I think it really depends on your town and their building requirements/restrictions, the degree of difficulty involved in the process of getting appropriate approvals, and your specific lot/property and any encumbrances it may have. If you live in one of those places like Texas or parts of Tennessee, where getting a building permit takes about five minutes and involves little more than standing in line at City Hall with some plans and getting a stamp, then by all means, go this route. But if you live somewhere where the process is long and involved, and requires variances, board of adjustment review and critique, historical commission approvals, board of health approvals, possible state environmental approvals, or extensive site-work, you definitely want to go local. Two years ago, we were going this same route with a non-local company (factory-built modular shell, site-finished house), and got really far along in the process before we realized the truth of what henry said above. Although the company built great houses, and even used local subs for sitework, overall it was a huge cluster, because they had no idea about how extensive the approval process is in our town. It can take 6 months to a year or more to get a building permit in my town. This company was totally clueless. Bottom line here is, the houses in my town that get built and get the fastest approvals are the ones that are presented to and defended before all the required Boards by the local architects, local engineers, and local GCs. We thought we were saving money by looking outside of our "zip-coded" zipcode, but in the end, we actually wasted a ton of money trying (and failing) to go the non-local route. Before you even ask the company how they handle it, you should find out or know more about how your town handles the building permitting process. Your answer will be there.

Adrienne, First I wanted to put in a mini-apology because when I reread my post this morning it read as more "attackish" then I wanted it to. My only excuse is that I had a longer day then I had thought and this is a sore point with me. It is SO true that I don't want to deal with annoying people. Lol! I am an independant contractor so in essence I am my own business. I don't sell cabinets, or make a profit off of someone else's time like a GC does. I rent my time on an hourly basis. When we talk about the making money side of things (why don't they want to make the money) it's not that we don't want the money, or even that we won't make the money, it's that we think our time is better spent making the money somewhere else. I only have a certain amount of hours in a day. If my goal is to work/charge for 8 hours in a day and I have two jobs available to me for that same time frame I'll take the job I'm more interested in and people are definitely a deciding factor. With something like an appliance salesmen the question may be why doesn't he want the money because it doesn't require anything more of him to get that second sale while with someone who sells their time it means late nights and working weekends. If I size up a situation and think that for whatever reason the job will end up costing me more than I'd get paid for (or would be frustrating or would take forever or etc) then I'll just take the second project. I can only sell my time once! I don't know if I've ever actually said "you smell" to a client, but I have definitely had things like unsanitary conditions play a role in if I want to move forward with a job. It's helpfull to know that I specialize in working with small budgets and often work giving advice to DIY. That's what I enjoy doing. And that entails spending a lot of time with the clients and often at their home. If I go to the home and they are heavy smokers so the house reeks and they have three big dogs that they can't keep off me and they keep talking about the neighborhood going to hell because of a mexican family moving in next door (true stories) I say things like "I don't feel like we are a good match. I don't particularly like dogs, the lingering smoke smell is bothering my allergies and I don't know what to say about the Mexicans. With these things in mind I would certainly give you a referral to another designer if you like and of course, I won't charge you for this visit." Something like that. I do try and be polite but I also want to be honest. Maybe when the next designer comes over they will put away the dogs and air the house out. I DO work with people I don't particularly like. As long as I feel like we have similar goals and values that's where I am at. But often, the reasons you might not like someone are reasons that seriously affect working together on something as intense as a full kitchen remodel. For instance, someone who is disorganized to a fault but still wants to be their own GC, someone with no construction understanding or background who demonstrates an unwillingness to listen to the GC, someone who complains at the quotation of your pricing (not a bill but the up front quote of amount per hour). None of these things make someone a bad person and if the job is interesting and we agree on other levels we may still move forward. But if you combine them together you get a project that is going to take forever, be painfull to execute, and I'll be stiffed somewhere along the way for my fee. In the same way you don't want your remodel to be a horrible process where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, I don't want that either. I get very invested in the jobs I do. You don't want to start a job with a weirdo designer or a nut job GC and I don't want to start one with a nut job GC and a crazy person for a client. Somewhere a GC is thinking "that dang weirdo designer and crazy person client". A good remodel is a team effort! A bunch of us stuck in a life raft together until the thing is over. In sum, when you panic at 6:15 in the morning because you had second thoughts about your faucet and the guy is unloading the tools to start drilling your counter holes I want to laugh and say good morning! Not think to myself, why did I get into this mess!

Oh...boy!. First time here and can I ever tell you about kitchen designers and contractors! I just finished my kitchen. Initially, the KD company had a contractor who works for them if a client needs it but apparently this guy didn't want my little 30K job because it was "too small". I had to hire my own contractors for electrical, demo of the old kitchen, and plumbing. (I later found out that these contractors, whom I know from another job, also install kitchens but at the time, I didn't bother to ask....) Anyhow, the KD mis-measured and a switch was half hidden behind a cabinet. He arrives to check it out while my contractors are here. They discuss it and it is agreed that the switch rather than the cabinet will have to be moved. Since my contractors are on the premises they may as well move it...ah yah, right! It cost me an extra $300 to move the switch because it wasn't easy as it was attached to a support beam. I paid the contractors and then deducted this amount as a back charge from the final payment owed to the KD company. Then, the KD threatens to take me to small claims court because he says why should his firm pay when they could have chosen their own contractor! Say what? Their contractor didn't want my measly job. This was their mistake. They never told me to wait or found a solution for over a month and they waited until the final payment was due to tell me this, even though I warned them repeatedly... Turns out the KD is mad at my contractors because they insulted his "plumbing knowledge" at some point. Now, I'm being forced to pay for a job the KD screwed up and let me tell you, there are numerous other measurement issues that have occurred as well...like brackets that are too big for a peninsula and a food processor that doesn't fit anywhere, despite the KD measuring it to fit! So, friends...the moral of this story is....If you have found a contractor who has experience installing a kitchen, don't rule them out just because they aren't bona fide KDs! I did and look where it landed me! (The latest is the KD is now trying to make me pay for 4 wooden counter support brackets that are apparently $100 each -- replacements for others that didn't match the kitchen hardware...presumably the KD's way of winning this round!) How many ways can you spell RI-DON-CULOUS!

3+/ I believe that insurance should cover all risks of loss of funds, money or damage to materials. You will protect yourself from the fact that something may not go according to your plan. That's exactly how it was for me. I started working with my house, but it took too much money. I was upset. I realized that I needed to hire a contractor. In the end, I turned to these guys https://alsharqa.net/%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%B7%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%82%D9%87-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7/. They did their job very well. I was satisfied with all the finishing work done! And what would you say about turning to someone for professional help?