off topic but- Anybody building a house?

[Ron]

My wife has decided it is time to build a house, Wow is buiding expensive. I have looked at RTM homes (two piece with basement, not a double wide trailer), they say price starts at 85/sq ft, I was quoted $135 for stick built, the RTM would still need basement, furnace//ducting, some plumbing.
Has anybody tried a RTM home? What do you think 10 years later? Is the 135 crazy (central alberta) or should I just clench my teeth and sign the papers? The rtm salesman said 3 1/2 months to deliver, price fixed when ordered, no cost overruns ever. That sounds pretty good.
Oh yeah, I suck at wood, I am pretty good with steel but building/helping myself is not an option. I am way better sticking to what I do and spreading the $$$ around than trying to learn a new trade to build one house.
Thanks for any input

[WoolyBear]

A new house would be nice. We have so many projects that we've been putting off for so many reasons. Most of which has been the lack of extra money due to commodity prices. Each time we look at the costs of doing some of them we find that the costs have gone up. Corral fencing for example, a 2x8x16 has gone from $8 to $11.50 in the last 3 years. The price of colored metal has almost doubled in the same time. One of these years............

[dalek]

We're almost done rebuilding after a fire last summer. Total cost will be $110 per square foot not including the cost of the garage, but that also includes a fully finished walkout basement, infloor heating, etc. $135 here would get you ALL the fixings, hardwood, ceramics, etc. but I know it varies a lot by area. I think you'll find with the things you've listed that aren't included in the $85 you could easily add another $20 though, I know our foundation and basement floor ran about $12 per square foot.

[Harper]

How about a double attached garage - anyone added one of those to their house recently? Was something we didn't do when we built in 1979 - always going to do it later when we had more money - still waiting!! Just wondering what we could expect the cost to be.

[dalek]

Harper, here, $35,000 will buy you a base uninsulated 2-car garage, roughly 25x25, no extra room for storage, with vinyl outside and shingles on the roof.