You may need to let him know right away that there will be major overhauls. Otherwise, wouldn't the bids be inaccurate because they're bidding on a different floorplan?

Whether your back/forth revision process will drive your builder crazy or not, your floor plans should definitely be settled before the bidding process starts. It is one thing to get a ballpark figure in advance so you can decide if you can afford to build a house "somewhat like this one" and another thing altogether to get a bid price on a set of plans and then make a bunch of changes and expect the builder to build it for exactly the same price as originally bid.

Well, our situation is a little odd. We're working with a custom builder who wanted to go to the bidding process fairly quickly because he's wanting to use our floorplan as a "stock" option for future clients. He "optioned" hundreds of things we're not interested in for that purpose.

Whew. Got in touch with the builder and they didn't make me feel like a crazy person for wanting to keep revising the floorplan. They are still sending everything out to bid today for their own purposes. :)

well, if they're getting bids on the current plan for their own purposes, then don't worry about it. But be aware that whatever price figure those bids result in may have no connection whatsoever to the price figure they'll quote you once you have all your changes set.

Also, if the "custom builder" is planning to use your floorplan as a "stock" option for future clients, do you have any leverage to keep them from building the same plan across the street or a couple of doors down from you? Your "custom" home won't look very custom if there are other house that are practically identical to it in the same neighborhood.

Where did your floor plan come from anyway? Is is one you purchased a license to from an internet site? If so, your builder needs to be aware that your license probably does NOT give him the right to build any additional homes using the plan. Typically when you license a floorplan from an internet company, you get the right to build ONE house using the plans. Your builder could be violating copyright if he built a second one.

No worries--it's not an internet plan. We found our plan by touring about 100 model homes (about 75 in Minneapolis and 25 in Phoenix). Once we finally walked into "the one" that made us feel "at home," we told our builder which one it was and he followed up with the model home's builder to re-create the floorplan with the modifications we requested.

I kind of feel bad because I thought were were done making modifications...and then I read the Not So Big series, which made me rethink some of the details.

Fortunately, our builder only has a few more lots available in our development and none of them are near ours. I doubt he would build another one of these in our development (our house will officially be the smallest house in the development) but at least if he does it won't be anywhere near ours.