I have a written proposal that states he will not go over the amount. Nothing is signed. I agreed to pay in cash with the implication that in doing so I was getting a better price. I have numerous invoices that I paid as we went along. None show any previous balance so it is obvious I had paid them chronologically. I am not worried about going to court, I doubt very much he would go through that hassle and I can show that our arrangement was not honored on his end. The whole reason I asked for an amount the job would not go over was because I had to budget carefully. He agreed to this so he got the job. Isn't this how it is supposed to work? Contractors bid and then if they accept the job, they do it for that price. If they misjudge, they eat it, right? That is how it is done for multi-million dollar contracts, why would this be different?

Thanks everyone for your replies and advice. It has been extremely helpful. Wanted to provide a little more information & clarification. The remodel is for the basement of our home. It was was partially finished by the last owner but had no plaster walls to preserve or restore, hence the new drywall in the new laundry room. While there is supposed to be some crown molding between the cabinets & ceiling, I don't know if the suggestions on modifying the crown to disquise the slanted ceiling will help but I'll look into it. We actually did have a structural engineer visit, assess the structure, and write up a formal report for permit drawings as we had originally planned to do a whole house remodel with a large addition. Those plans got significantly scaled back due to cost and change of priorities. Engineer found no structural issues of concern. When we first noticed the laundry room ceiling not being level and briefly talked with the contractor about it, he told us that he had known the ceiling was not going to be level as they were working on it. He said he had decided that it would be better to have a ceiling that was higher in some places and shorter than others, than a ceiling that was uniformly 1-2 inches shorter. We are very frustrated that he chose not to inform us and didn't solicit our input before making that decision. We didn't specifically state in our contract that he needed to "level the ceiling" because the old ceiling and walls were to be completely ripped out (even the insulation). We thought that it would be a given that a new room, with brand new walls and ceiling would be installed level. Are we incorrect to have thought that? Casings: Yes, the door and window casings in the room with the wainscot are double the thickness of the casings in the rooms where the beadboard is supposed to be. They did the room with the wainscot first (and it looked great). It never occured to us that they wouldn't make the same thickness casings in the other rooms and only realized that the casings weren't the same until after they had installed some of the casings and then some of the beadboard right next to the casings. So, are we correct that the contractor should have had the casings be uniform in all the rooms and that it wasn't unreasonable for us to expect them to make the casings deeper than the beadboard? As for being on-site and available. . . I am a stay-at-home mom and am at the house almost all the time. I go down to the basement or garage at least once a day. While I'm there I check in with the crew to see how the work is progressing and to see if they have questions or see if there is anything they want to run by me. I also let them know they can come get me upstairs or call me anytime should they need a decision about something or run into something unexpected. Sometimes they ask questions and seek input but more often than not they don't. My hubby and I try to go down to the basement almost every night or at least every couple days to see how it is coming along. We don't dislike the contractor or his crew and certainly want to avoid them having to re-do work they've already completed. So we try to be as diligent as we can to notify the contractor and crew ASAP if something doesn't seem right and we do it in a respectful way. We also have let them know that we'd much rather have them ask us if they aren't sure about something or if they encounter something that isn't covered by the plans, than to just guess our preferences. Unfortuantely we are finding over and over again that the contractor, his crew, and the subs make unilateral decisions and install things incorrectly or without consulting with us and then get upset when we let them know that what they've done wasn't done according to the architectural drawings, wasn't done as we specified in earlier written communication with the contractor, or otherwise not to our liking. As for using a contractor well versed in old house remodels, our contractor was recommended by the local historic preservation society as well as by local architectural firms specializing in old house remodels. We spent a lot of time trying to find someone who did period appropriate work on old houses and from his portfolio and references, he seemed to be the best. Sawdust: There have also been several instances where they were supposed to put up protection between our main home and the basement and they either didn't at all or didn't do it adequately and almost once a week we get significant dust all throughout the house (one time instead of dust, it was black soot from a furnace flue removal--took forever to clean and we are still finding it). We've had multiple conversations with the contractor about this issue to no avail. So the sawdust coating the garage just adds insult to injury. Our last contractor put up a small tent in the yard and did all their wood cutting outside and did a good job cleaning up afterwards. It never occured to me that our current contractor would have wood cutting done in our garage. Had I known they had planned on doing messy work in the garage, I would've put my foot down and told them to do it ouside or would have told them to just do it in the basement because then we wouldn't have had to clean both the house and the garage, we'd only have the house to clean!

Thanks, everyone. We're not at the point where we are considering cutting him out. We selected our contractor because he is also a structural engineer and he brings a special expertise to this job, which includes a complicated pool build and an outdoor lounge perched on a steep sloped lot. There have already been a few significant overruns - our structural costs for the pool and the lounge went way up due to issues with the soil and depth of bedrock, and it has been stressful for both us and the contractor. After having interviewed all the top shelf contractors in our area, he was the only one we wanted to work with. Also, we are renting another home, so it would be costly for us to lose time to locate another contractor, wait for him to provide a bid, and bring him in and get him up to speed. Also, as an update: the cabinets in the other home are MDF -- he got confirmation from the homeowners of the other house and the cabinet maker that built them. There was confusion on our part because we were given a door sample that was solid wood, and the plans for that house indicated they were Alder. We were never told until just yesterday that those cabinets were MDF, so we relied on the sample given to us and the plans which (incorrectly) reflected they were wood. They must have some sort of veneer on them because they are stained. We are going over to the other house this weekend to look at them. We have not given him any money towards the cabinets yet. And we are free to change the style of the cabinets at this point if we want to. I'm waiting to see the quality of the cabs before making a decision. Sorry I don't have time to respond individually -- running out to a dental appt. But appreciative of the advice and support. Thank you all!

@ Karen Rose - that's what I was hoping for! I wish I was having your experience! I thought before tile that we would talk and confirm. Instead I showed up at my house and @ the transition pieces where the wood-look tile meets the bathrooms hexagon tile it actually ROLLS downward like a ramp! Instead of leveling the tile they rolled down! I'm laughing thinking about it but its really not funny. He doesn't consult because he thinks he's building one of his models. I asked when the roof is going up and heard crickets. My mother happened to call me and say 'hey I drove by the house and the roof is going up.' I was not going to go by but decided to (we are like 25 miles away from our site). When I got there they were putting big box store shed metal on my roof! Not the 5v I requested. They removed the wrong roof, we told them to make sure to seal the holes... they didn't. We got rain storms for 2 days in a row. Walked in our house and found our top loft clearly had water damage in the ceiling. This is after insulation and drywall. Nonetheless we are wrong in his opinion to be saying anything about issues and we should stop frequenting our house so much. And he's actually emailing this stuff to us! We just need the project to come to an end ASAP. It will cost us $ to change contractors. And at this point in the game we are wanting it to be done and we are trying to move him along but he keeps threatening that he has 365 days from permit issuance to finish our house.