Ground Hog Day on the house design...

From our last update on the build, things were looking pretty grim.
Because of having to have a turning circle built for a fire truck, we had to push the house site further down the hill. This resulted in a long driveway, a suspended concrete slab, and Uber-Footings to hold the house up. All that pushed the build cost from "yes, we can manage that" to "OMG!". This was accompanied by much soul-searching about how a one-bedroom, one-bathroom house could cost only slightly less than a Harrier jet.
We were left with a long list of "If"s which needed to be fulfilled - if we were ever going to be able to build.
The good news is, that there has been some positive progress. Of course, this really just puts us back to where we were in about July 2013... but progress is progress, and at least while we may still be in the forest, we can at least see some light through the canopy.
The first and main issue to resolve was to see if we could have the house moved back up the hill to its original planned site, and therefore not need to have the turning circle for the fire truck which the bushfire consultant stated was a requirement.

Through some mystical super power possessed by Building Certifiers, we have been able to have that decision over-ruled under the Building Code. This means that we no longer require the turning circle, and can therefore move the house back to the higher (and flatter) part of the block. Being on a flatter site, we were hoping to have a slab-on-ground, which would negate having to have the Uber-Footings required further down the hill, where it would mean a floating concrete slab.So far so good.
We have had verbal confirmation from the engineer that by moving the house back up the hill, we would indeed be able to have a slab-on-ground.
A small, but tentative "hurrah" could be heard Chez Viktoria-Android.
We have also had verbal confirmation from the Council Planning Officer that we would not be required to submit a new Development Application, but could get away with submitting an amendment to the original application.
It should be noted, that when we say "we" in the above context, we actually mean "Neal-and-Catherine-the-Architects". They have done the running around, phoning around, and listening to our angst. We (Viktoria & the Android) have just been responsible for creating angst...
But now, the only teeny tiny thing remaining is... how much is it all going to cost?
For some reason, the builder needed to have a holiday (we are sure that it can't just have been us driving him crazy). But he had previously advised he would be able to re-do the estimate for us this week.
Will it come in on budget?
Will we ever get to start building?
Will we end up living in a tent, surrounded by cats??
We are keeping all our fingers and toes crossed.
V&A