My husband and I have been working with a design build firm for 9 months. We told them staying in our (significant) budget was our #1 priority.
When the bid came in, it was 128% over budget.
Ok. We regrouped. Removed a lot of big ticket items, as well as some medium and small things.
Went back today, we are still 50% over budget.
But they won't tell us what anything costs. So when we ask "how much are the kitchen cabinets" the answer is "about $100k". Why can't you tell me exactly how much? When we ask how much the room addition is, they can't (won't) tell us.
Listen, we know they mark things up. We're not asking "how much is that light fixture". But to make informed decisions we need information. We've cut everything we can cut without more info.
And the original set of cuts didn't have the impact I expected given the way they have spoken about some other pricing.
I am having a hard time with the idea that I'm supposed to spend this kind of money without insight into how it's being spent.
So the question is - are we out of line to expect some detail on the bid? Or are we out of luck? If we are out of luck, then how do we make sure we aren't being ripped off? Because most of the firms in our area that do whole home remodels seem to be design/ build only and getting competing quotes seems impossible.
Any feedback would be appreciated.