Fiberglass at the rims is a particularly poor choice in the South, where the pressure drive (warm to cold) is predominantly from the exterior to the interior. Judging best practice by looking at what other builders are doing is not the best way to improve the details on your own home. Liquid water from leaking exterior sheathing will leak around and through foam boards and sprayed foam. But unlike fiberglass insulation, the foam board and spray foam are not moisture sensitive and will not lose R value or provide a home for mould growth. Here is a link that might be useful: Understanding Basements--BSD-103

In CA, there is a difference between labor and material contracts. Labor down-payment is $1000 max by law. Cut a check, pay them and that is it. The rest is based on your labor contract. In our case, we paid $1000 up front and the balance upon completion. For materials, anywhere from 10% to 25% is normal, at least in our region. It can be different region to region. To prevent errors, you will need to have a written specifications that both you and the stores have signed. It needs to clearly list measurements, options, standard features and everything. For example, argon or krypton gas or both? thickness of glass? air space size if that is an option? color? operating hardware type and color/ screen material and color? window type? everything. When in doubt, specify it and this is even if the store wants to laugh at your pickiness. You do not want to be the one left holding the bag when things go wrong. It pays to be a "pain" in the beginning and make sure they know you will be even more painful to them if they mess up. When the store places the order, ask to see the actual order going out to ensure it matches precisely what you have signed off. This is not often possible because shops normally combine several orders into one but you can call, badger, insist even knowing they cannot do it. This will force them to be careful knowing that you are a picky customer. When the goods arrive, insist on seeing them at the shop warehouse if possible. Inspect them, make sure they are precisely what you order. If they simply cannot do it and this is reasonable, then when they deliver to the job site, you make sure the contractors DO NOT install anything until you have inspected and checked everything against the agreed upon specifications. The key is to make sure the whole delivery process is checked and triple checked before allowing installation to happen. Good luck!

I think I originated the confusion here about this being multi family. You described the building on a post somewhere as being a 3 floor commercial structure, and for some reason, that sounded as though it were going to be a 3 residence apartment when you were done. I apologize for the incorrect assumption. You might try State Farm or Farmers Insurance to get additional quotes from as they've been friendly to "non standard" residences of acquaintances of mine, although most have had their issues with either codes enforcement or their insurance companies. My friend who owns an 1820 building in downtown Memphis had the codes people write him up for several things when they did an "urban blight" sweep a few years ago. He had to immediately put in a sprinkler system and repoint the entire exterior to be in compliance. He also had to spend about 14K in replumbing the structure because of old cast iron piping and to work to be split into 4 apartments. That's the "master plan" anyway. Right now he only occupies 1/4 of the building. It has 12' tall windows that you can get a glimpse of the river though, and it's worth some sweat and tears! I did a kitchen in a residence converted from a 1910 cotton gin that the homeowners had a LOT of issues with red tape on the conversion. They used Farmers, but they also had to take out a bond of X amount to serve as the General Contractor on the project. Their mortgage holder required that as they didn't want to end up holding the bag on a half finished project. And that was during the boom construction years. Last year, my sister couldn't even get a loan to buy a small church to convert to a residence. No bank would talk to her about the project unless she had architectural plans and enough funding in place to hire a GC to do the project. If she had all of that, she wouldn't have needed a bank loan! I hope you find new insurance ASAP and I'd love to see more pics of your building. It sounds unique!

Thanks again everyone. So here's my update. I had no luck getting In touch with the agent we had used originally, and wasn't willing to drag my two kids along to go to the office. So I passes the issue off to dh who walked into the office without an appointment and asked to speak to someone. ( he makes a good squeaky wheel lol). The agent I had been dealing with was not available so he got someone else. She gave him the same song and dance about "a cabinet is a cabinet, a door is a door" etc. except having looked closely at our policy we knew we were covered for the option of "similar construction" for replacement cost, not standard construction. (It's extra). So, he pulled out receipts and photos etc. finally she agreed to open up the software they use, and spent 20 minutes with him going over the details of the house and the material used. That brought the replacement value up $60,000 (as opposed to the original $17,000). Quite a difference. We will be photographing and storing receipts just in case. So, the moral of the story, your agent should be thou rough, not lazy. Know your policy. And make noise if needed. Thanks again for all the advice!