Some progress on bidder #1

Well, we have made some quick progress with bidder #1. I talked with their project manager last night and he re-expressed his interest in the project even after I told him we had to be much closer to the $200 sq ft than his $250 sq ft. He understood and said how this was preliminary done w/o a lot of the details which they had to put in some higher assumptions for. But he also did say that $200 sq ft is the minimum in our area (NE).

It affected some action since their architect sent over a letter to mine this morning asking for a lot of detail on many of the variables in the project. Much of this has to do with the HVAC setup, finishing work, and materials used in potentially expensive places like the bathroom. The hopeful news is that since we're going with a minimal HVAC (no AC), wanting to do much of the finishing work ourselves, and keeping the bathroom pretty minimal and modest as far as finishing and fixtures go there might be room.

The other item the PM revealed to me was that he put in extra labor assumptions than normal because the house is up on stilts over a slope and they'd have to put up a lot of scaffolding and lug a lot of materials up onto it. I told him of our architect's idea that the construction staging area be at the top of the hill which is on grade with the house and thus lugging should be less and no much different than normal. He thought that could make a difference.

Rolling up the sleeves is next week so we're hopeful.