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!

The contract is the 'bible' in your build. If it's fixed price I don't see how he can change anything without a change order or an allowance. Sounds like your builder was either careless (like just looking at the total and adding it to your build) or truly was looking to just grab additional funds (thinking food and diapers here). As a strategy you may want to negotiate with the builder first as in "I see an error here, I'm sure we didn't get diapers added to the build for insulation" type and see his response. Once you get him to admit he made an error, he can revisit his documentation to correct all the errors. If he doesn't, then come back with an attorney. Keep your appointment with the attorney. I'm just saying you may want to have a conversation with the builder first to see how you ended up with these inexplicable, unjustifiable charges.

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.

"...if you can believe it, we've paid our architect hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 10 years to continue to modify our plans in order to accommodate our city's ever-changing laws, as well as our own design changes. We're done paying for those changes & would much rather pass it on to someone who isn't siphoning money from us!..." Well...this is simply extraordinary. I can't imagine how you would have spent 10 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars with a single architect on a residential remodel project...unless there were numberous changes of scope and changes of mind...over time, again and again. It's simply extraordinary and defies logic. And I fully understand that many jurisdictions have very detailed requirements for design and construction approvals. And I understand your frustration at where you currently find yourself in your project. But...the archive of this forum is full of threads from many consumers complaining, after the fact, that construction costs and quality have become huge problems once construction started because of inadequate and/or confusing construction docments. Virtually every time a consumer thinks to save money on the front end by using minimal or improperly coordinated documents, they wind up being disappointed at how the construction took place, and how change orders escalated the construction costs unexpectedly. There's posting after posting about this. For example, look at the currrent thread on stairs. There's an old saying, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later!". It's exactly what you are facing. In the computer business it's, "Garbage in, garbage out!". Dispite your frustration, you need to stop and seriously reconsider how best to protect your investment and ensure that you project will proceed in a proper and satisfactory manner. Listen to the other experienced folks in this thread who have design and construction experience. They are all telling you the same thing. I sincerely wish you good luck in your project.