Originally Posted by plbrdude

your story reminds me of one i heard earlier this year. one of my customers was having a surgery and his daughter came back for a while. she lives outside indianapolis. she told me last year that they had done an add-on and some remodeling. thought all was good happy with job, knew there were some xtras.then the final bill came, xtras totalled purty near 50g. guess thy're spending some time in court now with their friendly contractor.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That's exactly my fear. I'm getting no information. All of our changes have been relatively small, but I'd like to know if they're averaging $100 each or if he's charging me $1,000 each. He's just telling me "cheap" and then doing the work.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It's only natural that some things will change. I think that's no problem if they're neutral and addressed before the "point of no return". And if I change something after the fact, then I'll pay for it.

The gray area is the stuff like my refrigerator not being able to open all the way. It's clearly a design problem, and the cabinet subcontractor was following the design. However, I was a little disappointed that they didn't notice it when they were putting it in, or didn't know from experience that you shouldn't have a refrigerator within 12 inches of a 90 degree cabinet turn.

So who pays for pulling the cabinet back out and fixing the problem? The architect, whose design was stupid in the first place? The homeowner, who made the problem worse by trying to fix another architect problem? The cabinet subcontractor, for not knowing that you shouldn't have a fridge that close to the corner? Or the general contractor, who is supposed to be on site managing the project?

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That's exactly my fear. I'm getting no information. All of our changes have been relatively small, but I'd like to know if they're averaging $100 each or if he's charging me $1,000 each. He's just telling me "cheap" and then doing the work.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That's exactly my fear. I'm getting no information. All of our changes have been relatively small, but I'd like to know if they're averaging $100 each or if he's charging me $1,000 each. He's just telling me "cheap" and then doing the work.

Originally Posted by stevieray

oooh... find out how much. I'm never afraid to talk money with a client, in fact, i think they appreciate it...I used to be afraid to charge for sample boards, never again.

Best thing to do is get it on paper.

Originally Posted by cdcox

Then they are not qualified to own the home in the first place, or at least not qualified to have it remodeled.

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Eh, that's true to a point. But often it's because the homeowner doesn't think through exactly what they want, and go into it with the idea that changing things later isn't a big deal.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

We are indeed in the bedroom now, and it's fabulous. There are just a couple of little finish-up items that we're waiting on: a door that hasn't come in yet, and hooking up the swamp cooler to a water supply. I'll post photos when the whole thing is done.

Overall, the project has gone pretty well. We're in about the 15th week of an 8-week schedule, but I've been around long enough to know that construction schedules are always underestimated. I can live with that. My big worry is getting the final invoice and seeing where we stand on price. The contractor has been good to work with, but has been very laissez-faire on the change orders. We've had very few, but when we would talk about something he would say, "Oh, the cost is trivial. We'll get it to you" and then we never get a price. I don't think they're dishonest at all, but rather they're just too busy right now and their finance person is way behind. (They've never even sent us the final contract to sign, so this whole project has been done without a contract. I think that's to our advantage, so I've let it ride.) He's also had to work around at least two major design flaws by our incompetent architect, and I don't know who's expected to absorb any extra costs there. If nothing weird happens with the pricing, I'd certainly recommend the contractor to others.

I find it a little odd to be so ticked off about the backsplash on a kitchen counter, but you get that way on these projects, especially toward the end. "WHITE? WE HAVE WHITE OUTLET COVERS!?!?! I SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR BISCUIT!"