Your first payment initiates and covers the Design & Planning phase (measurements, material selections, layout development, and your complete design package with floor plans and renderings). It is not an extra fee: it credits in full toward your total project cost.
Once the design is locked and you have signed the contract, construction begins. Each invoice you pay releases the corresponding material order with the vendor, so your payments stay in step with real progress on your home, never ahead of it.
Design & Planning First:your flat Design & Planning fee is the first payment toward your project, not a separate design charge. It buys a full design and a firm Contract price, confirmed within the range disclosed up front. Budget for up to a 10% deviation, as is standard for remodeling.
The flat Design & Planning fee paid on signing is your first payment toward the project total, not a separate design charge (refer to the Proposal for all included deliverables). It initiates the Design & Planning phase and counts in full toward your total project cost when you sign your Contract and proceed to construction.
Signing the Proposal is a mutual commitment, you commit to the project by paying into it, and we commit to delivering a final Contract price within the range disclosed in the Proposal. The Contract confirms what the Proposal promised, now made precise after measurements, it is not a new negotiation. As standard, honest budgeting guidance for any remodeling project, we advise planning for a possible deviation of up to 10% from the estimate, since some conditions can only be confirmed once the space is fully planned.
You start with a flat Design & Planning fee (real work, your design) that comes off the top of your total. After that, materials and labor are ordered as you fund each step, so what you have paid always matches what has been done on your home. No large sum sits with us before work begins.
The exact milestones and amounts for your project are laid out in full in your written proposal, and we walk through every one with you at the Design & Planning summary meeting before construction starts. Nothing is a surprise.