Material prices have tripled in many cases and all labor is more expensive due to demands for it. My GC friend is no longer quoting prices, it's all cost plus, just so he doesn't disappoint clients like you. Time frames are crazy! He tells clients at least 12 months out for any project due to delays of materials, labor and permitting.

My neighbor recently got caught in a bind as you did. A project that was supposed to be done in 3 months took 12 due to delays and covid rules (those may be over now).

Keep your designs, try again in a few years.

This is the knowledge we both have but still GC think they are able to stay with the budget. They have NOT give us detailed cost yet. Second GC we asked their opinion, by just looking at our design set the price as double our budget.

I'd consider this a bullet dodged and back off with the original contractor. They are either too naive or too sloppy in their work to complete the job on time and within the quoted budget.

If you are determined to stay with them, find out if they are working on anything else right now. If so, speak to those clients and see what their experience is. If they aren't working on anything else right now, RUN! Everyone has at least two jobs going of the scale you are speaking of. If they don't, there is something wrong with the GC. GC's don't usually have their own labor for all the trades. They have to juggle and therefore, have to have several projects in the works to make a living. There is so much demand out there now, the good ones can't keep up.

They knew of our budget from beginning till end of design phase. Our original design demands were much less than what they designed for us. So no misleading from our part. I am waiting for them to give us their estimated cost. If they admit it is not possible to commit to our budget anymore and ask for the real cost, could we submit a complaint and get our design money back from them? Took them almost a year to get to this phase and wasted our time by forcing us to pick all interior design elements first( tiles colors pluming and lights ) 😞😡

Ask for an itemized budget...or at the very least an ”itemized” estimate. I was in almost the same position (except I hadn’t spent any moola yet - except thousands on an architect) . once I got the estimate I realized he was 75% over what he’d led me to believe he could build it for.

We are in exact same position. What did u do then? Did you ask for your money back? We paid for design and engineer already and I want this be refunded as their outcome was nothing close to my budget and they knew about our budget.

I hadn’t given them any money, so in that regard it was not the same. I don’t know what your ”legal/contractual” recourse is...I am not a lawyer. i would re-read your contract, if you have one?...I didn’t, so I couldmwalk away, and I did

I don't think that the builder making you spend time picking all the items you wanted was a bad thing. At least it looks like they were trying to come up with exact costs and not some placeholder allowance that would barely cover the cheapest builder grade materials.

Did you sign a contract for the whole deal (without having a final cost for the project) or was design/engineering a separate part?

No we have not signed any contract with them not given them any money besides design and engineering cost which we have paid

^Whew.

You moved out of your home and rented before you even had a contract signed? And you asked for 2nd opinions from other GC's who are estimating your design will cost double to build in this environment? Yet your GC hasn't even given his price yet? When you paid for the services for design and engineering, was it specified that they were in the parameters for an X budget final project?

"No we have not signed any contract with them not given them any money besides design and engineering cost which we have paid"

So at the end of the day you did all of this (beside the design portion) on the word of a builder without even having been given solid pricing or presented with a contract of any sort locking in said pricing? You don't have a chance of this pipe dream coming true with this guy.

I don't understand why you would pay a deposit on the cabinetry without first signing a contract to construct the addition. Do you have any written documentation related to the deposit? Is it refundable?

IMHO, you got design work and engineering work so why do you think you shouldn't pay for that? If I'm understanding correctly, you should be able to use what you received i.e. design and engineering, with any other contractor. These people put time into your project. Why should they not be paid for what they did and what you seem to be pleased with? Just because the cost is more than you expected, that doesn't change the fact that tangible work was done for you.

Most GC's quote a price based on a range of costs for every item. In the end, if you make a choice beyond the range of costs, then you pay the difference above the contract price. Not sure why this GC didn't quote a range without having you pick specific items but it could be that since prices are going wild right now, they wanted you to be specific so they could quote.