Three strikes?

So we had our third meeting with Builder yesterday -- the preliminary design review and budget estimate meeting. It was exactly like dating someone who previously had "potential" but then pulls some bonehead stunt on that crucial third date. Maybe he gets raving drunk, flirts with a waitress behind your back, or maybe you start talking dreamily about how your goal in life is to settle down, buy a house and have kids... either way something goes awry and you start wondering what it was you saw in them in the first place. So that's pretty much what Builder did on our third meeting - first the prelim budget estimate was $15,000 above our top number. Hello! At least match our top number and then go over after we've started talking about hardwood floors and tile and other specifics. Second, and almost more importantly, the design was utterly hideous not what we had expected, especially for the price per square foot we're talking about. The interior was great, really lovely, but the outside elevation, and especially the roofline, were all wrong for our cute little bungalow-style house. It made the addition look tacked on and unfinished. The other huge problem was because of the unusually high pitch of our roofline, the interior attic rooms were quite a bit smaller than we had thought they'd be and, more importantly, none of the rooms had windows!! Can you imagine kids bedrooms and bathrooms without natural light and ventilation? YUCK! Anyway, we'd have to smack on a couple of dormers and even that would 1) ruin our cool peaked roof and 2) only allow one teeny-tiny window for each bedroom. There was no way to get one in the bathroom. All in all, we are a bit disappointed which to me means they better try a little bit harder to woo us if they want a fourth date. M, on the other hand, wants to break up and move on. Sigh.

Between you and me, if the housing market here was showing any sign of life at all, I'd rather move.