Approximately 1.5 years ago I had my basement drywalled. Part of it was already drywalled. I had the guy do 2 rooms, both 13' x 23' and 2 other rooms approx. 10' x 13'. One of the 13' x 23' walls was already done in one of the rooms and one about a 10' section was already done in another room. He didn't do any ceilings, because i was using a drop ceiling. He and his partner came in one day and hung it in about 5 or 6 hours. He came back 3 other times to finish, approx 4 hours a time and he charged me $1500. I thought that was a steal considering it would have taken me a few months to complete. I live in Missouri, by the way.

emily i see you allowances but without knowing the expectations you have for quality, it is hard to tell if they are too low. but given that you are just starting out and you got your first surpise - and it is 20 GRAND over! - that should send off some loud alarm bells. we found that our builder used his standard when estimating all allowances. we quickly discovered that his standard and our expectation were way out of sync. if we had built what our builder assumed, the house would have been a huge disappointment and not worth all the effort. we actually increased many of our allownaces before signing the contract using actual quotes from vendors for the quality and styles we wanted. when it was time to place the orders, we stayed within those budget wedges. i think our total overrun on all of these items was less than 1 or 2% and most of that were due to price increases that were beyond our control (note that if you get a quote now it may only be good for 30 days or so. if you order 3 months from now - the prices may be higher. you might want to factor some inflation into your budget as well). Unfortunately, there were a few large allownace items where we had to trust his judgement and that was where we got burned. Excavaation, well, septic, and electrical. And we were disgusted by it all - especially since we told the builder that we were on a tight budget and we were counting on him to stay within the numbers he gave us. He assured us there was enough pad to cover any issues - and he was wrong by a long shot. you have to address the window issue now since that is a near term decision. the only way to do this is get more bids and look at other options. i second the advise to not go cheap on windows and doors, but there are wide ranges of pricing and quality - you just need to find the right balance. once you get that settled, I suggest looking closely at the other allowance areas. go out and get bids and start working the numbers - so that you are not shocked again (and again) when it is time to order the other items. you must get a very detailed list of exactly what is embedded in each allowances and then get bids or pricing on all of those items. tally it up (don't forget tax and his fee) and see where you are at. I worry that your builder did exactly what ours did to us on the allowance items.

It is no secret what materials approximately cost and customers are free to look them up, however, I may get a discount for which they are not eligible. I may get that discount because I have bought a lot of stuff for a very long time and I pay my bills on time. I have earned the discount, my customers have not; it is my business only. You can take or leave my material and labor price; you can compare it to others without a breakdown. I won't have you calculating my "hourly rate" to see if you think it's fair because you'll probably not see any need for me to cover my overhead, markup, and I'm sure my profit (my reward to cover the risk of being in business) will appear frivolous and unnecessary. The last customers that asked me for a material and labor breakdown burned me for $900.00, about a quarter of our contract. I disregarded my own experience and paid the price for not ditching them before I was bound contracturally. It will never happen again. If you ask me for a material and labor breakdown, we aren't right for each other. It was lovely speaking to you and have a nice day.

I don't know the cost of ours, but can highly recommend them. We have the Kichler linear lighting U/C lights (hooked up to a dimmer) and love them. Seagull and Juno also make linear lighting systems (or they did when we did our reno 3 yrs ago). We had an ongoing problem with some of the bulb/lampholders not lighting up until we jiggled or flicked them. Fed up, I finally called Kichler about it this past fall, whereupon they determined that the problem was likely the older style lampholders (which we had). They sent out the new and MUCH improved lampholders (they actually lock more tightly onto the track, unlike the older style), and I am a happy U/C lighting user. I am very impressed with the company as well, for recognizing the problem, and for sending out new/replacement lampholders (at no cost).