Our target date to start the house is approximately 3 years, but I want to get a rough estimate for building costs and budget, so that I know that magical number I'm saving for.
couple of tidbits I can throw your way.
Since you are planning on doing alot of work yourself, price in tools, rental equipment, and not having some people show up when you need a hand. These things will add up. Expect it to take you 2-3 times longer than you think it will. The reason I say this is experience. I'm kinda handy, and took on the majority of my house move and addition myself. You will wear out, especially if you have a full time job. Plan on using lots of vacation time from work, I had a flexible schedule and a lenient boss, and I still had to take whole days off. Since you have 3 years until you do this, start helping out a friend/contractor in the area to acquire new skills. I can't tell you how much this helps. Go to a bookstore/library and read about everything you can think of, especially outside the box ideas.
For the house, do not just run cable wire and speaker wire in your walls. This is a false idea. Wiring and technology evolve. Whatever you run, try to run in conduit - gray PVC is dirt cheap right now. Run whatever you choose and leave a string line. New speakers are on the way that don't require 1) a speaker box 2) wires. If you put a bathroom by the master bedroom, insulate between the two walls. All those late night toilet trips, or early morning showers, won't wake the partner. My friends thought I was nuts...until the final build when the toilet was flushed and they couldn't hear it. here is my biggest tip, start buying windows, doors, sinks, counters, toilets, whatever you can, and store them until the build date. This will defer your expenses and allow you to plan perfectly. I bought a 10' wide 5' high bay window with insulated seat, crank out sides, good U vlaue window almost a year and a half before the build for about 1/3 the normal price. I saved thousands of dollars through craigslist, ebay, lowes and HD clearance isle/returns. I bought marble slabs, sandstone, and tile at fractional prices. I actually changed some plans due to what I found dirt cheap. No matter what you do, as soon as you start there will be a new product/invention that pops out and you will wish you had added it.
Google sketchup is free and can be used to do a 3d plan. trial use and free downloaded cad programs can be used to do plans.
I live in PA, I absolutely had to design my house to have a walkout basement. I actually spent several thousand dollars to make this happen. I will never walk down steps into a basement using a bilco door again, and I will never have less than a 36" door to my house. As everyone else has said in this thread, wide stairways and doorways and hallways.
About the only thing I did not plan for, that I found I made a big mistake on, was planning for snow drifts. This summer I will have to elevate my sidewalk to fix a lowspot that was drifting. I also have to add some type of windbreak around one side of my house to stop a housedrift. I planned for wind, I planned for snow, I didn't plan for wind driven snow.
I'm not cheap, I'm frugal. I have to be, I don't have a money tree on my property.
Good luck to ya.
