There is another factor that no one has touched upon. I am a Plumber and I have spent many years earning a reputation amongst the local builders and plumbing inspectors as being a stickler for detail, to the point that often an inspector comes on the job site and when he or she sees me standing there they barely go through the motions of an inspection, relying upon the fact that they know my work. In return, I can command top money amongst the builders and I am still in high demand because they know that I will get the job done on time, in budget and have no follow-up problems. Along comes Mr & Mrs gotlotz acting in the stead of a competent GC and they immediately begin giving me attitude. NO problem. The first thing out of their mouth is that they will not settle for the quality of work we do on tract homes. Fine with me, never let it be said that I cheated you out of your bragging rights, I just add an additional 10 or 15% aggravation fee for putting up with the attitude. The quality of the work speaks for itself.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I did find out there is room to raise the door. After removing the trim and a little drywall, I found that there is about two inches between the top of the door and the header. So maybe rasing the door is a option, we will see. Although I haven't decided what to do as yet, the deck is over 700 square feet and I wont be removing and rebuilding it over the 1/2 inch difference between deck boards and door threshold. I'm sure I can find a solution that satisfies both the safety and cosmetic concerns. That said... thank you again for the comments and I am still open to any creative solutions someone may have to offer.

Hey Christy! Glad to hear your project is underway. Sophie Wheeler is on the right vein for taking a hard look at your project right now. With all of the changes in the market from Harvey to steel costs shooting up with new tariffs in place everything has gone up in price all the way down to the nails. So what you had a year ago is critically off course today, so a meager 10% contingency is going to get fully depleted before you get to the end. Even a 10% addition for a total of 20% will likely not be sufficient. I know you are building your dream, but you should consider taking a hard look at the scope of work and either A) find additioanl funds to increase your budget, or B) table some big ticket items in the scope that can be done once you have been able to comfortably replinish your funds...Since you are just at framing, another idea would be to hire an outside "consultant" if your builder has hit a wall and is having a hard time seeing an alternative solution for cost cutting on the project. We did it back in the corporate environment, so I see no reason why you could not use this tactic here. We work on contact thus would honor our original price, but also have a built-in contingency because we expect overages and in a case like this would probably pull from the contingency. Best of luck! it is a tough market out there!

I am wondering if I should just take my multipurpose tool and cut out the plywood piece towards the door jam. Then put the t molding over that. I think there is a t molding that i can use that would go from vinyl plank flooring to a lower floor.