What's the point of having the lovely house if you can't enjoy it with your children? Don't sacrifice your time with your daughter or your husband so you can have trex. Trex is the *new* wood. . .next year it'll be something else.

When we built our house, one thing I learned was that EVERYTHING was negotiable. And I mean EVERYTHING. I dickered and haggled with the people at Lowes!! Yes, you can still do that these days! I got $300 windows for $190, b/c I bought them all at once. I figured, they're all going in at the same time, might as well buy em at the same time. Regarding the floor in the garage. .umm. . .Hello? It's a garage. you park cars in it, and on it. What kind of special floor does it need? Put a drain in the thing, and roll it yourself with the garage floor rubbery paint and viola, you're done. And it costs your $100 versus $5000.

Don't take this the wrong way guys. . . but for men, house building is like sex. They quit thinking with the head on their shoulders. I'd bet money you've seen him make that little pursed lip look, and go "oooooooooo" more than once in this whole process.

Build yourself a sound house that you can COMFORTABLY afford. Spend a couple of years in, build up some equity, make sure you can pay the taxes on it, and THEN make some upgrades like the deck, the garage floor and cabinets. Also, you need to get to the tax assessors office and find out what other homes in that area are selling for, b/c if you build too big and too grand, you might not be able to sell it if the need ever arises.