So much happening and yet nothing happening. We are getting down to the nitty gritty on things. We are going with the Oak Park front door. I finally realized why I wanted that door so much, I mean besides loving the Frank Lloyd Wright style. In this deveopement you have to use one of their approved doors. Most people choose the standard door, no glass, fan glass on the top or have panes. Your choices are navy, forest green, red, maybe brown and/or black or white. When you drive through the developement everyone has one of these doors. You have to have the approved grarage door, everyone has the same. You get a choice of one of four types of brick or one choice of stone and one of four shades of taupe. Your house looks like everyone's. "Little Houses on the Hillside" keeps going through my mind. I wanted something that seperates our house from the rest. Since we are going for the door we will be passing on the storm door. That is something that we can put in at a later date probably for less than $700.00 that they are charging. The funny thing is that when we said that we wanted the storm door that they had in the model they wanted a number, we told them to go downstairs. Now this is a really nice storm door, very heavy and has a screen that we can put in, but I am sure that we can find one just as nice.

We are trying to finalize pricing, which is harder than I thought that it would be. We had asked for a washer/dryer hook up in the basement - $870.00. OK, how much would it be if we we got just a washer hook up - $900.00, ummmmm, huh? We found a lower end whirlpool tub, it was $1,200.00 delivered from Lowes, and they keep telling us that they can get good prices on anything because they buy so much. To put that tub in would cost $3,500.00. Why does it cost that much? We were told that we chose an expensive one. They send us to a website to make our choices and this website just sends us to the different companies' websites. There are no prices on these websites. I thought that maybe I could go with a 5' tub. Today we went to a showroom and I climbed into one and it was the right length, I can get my knees and my shoulders into it. Well, it was a 72" X 42". Back to the fight on this. If we have to we will tell them to put in the rough in for the tub, give us a credit for the tub and don't put in the closet. We will install the tub, well hire someone to install a tub and put shelves in. We also asked about a bench in the shower. $800.00, ouch. We asked why it costs so much. I have the feeling that despite being told that anything can be custom, custom costs. Anytime that you vary from the plan you pay.

We finally got the price of the microwave price to the correct point. They were telling us that it was $400.00 to upgrade to a stainless microwave. We showed that a microwave is included with the house and what the MSRP was on that microwave what the price of the microwave that we want. Oh, suddenly the credit appeared. We have not asked where the credit for the vent hood went.

We have chosen two different gas stoves, just have to see what their price is on them. They got one model number wrong so we didn't get a quote on that. They gave us a quote on the other one, but charged us the full cost plus the cost of the gas line. There was no credit for the base model. Sigh, another one. If we have to we will tell them to give us a credit and not put a stove in, we will get our own.

We wanted a door moved in the basment and that cost $700.00. I think that we will probably go with the original plan.

We are screening in the porch and adding the optional outdoor living space. I asked and was told that there was a screen door included leading out to the outdoor living space. We got the CDR and the door was $200.00, um, how do you get out there if there is no door.

We asked to get a quote for the outdoor living space and the steps leading to the ground and have it built out of composite. $10,000.00. Ouch. We are now asking how much of that is the steps out of composite and how much is the deck. I suppose that the steps could be something like the storm door, we could add that later.

Now the best was $1,800.00 to put linoleum instead of carpet in a 12' X 16' room. Unless this stuff costs $84.00 a square yard I think that there is a mistake. Also if there is supposed to be carpeting in there and carpeting costs more than linoleum shouldn't we be getting a credit?

At this point Robert is talking about walking away if they don't come down on a few things and/or explain the high cost. I hate to give up that lot, but we can't be jerked around. I keep saying that you can change anything about a house but where it is located. Well unless you are in a planned community.

If we can come to an agreement they could start to dig in mid April. That would have it doen mid to late August. If only it was that easy.