Topman, please keep in mind that my home is quite modest compared to most on this forum, but I hope this will help you. We are in our 60s, and wanted a home on one level that was pretty much maintenance free with low energy costs.

1) State - WI
2) Size of Home - ~5000 sq ft finished (2600sq ft ranch with full basement of which about 90% is finished)
3) Finish/Style of Home (cottagey/craftsman)
4) Construction Price and/or Home Price ($540,000)*
5) Allowances for the following:
- Kitchen Appliances (Appliances were all purchased outside the bid and came in under $5000 not including delivery and extended maintenance).
- Cabinetry (allowance $30,000, actual cost $39,000)
- Front Door (don't know, included in trim pkg)
- Landscaping TBD
- Carpet (all flooring, allowance $30,000, actual $34,000)
- Tile Floor (included above)
- Lighting (I purchased outside the bid)

*The bid was actually $418,000, but we purchased many things outside this figure -- lot, fill dirt, appliances, granite ($13,000), lighting, landscaping (yet to be done), sound system, water softener and cabinet hardware. The $540,000 is a close estimate of the final cost. I purchased most lighting and plumbing online and saved a bundle. Appliances include KA dishwasher, Sharp microwave drawer, 29 cu ft GE fridge, Kenmore Elite 30" double convection ovens, and Kenmore Elite 36" gas cooktop.

1) State - Texas

2) Size of Home - 3200 sq ft heated/cooled; 900 sq ft covered porches; 550 sq ft uncoverd decks PLUS 850 sqft garage with 600 sq ft bonus room above that DH claimed as his "man cave". The bonus room is cooled with a couple of portable AC units and is unheated b/c, after all, on the very few days it gets cold enough here to really need heat out there, DH can just stay out of his man cave. LOL!

3) Finish/Style of Home - 2 story rambling Farmhouse with wraparound porch, screened-porch connecting house and garage, plus a couple of upstairs decks. Siding is all Hardiplank.

4) Construction Price and/or Home Price: $520,000 which includes a home elevator but not our land. We already owned that when we started.

5) Allowances for the following: (This is what I actually wound up spending; not what the builder originally "allowed".

- Kitchen Appliances: $6000 - French door fridge, freestanding stove, dishwasher, microwave, full size freezer, front load washer & dryer. I'm not really into fancy appliances and have had good luck with Kenmore appliances all my life so I purchased everything at Sears during one of their 20% off sales.

- Cabinetry: $42,000 - Solid mahogany (no veneers) with a clear coat finish, custom made by a fabulous local cabinet maker. Price included cabinetry for kitchen (@30 linear feet of base cabs and 17 linear ft of upper cabs), laundry room, (6ft base cabinet, 12 ft upper cabs), mudroom/pantry (9 ft base cabs, 12 ft wall cabs, plus 4ft "cubbies"), great room entertainment center (10 ft long floor to ceiling), library room cabinetry (14 linear feet floor to ceiling), masterbath vanity and a secondary bathroom vanity.
- Front Door: $3200 installed (3/4 lite mahogany double doors with transom window overhead) - purchased from The Front Door Company in Austin, TX

- Landscaping $0 (we're out in the country with lots of trees and wildflowers and therefore are doing minimal landscaping, doing the work ourselves, paying for plants as we go. So I've not been keeping any sort of record.

- Carpet $0 (no carpet)

- Tile Floor: $2.50/sqft for the tile (I found a discontinued tile that I liked better than anything else and got a great deal on it. You'll probably spend more but you can get a fairly good idea of tile prices at the big box stores. $3.10/sqft for installation.

- Lighting: about $3000 total for the fixtures but I shopped very very carefully to stay within that budget. Found a lot of my lighting at Overstock.com. Picked up most of the rest at Lowes. Except for lights on ceiling fans, it isn't like lights get "hard usage." As long as the electricity flow where it is supposed to; and doesn't flow where you don't want it; and you like the way the light looks, I see no reason to pay top dollar for a light that no one will ever touch or really even get that close to except every one is a while to change a bulb.

- Plumbing fixtures: $9000 Includes silgranite sinks in kitchen & laundry; a cast-iron clawfoot tub, 5 toto toilets, and all the other fixtures for three full baths and two powderrooms. Once again, I shopped very carefully to stay within my budget. Found the best deals on faucets and on my tubs at SignatureHardware.com. Their faucet prices rival those at the big box stores but the quality is as good or better than anything you'll find at specialty plumbing stores for 3 to 5 times the price.

Hope this helps

Based on some of the responses, I feel we're getting ripped off a bit, but here are our numbers:

1) Maine
2) 2550sqft
3) log-sided chalet with loft(spare bedroom/bath up there), full walkout basement (not finished), 27x27'garage finished. 2 bedroom/2.5 bath. We will add 3rd bedroom at some future point. Radiant on main floor, baseboard loft. HRV air exchange system.
4) $376,000, not including land. This is essentially turn-key.
5) Allowances for the following:
- Kitchen Appliances: we set our budget at $5,000.
- Cabinets: 10,000 (yes, I feel like we're going cheap, but this is just for kitchen with island.)
- Main door: Thermatru. We really want 42" wide with speak easy, but they're special order and almost $4K.
- Landscaping: not included. Lawn will be seeded within 25' of foundation
- Carpet: $24/sqyd
- Tile Floor: $2.90, which includes tile/grout only. No labor.
- Lighting: $2,000

We started this whole project thinking we might do the GC ourselves and I got sub quotes on everything. Then we met a builder at a home show that we really liked and decided to go that route. Several of his sub quotes were actually lower than mine, but where the added expense comes is in the overhead costs/GC fee. I don't know what it is since he won't provide a complete breakdown on cost, but another builder was asking 8% on top, which equated to $30,000. I assume this builder is in the same neighborhood.

We are really surprised how expensive it is since we're not building a castle here. I'd say it will be fairly modest. Nothing crazy on the inside as far as built-ins. Even formica countertops. 3x8' tile shower for master. No masonry chimney, since we'll be going woodstove with metalbestos. Not sure what we're getting charged for labor, but other builder wanted $85,000. Window package is about $26,000 (Andersen 400's)

jzinckgra- Can't say if you're getting ripped off, but per sq. ft. costs can be very misleading. (I think that's the possible one of the points of this post.) The rooms that really run the price of construction up significantly are the kitchen and baths. Bedrooms, dining room, family room spaces don't usually have all the bling: i.e. cabinets, granite counters, tile, appliances, plumbing, etc.

So if you compare your 2bd/2.5ba house per sq. foot costs to a 3bd/2.5 ba home specced out exactly the same, the per sq ft cost will be different with your house being more expensive to build on a per sq. ft basis. Hope that helps.

Thanks. Just to put into perspective, our build price is ~$148/sqft. When I look at it that way, I don't think it's that bad, based on what I've read in the past.

This is great/helpful! Thanks everyone for taking your time to post.

Unless you are pretty good at and committed to staying in budget, my advice is to pick out all of your stuff in some key areas first, and then have those specific items built into the cost of your project rather than relying on random allowances, as this will give you a lot more of a reasonable picture of what your house will actually cost you.
In particular, the areas where you can get into trouble QUICKLY:
1. Flooring
2. Countertops
3. Cabinets
4. Faucets/fixtures
5. Lighting
6. Appliances

The 6 items on that list currently have us over budget by about 15 percent of the total cost of the project (and our house is not a low-cost house) Our allowances were reasonably generous too ($10K for plumbing fixtures, for example, which we nearly doubled). I guess I'm just not good at being in budget, but know thyself and know whether you'll be happy with whatever allowance is given and force yourself to stay w/in it or whether you're better off doing that cost-work first.

You're going to have to pick out tiles, etc. anyway, so might as well do it early...

Thanks for all your responses!

beagles, you are SO right! Ditto, ditto, ditto!

Also, build in a cushion. We originally thought we'd never need a central vac (I can buy a dozen Dysons for the price of one of those things!), but after seeing the mess in our walls, we knew that noone would ever be able to retrofit one, so we bit the bullet and had them install one. I wasn't planning on a sub zero, but found a floor model, so I'll get it, even though it'll be about 5x what I was planning to spend on a regular fridge from Costco. If you're not picking things out beforehand, at least budget for more, so you'll be sure to have enough of a cushion. The low end toto toilet at $200 looked good, until you find out it doesn't have Sanagloss, or double cyclone flush, and you'll be spending double to get those. The list goes on and on...
Beagle, you make me shudder, because I haven't even STARTED on lighting!