitchen countertop
- Solar hot water heater

Cheers!
Heather W

Here is a link that might be useful: Our ICF Home Construction Journal

We have given up and compromised on so many things, my house is now called the "house of compromise". To name a few:
2 fireplaces for one
spiral staircase leading up to our front deck
I have toned down my tile design - instead of diagonal designs, I have staggered tiles and/or just squared off patterns. This saved not only in labor, but the amount of tile needed.
We are wiring all of the tv/stereo/some low voltage ourselves.
For the extra little things I wanted (barrel ceiling powder room, inset panel in dining room, inset panels above breakfast nook windows inside and outside, built in niches, etc,) we hired someone ourselves and he does all of this work for a fraction of the cost our framer would have charged us for the "change order".
Shopped on ebay, internet for all of my hardware, etc. and then took the prices to the local store and they matched them. I saved over $3K doing this.
Purchased scratch and dent appliances that all coordinate, I began working with a local store owner we have known for over 15 years and feel we are saving a bundle going this route. You just have to be patient and wait for the right item to come in that may be slightly damaged.
I am working on my lighting fixtures, scaling down a bit on these to save $$, I won't sacrafice the quality, I will just purchase absolutely what I need and wire for what I want down the road.
Went to the Home Expo and purchased our tubs from their discount room, did the same with the bathroom vanity and sink in a few of my bathrooms. I just made sure the color of the granite was agreeable with my chosen travertine.
Speaking of travertine, shop on line, get your prices, arm yourself and then have your local tile shop try to match them, or to come down 1/2 way if they will. You'd be amazed at how much you can save when you purchase your tile in quantity and from the same place so you have quantity.
Designed my bathrooms and kitchen myself. Will do my own landscape design with some assistance on an hourly basis.
Thats all I can think of at the moment, we are not even near completion and I am sure I will have to cut more down the road.
Good luck!

"What did I give up due to budget?"

I gave up that $500,000 house *on* the lake and bought a considerably less expensive house *near* the lake.

:-)

I wholeheartedly agree with owl_at_home's approach. We gathered our initial quotations, added them up, and the bank approved the total. HOWEVER, I did not want to pay that much lol, and we didn't.

Through very diligent online research, we were able to cut our costs by just under $30,000 (not all of it through online purchasing but a great deal of it), and I still have the same things that were in our original budget. Since the bank had approved us for the full amount anyways, this gave us a cushion to get additional things, instead of having to sacrifice.

If you need to sacrifice, I highly highly recommend online searches before you give something up entirely. I am still absolutely blown away by the differences in prices. As an example, my tile price locally was $14.21/sq ft. I found a seller on ebay and his price was $3.90/sq ft. And that's just one example, I have many more!

Good luck to you all in your builds, I love to see all your pictures and hear about your progress!

granite kitchen countertops - laminate for now

deck (doing a step down patio instead)

carpet for 1st floor masterbedroom/closet instead of hardwood

will have bathroom floor tiled later (vinyl for now)

pre-tiled shower surrounds for secondary bathrooms to save on tile cost/labor

We gave up:

-geothermal heat system
-solar panels
-radiant floor heating

I also had to sacrifice my central vac system and generator for a year or so in order for us to load the house up with built ins, but they're both roughed in.

We've been in the house 18 months and the following still isn't done and will be done as budget permits:
- landscaping
- walnut counter on kitchen island
- backsplash in kitchen
- frameless glass door on master shower
- additonal cabinets in kitchen and pantry
- built-ins in great room and den/library
- some built-ins in the mudroom
- shelf and cabinets in laundry room
- crown molding in some rooms
- additional lighting (need chandelier, lights for 3 bedrooms, den ceiling fixture, master bath ceiling fixture)
- patio off back deck
- hot tub
- stone walls
- asphalt driveway
- gas fireplace mantle (this is about to be done)
- all the high speed wires and speaker wires are in, but aren't hooked up yet (2 are hooked up)
- alarm was hard wired but finish hasn't been done

This total around $80k at last guesstimate.

My preference was to leave things undone that to put in something that was a compromise. I know it would never get replaced, so I'd rather wait. I AM getting sick of people saying, when are you doing this and when are you doing that.

Ours is ever changing.

As of today - giving up granite countertops but they will be in within a few weeks of getting the house finished (GC's sub wants way too much) and father-in-law has great local contacts with more reasonable psf prices.

secondary bathrooms will have vinyl floors (unless we find cheap tile) and even then it will be installed later by father-in-laws installer (much cheaper than the GC)

pre-tiled shower surrounds for secondary bathrooms

no custom kitchen cabinets but getting kraftmaid or thomasville (or something comparable)

Doing minimal landscaping (must comply with subdivision rules)

maybe no backsplash in kitchen (wife wants glass mosaic)

May not put crown molding in secondary bedrooms

vinyl shutters that almost the exact color of the paint color wife wants for the wood shutters

no tile for laundry room

The one must is site finished hardwood floors. My wife will not give on the pre-finished floors.

When I was a kid, I hated Christmas. No matter how wonderful it was or how many presents I received, by the end of the day I was always dissappointed that it wasn't even better.

All of us can dream something better than we have. It's human nature. Learning to prioritize and keeping our expectations reasonable is a very healthy thing.

Stressing over the things you gave up can keep you from enjoying the many good things you still have.

Hi from St. John,
Creativity counts because I am not good at "giving up
anything"
First, went off island to purchase everything.Had on island quote for Kraftmaid kitchen cabinets. Quoted price of $46,700.00 Eeeeek my budget was $20,000. That one quote started me on my new mission to stay on budget and look for bargains.
Went to Expo Design Center on Pine Island Florida. Had a fantastic designer Robert Fabian.
I chose and ordered Kraftmaid cabinets for my kitchen and the apt kitchen downstairs only the price was $17,000.00 versus $46,000.00 for my kitchen comparable to what I was quoted here.
Sixteen ceiling fans,all plumbing fixtures,all plumbing hardware,all door hardware all GE appliances both kitchens plus outdoor kitchen, except for a Subzero refrigerator and Subzero freezer which I bought at Coral Springs Appliances because Home Expo doesn't carry SZ's.Bamboo flooring for husband's bonus room. 4000 sq.ft of travertine marble for all floors and apt shower @ $2.94 sq.ft. The list was huge but so was the discount by buying everything at one place. The designer gave me a discount plus ordered what I needed the week the store offered a cabinet discount or appliance discount etc.The most miraculous part was everything and I mean everything was exactly what we ordered and in perfect condition. That means alot when you had to ship everything to an island and truck to a site on the side of a hill.
The other fantastic savings was for what I couldn't afford to special order.I found the Habitat for Humanity Rehab Stores in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami they are in many cities.I wanted all armoire and drawer built-ins for the bathrooms and bedrooms instead of closets.I found armoire cabinets for $75.00 with raised panel doors.We are building those all in and ordering matching cabinet doors and drawer fronts from Scherr's a cabinet manufacturer recommended on the Kitchen forum.When all is built in everything gets painted with Bin a white pigmented shellac and then with with the appropriate finishing paint.The estimate for our masterbath cabinets was $18,000 from Expo. When all is said and done I think we will end up under $1500.00 with unfinished cabinet doors from Scherr's sweat equity and paint.
Another great find was a salvage door store in Ft. Lauderdale recommended by a friend. We bought all of our interior glass french doors bedroom and bathroom doors for $400.00 many of which were brand new. I am making all my own decorative friezes not because I have any talent but what I like by Focal Point I can't afford. I purchased all the acanthus appliques at Constantines on line. I am attaching them to strips of luan and then priming and using brads to secure them to the ceiling trim boards. Crown molding will be attached above as budget permits.
Sweat equity is a must to stay on budget. I do all the jobs I can do. I have primed and put two coats of paint on the entire interior and entire exterior surfaces of an all concrete house.We have blue jobs and pink jobs.
. A substantial savings was not buying the spiral stairway we wanted from York Spiral Stairs in Maine. It is gorgeous a double helix with wide stringer $10,000.00 plus 6800.00 to ship it here.A poster on this forum showed pictures of their built in spiral stairs, we did that with the help of a local carpenter the labor and materials were 4200.00 complete.
I think you have to look at the big picture cutting back items you can't upgrade later makes no financial sense. You can always change hardware lighting appliances etc but it is difficult to add square footage and roof lines that you won't always love.The best of luck.

Ours is also ever changing due to an unexpected run in with "plastic" dirt and now 300 trucks of gravel later . . .

Inset cabinets for kitchen
Glazed cabinets for kitchen
Whole house radiant floor heat
Wood burning oven (I know, frivolous)
Ken Mason/Pratt & Larson tile for bathrooms

Very happily, I did not have to give up ICF construction or random width walnut flooring (we found a less expensive alternative to Carlisle)

Temporary give up: outdoor kitchen and rock/boulder waterfall retaining wall.

Teresa B

alyceusvy: if you don't mind, what did you have to pay for shipping from florida? did it arrive by boat? TIA and sorry for the hijack.