i agree with mines1919... you need at least three bids.. They should be delivered to you with labor cost, material cost separately.. you should have a clear idea with your allowance on your project is so you know what you have to live by and compare with the other. Looked at Kukun bidding.. it should do the job... i will be using it in two weeks.

I think you should ask the original contractor if he accidentally added a 0 to the quote. Ask him to explain the pricing if he says no. Any quote is going to have a small job premium. Especially considering your location. You also have to consider how messy that is and how a big piece of rock is going to be transported to the jobsite and into the home. That can be very difficult on a remodel. I can see where a quote from a new contractor, not an uninsured handyman, who is not already set up in the home with all of the dust protection etc could be close to half of that to deal with the logistics. But the original quote is nuts.

OK...here's an easy way to do this. You can float most engineered floors (but not all...so choose carefully). I would pick a floor that I like...and that is allowed to be floated. I would IGNORE the thickness. I would then make up the height difference using cork underlayment. Cork is solid (it does NOT squish or compress). That means it maintains it's 'height'. Cork underlay comes in 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (6mm) or 1/2" (12mm) thicknesses. The beauty of cork = it is floated...no tape. No glue. Nothing. It is fast and easy for an installer to throw down several sheets to cover a subfloor. The sheets butt up against each other. The floor on top keeps everything in place. The expansion gap at the walls is identical to the floor sitting on top. It is stupid simple. www.icorkfloor.com

If there are truly no changes to plumbing and electrical--and I would be very surprised if that's really the case unless the kitchen was redone relatively recently with permits and you're only changing things aesthetically, since CA code has a lot of specific requirements for kitchens--then you can do this relatively affordably if you're willing to piece out the elements (that is, hire someone for the demo, someone else for the drywall, someone else for the tile, etc.) It will take longer than working with a GC and you'll have to manage the project, but is considerably cheaper. We did this for our kitchen in the SF East Bay many years ago and I'm happy to share names of some of the people we worked with who are still around if you PM me. We had the cabinets and counters installed by the cabinetmaker and fabricator, respectively. We hired a plumber, electrician, and drywaller directly. We did the floors and painted ourselves (though could easily have outsourced those too). We did the plans and pulled the permits, so it was on us to make sure everything was to code and that we purchased the right supplies and materials. (We did opt to pay a kitchen designer hourly to review and give feedback on our plans, in addition to many many posts on GardenWeb, to be sure we weren't missing anything, and I definitely recommend that if you do a project like this.) All of that takes time, which is a lot of what a GC is charging you for (that, and relationships that will help your project get to the finish line more quickly). We are finishing a bathroom project using a GC now, though, and there have been just as many (more?) hiccups with that project as with the kitchen. The only real distinction is that it's on the GC to fix, not on us (e.g., we just had our final inspection and had corrections to make, so I texted him the list and that was that--with the kitchen we had to call the electrician back to ask and pay for a change, etc.) Raw material costs are up right now and there are still some supply chain issues. I found it helpful for our bathroom project to slowly collect what we needed as things went on sale, so we had a garage full of pieces for many months.