I have an 8' basement, and it seems perfectly fine to me. Almost everything went through the floor trusses. There are a few places where the plumbing drops below the floor, but it is mostly along the perimeter and it doesn't bother me at all.

I wasn't looking to cut costs, and I still chose to only do an 8' basement. It's fine as far as I'm concerned.

2x6 is a now code in the Boston area, so I bet that's probably true in Chicago as well for the cold winters. Only exterior walls had to be 2x6 though, so not the entire house. can you call the town where you're building to find out? local ordinances can vary from town to town.

I need to call the village - One of the builders I was talking to said it chops 5K off to do 2X4 and even though you get energy savings - it will be a very long payback period . He has mostly done 2X6 recently - but he was not sure if it was code - he said if it were his house he would go with 2x4 if he could.

Are there several bump-outs and jogs in the shape of the house? That will add to the cost to build because they make the roof and foundation more complex. Can you post a plan? You may be able to cut costs without cutting too much space depending on the design.

2x6 isn't code per se, but it's difficult to get the required insulation levels in a home any other way. You'd be spending a lot more on exterior foam sheathing and possibly also doing spray foam as well. That increases the costs by quite a bit. Of course, one of the cheapest ways of getting a good envelope with minimal thermal bridging is to do 2 offset 2x4 walls for your exterior. That gets you a higher insulation level, and less temp transfer.

One thing I would NOT do is to cut the windows, doors, and insulation. You can't add that back ever without substantially deconstructing the house. Windows are holes in your structure's envelope, and they are it's weak point for energy efficiency. Buy the best quality windows that you can afford. Double glazed argon filled is the minimum. In your cold location, you should research triple glazed to see if you are going to be there long enough to see payback for that.

Air sealing is also critical. You can take a leaky old house and air seal it and double it's efficiency. Make sure that you read up on how to properly do that. From using sill seal all the way through to using ICAT recessed lighting. That IS something that you will see payback on in a very short period of time.

Don't ever skimp on the bones. Put in cheap carpet and laminate counters if you have to in order to get the R value better than code minimum. Code minimum is exactly that. It's the minimum required. Like getting a D in a class. You still pass, but you could do SO much better.

Are we talking about cutting 90K off the 262K house? If so, you're looking at trying to eliminate essentially 1/3 of the house! That's too much. If I've grasped the situation correctly, I'd say you either need to postpone 'til you can afford more or choose a different house plan. Cutting 1/3 of everything will significantly change the whole house.

I cannot weigh in on 2x4 vs. 2x6, but I fully agree with those who say don't skimp on the bones.

I do not like houses with brick on the front /vinyl on the back. It looks like you ran out of money midway through the project. I'd go with all vinyl before I'd make this choice.

Could you show us the house plan? We might have better ideas if we could see it. Without seeing, a couple thoughts on how to lower costs altogether:

- Eliminate jogs and bump-outs around the perimeter. A simple rectangle is the cheapest thing of all to build. Start with that and place bump-outs where they will really make an impact -- make every corner "earn its keep".

- Cut down on cabinetry in the kitchen. Instead, use a large pantry for storage and have just enough cabinetry for actual cooking.

- How many bathrooms are you planning? Bathrooms are the most expensive square footage in your house. You need a master bathroom, but the secondary bedrooms can share a bath . . . and if you open it to the hall, you can avoid a powder room.

- Plan a two-car garage. So many people say they need the space for storage, but most of the stuff we store never gets used. Plan to store things in your attic, or add a storage building out back -- this is much cheaper than enlarging your garage. If you're thinking you need a workshop in your garage, add a few square feet for it . . . and when you're actually working, back the cars out of the garage. Unless you use the workshop for your job, this is an acceptable compromise for the small number of hours you'll be working.

- We all love windows, but your windows /doors budget looks high to me. And 6K for garage doors looks positively outrageous, though maybe I'm just uninformed on that subject.

- Could you build the house in stages? Perhaps leave off the garage for now and add a detached garage later. Could you plan to utilize only the secondary bedrooms for now and add a "master wing" later?

In the end, you're looking at building 4500 square feet, and that's not going to come cheap no matter what you do. As someone else pointed out, you need to have a contingency fund for the extras that will certainly befall you. If I were in your shoes, I'd want to wait 'til I could build what I really want.

You mentioned you have an architect. He or she, knowing the design best, should be able to offer suggestions. But why not wait until the other bids come in? I hope you shared your budget limits with the architect. If all of the bids come in high then the architect ought to work with you to trim with care in order to maintain the integrity of the design. After all, there is a reason you chose the custom route. A real estate agent could also be on your value engineering team, if you're already concerned with what some future buyer might want.

Personally, if all of the bids are out of reach, I would either wait--or work with the architect to downsize the house or axe a few non-essential features--before cutting finishes. Right now you've shared a general list of features and materials but that's not enough for anyone here to suggest reductions that won't hurt the overall design. The best advice so far is what not to cut: your building envelope. Unless it's to address unneeded doors and windows, or gratuitous complexity of footprint/roofs.

Good luck!

We just built a 2192 sq ft ranch with full basement just over the border in WI. We used 2x4 construction and ended up going from a 9' basement to 8'. The decrease in ceiling height only saved about $4K. We also switched from LP SmartSide siding to vinyl and that saved about $5K. When we were in the cost-cutting stage we also discussed: a simpler foundation, a front load garage instead of side load, less expensive flooring and less expensive counters.

Being closer to Chicago, I'm sure your prices are higher, but they do seem drasitcally higher than we paid. And we're literally 2 miles from the IL border. Example - our insulated carriage-style garage doors with openers and a keypad (1 double and 1 single) were $2,600. Our plumbing (rough plumbing in basement for future bath, 2.5 baths on main floor, laundry room and kitchen hookups, 2 outdoor spigots, hot water heater...) was $9,500. I know we were working with a single story and currently have more unfinished space, but the quotes still seem a bit high.

I am happy that my basement ceilings are 8 feet. (we will have in floor heat so only one small box for a plumbing run). Around here main floors are typically 8 feet, any higher is quite an upgrade. I think Canadians must be more comfortable in shorter houses. See what your HVAC plan does to your house in terms of drop downs and decide about the basement height from there. We never ever considered a basement with 9 foot ceilings I have never been in one. We did get light emitting window wells so the light in the basement was better, and the front of the basement is above ground so those windows are great.

Also, I would imagine an asphalt driveway would be a nice way to save over a concrete one. I agree that if you can't afford brick all around the house, consider a nice siding instead.

Carol

Again thanks for the responses - I have some more bids coming in , so this one might be on the high side , but I do know we need to cut somethings so I am working on it anyway. Labor is sky high in this area and lumber prices skyrocketed this year , plus fuel costs are affecting the concrete and excavation bids . I wonder if this is why my numbers are higher.

I have a plan to cut 200SQ FT on the second level leaving the house with around 3000 Sq feet + a 1500 sq foot unfinished basement

Does anyone know if its possible or advisable to get away with a single furnace/AC unit ?

Our house of similar size did fine on a single furnace and A/C unit in WI.

We recently built in suburban Chicago, and have a home size similar to yours (3600 or so). Our total build cost was around 500k, and that was 2x6 construction with a very complicated design, 10 ft first floor, 9ft + vaults, etc upstairs, and 9ft in the basement, lots of custom trimwork, 2 of the 4 baths being marble, etc. We have only a small amount of stone on the outside, choosing hardiboard largely for style and cost. We went with a direct vent fireplace with no masonry chimney (saved a lot) Your rough framing estimate looks high to me - we used 40k in lumber, and lumber prices have since come down - labor is unlikely to be more than 30k, but I can't remember. That included a 3 car garage and good sized front porch. We went with wolf/subzero for the kitchen, but did only the 36 range and did a less expensive microwave and kitchenaid dishwasher. Our entire house full of cabinetry was only $30k, and that was fully custom and white painted inset shaker in the kitchen, painted in the laundry room, and stained in the bathrooms. Our entire house full of granite was around $10k, including the large kitchen, laundry room + 3 of the bathrooms.

We did 2 separate hvac systems and while the builder said we could get away with 1, I didn't want to risk it (particularly since we will likely finish the basement at some point) Glad we spent the extra $7k or whatever it was.

Can also save on landscaping - our would have only been 7500 or so had we not put in a sprinkler - though we already had mature trees on the lot (was a teardown).

Keep in mind that square footage is not very expensive - it's kitchens, bathrooms, finishes, etc, that add up. Carpet/hardwood + plywood/2x4s/drywall simply don't cost that much.

Anyway, hopefully that gives you some benchmarks...

newbuildil,

Good to hear from you - what suburb were you in ?

Do you mind me asking what builder you used ? I feel like the number I am getting are high - your house is much nicer than mine and my bids are coming higher

Also - when exactly was the build started ? Some materials have gone up

I'm in Naperville. I'd rather not post the builder's name on this forum, but if you have a "throw away" email account you're willing to post on here, we could follow up offline. He's a local builder, so unless you're in Naperville it won't matter anyway. In my response I should have noted that our build today, per our builder, would likely be closer to 550k, as I think his profit ended up tight in the end. While some materials have gone up, if you look at lumber prices, they've actually been coming down - counter-intuitive to what is obviously a residential construction recovery. We started our project around a year ago, and my builder ended up eating the lumber price increase from the time we signed the contract to the time framing started.

I'm very surprised you could save anywhere near that amount by going to an 8ft basement - digging and extra foot and a foot more of concrete, or building the house 1 foot higher off the ground, surely doesn't cost that much (our first floor is 3.5ft off the ground).

While I don't plan on moving anytime soon, we did keep an eye on resale. We started thinking 2800 sf was all we needed, but with the new houses in the area coming in at 3500-5500 sf, we didn't want to go too small, particularly since, as I noted before, the extra sq footage just isn't that expense (your cost per sqft goes down as you go bigger due to the fixed costs of kitchen/bathrooms).

While you have to stop somewhere, we found that nicer finshes were a lot cheaper to do up front. Marble in the bathrooms was maybe 2k more for the master, and 1k more for the guest bath. Adding more crown molding was a few hundred (if that) per room. An easy thing to do later is upgrade the lighting - unfortunately, in my case, my wife had expensive taste in that area, and we spent 8k.

Good luck - I really enjoyed the process and was at the job site nearly everyday after work (not sure the builder liked that, but it was my land)...

Newbuildil

would love to get your builder - send me a note at dgruzew@mailinator.com

Got another bid today - 650 total ?? I figured this guy would be high , he hires an interior designer and full time project manager - but 650 wtf - its a 3200 sq foot house with mid range finishes

Dgruzew, what does your plan look like. Are there lots of foundation jogs and a complicated roof structure? If so those will be more expensive than just square ft alone.

its basically a box with some decorative gables
- if anyone knows some good builders in the NW burbs of Chicago let me know

heres the first floor plan

ummm, that's not really "a box with decorative gable's" in my mind. And 650 does not sound terrible as depending on where our building that is essentially 200 a sqft which is not a good way to figure pricing but can generally tell you if your in the neighborhood price wise.

It's a box with 14 corners, wraparound porch, columns and elaborate fassade. It looks expensive!

Eliminate 10 corners, get rid of the porch and the gables and it'll be much cheaper.

one big reason for the extra corners is the garage , and I am going to push that down to a 21/2 car , so that should help a little

I cant get rid of the porch , its one of the best parts of the plan - my wife loves it . I may remove the wraparound portion .

still don't see how I get a bid for 542 and then one for 650 ( and the 650 did NOT include appliances ) - my guess is he does not want the job

I'd bet Mr. 542 is failing to include anything but the most basic level of amenities and that there will be at least 100K+ worth of change orders and upgrades. I'd bet even that 650K won't enough to build that in your location. That ain't a cheap house!

You have not even addressed the 20% contingency fund for the inevitable things that come up so far as I can tell.

We're in NC and just got a quote a few months ago on a house
~downstairs: 1716 sf
~upstairs: 743 sf finished, 175 sf unfinished
~on about a 1200 sq ft unfinished basement (our builder just made it a square to be more economical instead of following the exact footprint of the house since the kitchen kind of juts out from the rest of the house.
~2 car garage
~20 ft porch with a metal roof
~thick molding, crown molding
~gas fireplace
~shake siding in gables
~custom kitchen cabinets
~2 X 4 exterior walls

Our costs are about 14,000 for a 9 ft block basement (incl labor, but not digging it out) I think about 25000 total including digging it out and all the slabs poured (incl garage) (He uses trusses for the first floor so that in the basement when we finish it we can run all pipes and electrical in between the trusses and keep the full 9 ft ceilings when finished)
Rough Framing: 49000 (incl floor and roof trusses)
Doors: 4300 (no incl labor, I guess since it's his crew that does it those labor costs are in his 15% markup) (incl 2 garage doors: 2200)
Windows: 8200 (no labor incl)
Brick on ENTIRE house: 21000 (DOES incl labor)
Wood Floors (Sanded and stained, 1350 sq ft): 9200 (does incl labor)
Our entire quote was for about 300,000 (which didn't incl kitchen counter tops or any carpet)

Just so you can compare costs:
- plumbing 9K
- roofing 6K (architectural shingles)
- drywall 8K
- electrical 7400 (incl 22 can lights but none of the other light fictures)

This post was edited by tulips33 on Sat, Aug 10, 13 at 17:09

In Chicago, it MUST be union labor because the costs are so high! Those prices are insane.

robin0919 - only union on electrical and plumbing
carpenters are not union . We don't HAVE to use union anything - it just so happens in those trades always are . All the city cares about is that you buy a license and permits and you are meeting codes.

millwork man - the contingency is separate it has nothing to do with the bids . Actually the banks don't even require it because the land 100% free and clear , but I plan on having a fund . Right now we are working on bidding the job - the bids will not include contingency and the contractors take the risk on costs overruns ( where allowances are not given ) .

tulips33 - Your electric and plumbing are much cheaper than mine , but your framing is not too far away considering the size of your house, your brick cost is crazy low - that's fantastic , my guess is that if I build in NC I would be right on budget.

What is strange is that people on this forum - either say the price I am seeing are way to high, or that they way low . Since there is only one who had said they had just built in the same area - (Newbuildil ) - they seemed to get a better deal than I am getting. Let me know what areas you guys are in .

Monday we meet with the architect to remove some sq footage and make a few other changes, then we will need to re-bid

Is that a sunken family room? I'd definitely get rid of the "sunken." To me, that's a 1960's feature. Plus it's not very safe for clumsy people like me.

I'd also lop off the entire extra garage on the left side. And there's no need for the front foyer bumpout. Your foyer is plenty big.

No offense, but that's one ugly exterior. Way too busy. Just my own opinion, of course.

Yep - we are losing the sunken family room , will save a little on steel below - but not much.

My advice...one dining room, one living room and no office/den space. Either make a much smaller two story or put everything in a similar sized one story and keep the basement for the extra bedrooms.

You might try e-plans for a smaller one story...one living room, dining area kitchen, with two or three bedrooms. Maybe an unfinished basement that you could finish later...with office space, family room, bathroom and a couple of extra bedrooms? For now, just get the basics and plumb the basement bath. Hope that helps...

Lavender, Thanks - but if I did that , I have a smaller house than I live in now. ( currently have 1950 SF 3 bed, with partial basement ) I have already spent money on my architect so I need to make this plan work

My lowest bid is 542 - my budget is 450

Here's my plan right now :

-Remove sunken family room
-Remove Masonry firebox/chimney ( add gas vented, frame chimney)
-Remove 3rd car garage
-Remove wrap around portion of porch
-change driveway to asphalt
-lower window grade ( right now top of line marvin)
-remove plywood floor in attic
-remove spray foam in attic ( replace with standard)
-change upstairs floor plan to remove 200-300 sf
-remove fancy trim around windows on side and back
-switch to single furnace AC ( electronically dampened zones etc)
- consider dumping the gable over the front door
- remove bump out in foyer (if possible)

any other thoughts - let me know.

I think you have a great list of changes that will really make a difference.

The windows will make a huge difference, switch that to something like Milgard Tuscany, it will at least cut that item in half.

Make sure your front door is a standard size that you can buy something non-custom for (this was a huge hidden expense for us).

What size are your interior doors? If you keep them a 6'8" it will save money as well (our 8" solid doors added up)

For you cabinets price out Ikea, and look at overstock, homeclick and other online sources for your bathroom cabinets. Double check the size of your cabinets against standard options available online at an affordable price. (Savings here can easily be over $1000/bathroom as the cabinet, counter, sink and sometimes even the mirror and tap are included a single package).

Don't include any extra built ins, and add your mudroom cabinets at a later date.

Ask your builder to remove the lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, cabinets, handles and knobs from his bid and supply these yourself. You can buy them cheaper online, and you'll save his 10% on these costs.

Upstairs install an affordable carpet, $2-3/sq ft installed

Downstairs, consider putting carpet in the living room, family room and office. For hardwood buy an affordable prefinished (we found a great one in our high priced area for $4.09/sq ft + $2 for installation). If you carpet+hardwood on the mainfllor you can bring this down to $6,000, $9,000 to put hardwood throughout your main floor.

Garage Door, get a standard double steel garage door $800- $2,000.

I can't see the measurements of your plans but could you take out the following on a vertical axis:

- 1 ft out of the office and straight through the mudroom and garage
- 1 ft out of the family room, and out of the foyer

Is your roof trusses or framed? Making it truses could save significant money.

This post was edited by Laura12 on Tue, Aug 13, 13 at 14:34

I don't think you will be able to build that large of a house for that amount of money.

is the property included in this price? we are building a 2600sf house and it will cost us 500,000. the lot cost 117,000 and is included in the the 500,000. we are in Louisiana, so maybe this doesn't help you, but if you take out the price of the property it might.

not including the property, we are looking at 147 per sf. no surround sound. no outdoor kitchen. wood and stone floors throughout. it includes landscaping. aluminum clad windows on the front. vinyl windows on the sides. real stucco on lath, painted brick, and hardiplank. operable shutters on the front. no shutters on the side. stone counters throughout. no wine fridge. no builtin bar or ice maker. kitchenaid architect series range. a counterdepth frigidaire fridge. subway tile backsplashes. inseam cabinets in kitchen only. freestanding tub

i feel like we trimmed a good deal of "fat" out and are building small in comparison to most, but we are still going to have to pay 147/sf NOT including the ridiculous price for our tiny lot with no trees.

i don't feel like w

bmh...you must be in a VERY high end area for those kind of costs in La.

robin, we are in baton rouge. i'm on the verge of getting depressed with trying to keep the price at or under 500K. it's upsetting, but i guess it's what it costs to live IN town.

we actually got the most recent price back from the builder last week since the plans were finalized, and it's 530K, so I'm trying to figure out how to cut out 30K. we were hoping to stay closer to 450-475, but that's not gonna happen. i don't know what else to cut to get down to 500, and like the OP, I have to work with the floorplan we have- i don't see where to cut there, anyhow.

all i can come up with is cutting 4000 on countertops by not using quartzite, and cutting 1000 in lighting and 1000 in landscaping. i'm looking into using cheaper shingles, but am having trouble figuring out the price difference between certainteed landmark and Owens Corning Duration.

my brain is mush right now :(

Also don't forget you need the 20% for the things that always pop up as unaccounted for.

Laura12 - Those are all excellent ideas and suggestions and I have incorportated them into some of my planning .

Basically I have my plans updated and I removed some porch , removed 3rd car, removed masonry FP , swichted to carpet in beds , changed windows to Marvin intergrity ( was ultimate ) , removed first floor shower

To shrink the house we cut 2 feet of the whole back of the house leaving all rooms intact but just shrinking them a bit

we also changed the way the basement steel was setup so If I need to go to an 8' there will be less overhead stuff

Bmh - This build DOES NOT include my lot , I already paid for that and it was 215K - so dont feel bad . Some lots up here can go for 300 depending on the area

millworkman - I am not really understanding why we would need 20% ? We will have a GC - if there is an issue with material costs - he will eat it not me . What other costs would I run into ? I have been over everything I need and I cannot imange what I would need another 100K laying around for . - I have a reserve ( and I am going to have some inflated allowances as well ) - but not 20%

sounds like you may have done it, OP. cutting 2 feet across the back will be a good bit of square feet and you will save big time on the change in windows. good job! i hope it gets you to 450K. i like your floorplan, btw. oh,and be sure to shrink your island a little bit since you've cut 2 feet in depth in the kitchen.

just a personal thing that I thought i should mention. have you thought about putting the fireplace in the living room rather than the family room so that you don't have to hang your TV over your fireplace. since you nixed the wrap around part of the porch, i'm assuming you got rid of the French doors in the living room, so you could put the fireplace there, maybe?? just a thought.

Glad my ideas helped!

You could save further by going from Marvin to another line of windows altogether - such as Milgard.

Also, did you incorporate my other ideas in the lower bid you already received? If not that should shave off a bit more.

Guys - heres the updated first floor plan , I cut the walk in pantry and shower - the kitchen is only 1 foot smaller and the den got a little smaller , but hey I think this will get me where I need to be

BMH - I might actually add the porch back some day - so I want to leave it open - but I may still move the widow in the middle of the family room wall and put so I can put the tv there if I want instead of over the FP

looks good. are you happy with the exterior elevation?

what are those 2 big squares on the outside right wall of the family room? could you put a window where each of those squares are and an entertainment center in the middle?

Those squares are window wells for the basement below , and yes - I was already thinking about doing exactly that. would give the family room a ton of light

Not trying to hijack the OP original post.......bmh....you're getting ripped off! From the lot price, I can tell you are in a very high end area in the SE and it seems like the GC is taking advantage of that! I'm in the Charlotte area and your prices 'should' be lower than they are here, NOT more!! Can you start your own thread and post floor plans of the house you're going to build and more details? In this area, in a very good neighborhood with prices staring at 250k, they are in the $110sf. I HATE to use sf but this is just for a guide. These houses are all brick, all wood floors on first floor for main areas, all granite for kitchen and all baths, tile backsplash. Custom made cabinets for kit, laundry and all baths, etc.

You need 20% EXTRA because there is ALWAYS something you forgot to include that isn't in the contract, or not covered by the contract. That could be excavation costs that run into more because of an underground spring in the area, which also necessitates redesigning the foundation and waterproofing. It could be that the brick you have designated for your exterior is discontinued, and you have to pick something more expensive to get the same look. It could be any of dozens of things.

And it can definitely be that your costs to build don't make the appraisal number that the bank needs to see, so you have to bring a lot more cash to the table as a downpayment in order to close the loan. A lot of people are seeing that one happen when they "overbuild" for their area.

holly ,

I am not worried about the appraisal , its likely I can actually take more money out than the build cost if desired . The land is owned Free and clear and is about 35% of the project , the bank was not concerend at all either when going over the preliminary numbers. So I am planning having the contractor pad some allowances so there is extra cash in the loan if needed as well .

The foundation item is a good example though , there wont be a "spring" ( we are building in the middle of pretty dense area and this would be known ) but there could be other things in the ground (unlikey but possible) . This would be our cost .

I am trying to walk through everything to see what items can come up and what costs may be incurred.

You always need to plan for the "oh s**t's" as they always happen no matter how much planning and forethought you put in. Just the nature of the beast as it is impossible to foresee every set of circumstances and basically that was all I was alluding to as well. I have seen and or heard of two many people who had nothing extra and had to "settle" for things thing really should not have had to or had to wait to finish certain aspects of a project due to the dollars running out.

The "A" word, "allowances", might be a bigger risk to your budget than anything you encounter during excavation. Especially since you have an Architect, why not have everything decided and included in the bid?

I go against the popular opinion here, so take it for what it's worth. Also, I suspect you've already made some decisions, but here goes anyway.

If it were me, I would keep the high quality materials and reduce square footage. You can always add on space later, especially if you plan for it now. But cheap quality materials will be a source of regret for you forever. And the house will never, ever give you a feeling of rightness. You will always feel disappointed.

What I personally would eliminate (your choices will certainly be different):

Drop from a 3 car garage to a 2 car garage
Do you really need both a formal living room AND a family room? If you keep both, don't sink the floor of the living room. As someone mentioned it seems very dated, and it is also a bit of a hazard. I have never been in a house that had one and not seen a guest stumble at the threshold at least once.
You have a lovely eat-in kitchen and a large dining room. Do you need both? We have not eaten in our formal dining room one single time since we added a large eating area to our kitchen twelve years ago. We entertain frequently, but in the winter everyone gathers in the kitchen and in the summer everyone is out on the back patio.

What I would absolutely keep:

The porch. It is a wonderful feature and gives your house distinction.

Rosefolly

Fwiw - I completely disagree with the notion that you should expect to need some huge contingency budget. Going 20% over on a 500k+ build suggests very poor planning upfront. We're not talking about cost plus here - if the builder encounters problems, generally that's his problem. The only areas we went over budget were finsh choices that I knew we would go over on from day one (but my wife had some budget number in her head for the contract amount)...and I'm talking about the little things like marble baths and emtek hardware - we made sure the big allowances like cabinetry fully incorporated our desire for fully custom inset shaker with the cubbies on top (10 ft ceilings), flooring, and appliances were fully priced and accounted for ahead of time.

That's not to say we didn't have any problems or overages on materials...they were just absorbed by the contractor fee line (and that might have been 10k). Do your homework, make sure the contract has what you want, and the contingency needs are greatly reduced.

Sorry, but I think you may have made the kitchen too small for seating at the island. You might want to take your dimensions to the kitchen forum, just to get their opinion.

IMHO, you will definitely need some overage money. Just decide what else you can live without, now...to avoid time delays when other costs come up.

As mentioned earlier keep the bones to high quality and drop the quality on the items that can easily changed at a later date and time