Our land deal was finally signed on Dec 18th, 2008. At the same time, the contract and deposit was also sent to Rocio Romero.
Signing the land deal definately sealed the decision to go ahead with the process. We've put in a desposit for LVL+LVM+LVC. Attached is our design idea, we haven't seen any other projects with our linear aesthetic yet.
Hoping to save some money by having the foundation of all 3 sections done at the same time as well as the roof installation.

Google Sketchup has been really helpful for us making decision on the layout. We want to fanalize the details before having to meet to Rocio. From all the blogs, seems that the design fees for just talking or asking questions can really add up. The more specific we are, the less design fees at the end (hopefully). Knowing that the house resell value would probably not be higher than the cost to build in this market really puts some pressure to make smart decisions and compromise on certain aspects of 'needs' versus 'wants'.

Additional miscellaneous costs of purchasing the land also was unexpected for us since this is first time we bought just the land.

Title Fees Approx $1000

Soil Condition report Approx $ 1000 (we had to do this since the land was used previously as an orchard, high levels of Arsenic is harmful to live on)

School and Town taxes Approx $200 for the year, this is very minimal for land. After the house is built , the taxes will go up significantly for sure.

Overall, this has been a great learning experience.