Our Big Dig, the cost of living in the Burbs

So, they say that if you build a house you should budget at least 10% of the total estimated costs for overages. Some of these come from your own selection process.
"a 36 inch dual fuel range cost how much more!"
"Really, choosing a slightly different stainless steel sink changes the cost from $200 to $600!"

Anyway, sometimes the cost doesn't seem so much and you think its worth it, but the problem is that all those costs add up.

Other times though, the cost is truly unexpected.

As I mentioned in my previous post, our builder had to submit our home plans to the "Architectural Board of Review" of the Suburb we were moving to. They meet the first and 3rd Tuesday of each month, and not only review the design but also the exterior choices, brick, stone, siding etc. Well, they apparently had some suggestions for us. In retrospect it probably would have been wiser for us to go there with the builder but, at the time, we didn't think it would be a problem. In addition to their exterior suggestions there were also a couple of their own building codes they were going to enforce that cost us even more.

1) The builder planned on digging a 5 foot basement and then grading the rest of the house with the dirt. We liked this idea ourselves as it made it possible to put slightly larger windows in the basement. Unfortunately, this is not allowed. The basement had to be dug an additional 3-4 feet and the dirt had to be hauled away. Additional cost $4,500.
2) Our State building code requires one layer of Ice Guard that lines the area where the wall meets the roof. Our Suburb said that we need 2 layers of ice gaurd. I guess they believe the adage, if one is good then two must be even better. Additional cost $850.
3) The review board also 'requested' that the roof on our dining room bay window be copper rather than the shingles which is what we were originally planning. Additional cost $1,500. Sure it looks nicer and is probably worth the additional cost, but it all adds up.
4) Finally, they thought we didn't have enough windows on the West side of our house. Really? The area we are moving, unbeknowst to us prior to our buying there, was all about 'going green'. They even had a neat little slogan to promote it. So WHY would they suggest putting 4 more windows on the WEST side of a house. The point of building an energy efficient home is to conserve energy, right? Having a North/South facing house is more energy efficient in that most of the windows are not exposed to direct sunlight, that is the whole idea of limiting the windows on the East and West side. As a compromise our builder was able to talk them down to adding only two additional windows instead of four. Additional cost $650.

All totaled, the Review Board cost us an additional $7,500, even before we started to break ground. My hope is/was that the rest of the build will go a lot smoother.

NEXT: So far, so good.