Plans B to ???

Well, we now have the breakdown of cost from the original tenders and it's interesting how much the different areas vary. If you add up the lowest cost offer in each section, it comes in well below our maximum spend. If you add up the maxima, it comes to twice that! You probably can't do a straight choice as there's doubtless some overlap but it's a surprise that it's all that much. So it's clear that there is significant margin for error. The architect has gone back to the two most-likely-to tenderers and asked them to have a look at the big areas of problem difference but it's hard to see how he will get it back on track with them. Meanwhile we have a meeting with a contractor that works with our QS next week to look over his schedule and see if we can get to a sensible negotiated price based on the QS report and cost-saving opportunities. It's still not clear to me exactly what's driving the overall cost up - is the design simply too difficult a shape and therefore embodying complexity and cost? At present it's not obvious to me that the architect is feeling the same pain over driving the cost down that we are!

Rethink

We thought we had planned well enough and been sensible enough not to get horrible surprises but as the Fonz would have said, 'we were wr....' The tenders seemed to have little relation either to the widely quoted build costs per m2 or the detailed price the quantity surveyor came up with - so we can only conclude that the builders have enough work on at the moment and didn't really need the job. The architect is now talking to some other builders looking at different quote and build routes and I am going back to look at SIP package suppliers to see what costs they would come in at, as well as speaking to my building contacts. Bang goes being in for Christmas!!

Well I woke up this morning....

... had the 'tenders over budget' blues; Said I woke up this morning, had the tenders over budget blues; We'll speak to the architect on Monday and work out what to do...

Second site

Our second site visit is today so that does imply that at least two builders are actively working on the tender...

Tender is the nigh...

OK, it's not much of a pun but the tender closing date is nigh - next Friday. We have had a site visit from one contractor and no more formally withdrawing so we're biting our nails for some keenly priced competition. And looking at options for engineering cost out. And keeping everything crossed. Oh, and trying to find somewhere to live in the village while we build - it looks as if we have at least one suitable option so we may not be pitching the tent in the paddock after all...