[jacquesm]

That's pretty much every contractor that I've ever worked with. It's all based on estimates with set minimums, buffers in time and money to deal with the weather and other outside influences and even provisions to deal with the changes in price for raw materials.

The only way you are going to get a hard quote is if you buy a prefab or a house that the contractor has already put up multiple times (and even then there will be some room for adjustment). Oh, and foundations are a completely different story.

[jshen]

Yes, I think we are saying the same thing. You use buffers and other means of flexibility to hit a target launch, and it works most of the time but not all the time.