You may have to go to the State office that licenses the contractors to see if there are any law suits against him along with complaints. Another thing to check on, it make sure, and get it in writing along with paid recipts from the sub contractors on the job. Do it NOW!! or you might find yourself paying for the materials twice. We did that with our building. DH was acting GC, but NOTHING came on the property without paid recipts from the business the materical were bought from. Don't go any further until you get some good legal advice. Meet the contractor with the bank manager with your paper work and get everything straightened out NOW.

Some of his charges were legitamate. We had asked for certain upgrades months ago, and he kept putting us off with costs. Then he shocked us with it the day they poured concrete in the foundation. WINDOWS: We asked for Fiberglass windows instead of vinyl. ($3K increase) KITCHEN: We upgraded cabinets (from a Kraftmaid level 5 to a level 8), and I chose granite from his provider. He indicated that we went over allowance even though I chose from what I was told to choose from and size of kitchen has not changed from date of contract. He had provided an allowance for appliances, but when I tried to get them from the guy he suggested, his guy didn't want to deal with our level of appliances --we're getting a Kenmore range, not Thermador. So he told me to get appliances on my own, and he would credit the $8K allowance. Well, that allowance was sucked up by "other" kitchen expenses, and we still need to purchase appliances on our own. This amounted to a $4K price INCREASE. FOUNDATION: He upped the total almost $5K for additional foundation digging and porch support beam because of new hurricane requirements (I live in the northern Virginia) MISC OTHER STUFF: He has wierd stuff we can't figure out, like 150 sqft of drywall for an area less than 60 sqft (when we brought this to his attention, he said that they might need extra. More than twice the amount?); a plumber, electrician, AND a carpenter will be installing our disposal, dishwasher, refrigerator, and range. When I brought this up, he said all these people needed to help with installation. We are being charge EXTRA for installation because we also have a different expense line for the plumber and electrician with allowances (which I guessed would have included stuff like making an outlet for the stove and disposal, etc.). MORE TO COME: He let us know that the roofer will need to put on more roofing (he priced out roofing for just the addition, but he said last night that he knew the roofer would have to roof over some of the old part of house too). This was NOT included in his 20% increase! He also gave us allowances for electrician and plumber, but he let us know yesterday that they would probably not be enough to cover the actual costs. This amount is is also NOT included in his 20% increase. I am at a loss. We did not sign the change order last night. When we left and he said something about ordering the cabinets and windows, I told him I would not order anything if I were him. We checked him out with the Better Business Bureau and he looked like he had a great reputation with national builder organizations. He has won several National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) awards -- I thought we had done our homework. We have a retired contractor coming to look at the change orders and the blueprints tomorrow. Plus, my dad just passed the bar last year and said he would look over the contract. I just didn't want it to come to this --- ahhhhhh!

Standard doors are 6" - are you suggesting not to upgrade to 8" ? We felt higher the door height, the easier it is to move furniture and stuff, of-course the width of the door isn't changing. I wouldn't bother with this. How often do you move "furniture and stuff" that's taller than 7'? Extended Lanai: Oh, I thought it'd be a deeper lanai ... I'd be less inclined to pay for a wider lanai. Wider isn't all that useful, and it means more rooms are shaded /have less natural light. Vent Hood/Microwave to Outside - If we don't choose, the smoke will stay indoors - the builder should have included this in the base price but it is what it is. I am really surprised that this isn't standard. I would do the oak riser steps instead of carpet. Yes overpriced but probably better now. Yes, if you don't do the oak risers now, you probably won't be able to do them later ... at all. If they do carpet stairs, they're going to use plywood /paint quality stuff under that carpet; thus, it won't be a matter of pulling up carpet later and staining /painting. It is easy to say walk away and build a custom home, but not everyone can afford to do that, nor does everyone want to go that route (even if they can afford to). True. Tara we all have to make compromises. For ourselves it's been a 2 year journey building our custom home, plus the hours and hours spent researching and finding even the smallest details. So I understand where you're coming from. Yup, no matter your circumstances, you're going to "give" somewhere. For us, we're taking the same route as CP describes above: The place where we're "giving" is time and personal effort.

Or, it sounds like Germaine and spouse may have spend a great deal of time in the "What if" stage of early design, and/or changed a lot of things as the design progressed (..."We spend over a year with the design in order for things to be "perfect"...) because it is their "forever" house and they really wanted to add/change a number of things to make them "perfect". A year, after all, is a very long time for the design and construction drawings for a single family residence. Large, complex commercial projects may not take that long. The point is, there are many, many reasons why design and construction documents may take a very long time, and become very expensive. One way to reduce expenses is to only have a minimal set of construction documents. As Charles Ross Homes points out, that is seldom a good strategy at the end of the day.