Hello Elliot, The thing to be mindful of here... are twofold.. 1 You have to come up with a plan that not only gives you what you're looking for in terms of any extension or works.. but also what is considered acceptable under the conservation laws.. Is the home listed? Is this radically different to what is in the surrounding areas.. Will it be deemed as excessive.. Radical or out of step.. Planning aside.. 2 Do you encroach in anyway onto neighbours with this build.. This can be a really sticky situation to get into and will not bode well if people start to object.. What I would do is look at any works that have been carried out in the neighbourhood.. Look at what might have been agreed previously but not actioned if you have those details from purchase for example.. Speak now to the conservation office(r) to assess the lie of the land as it were- and make friends with the neighbours and make them aware of your plans... Also look at the ratio of build comparable to the square footage of any land.. ie your garden or where you intend to build.. If it's not permitted development then planning permission is necessary but hopefully you can iron out any objectionable's now rather than later.. The Houzz guy as you refer to him will probably already have said all this and more.. : ))

Honesty is the best policy. Just sit down with him, say that you are very happy with the work done to date but lay the facts out for him. If he understands where you are at with your finances and then he should be able to help you formulate a plan to get the remaining work done within budget. Given you've already spent a considerable amount with him you're in a good position to negotiate, perhaps get him to write up all the costs to date and try and find a final price you'd both be happy with inclusive of the remaining work. If you can't agree then explain you'll need to call a halt to the work and get some independent quotes to see if you can find someone cheaper. Nothing that's left is truly urgent so getting a number of tradespeople in to quote is both sensible and likely to save you money.

First thing is did he provide a 'quote' or an 'estimate'? A 'quote' must be stuck to, and an 'estimate' is not a fixed price. It's a rather underhand way of being able to charge you what they like if they provided an 'estimate' without explaining the implication. Check the paperwork, if the word estimate appears anywhere (even if alongside 'quote'), you won't be able to do anything. The window situation can be easily resolved if you offer to supply and provide your own. That being said you do sometimes need to take a step back and be objective: you may not think some work is necessary, but often some of the miscellaneous and unexpected work cannot be avoided. I would get another tradesman over to do a quote to finish the risk) I wouldn't mention a dispute at this point or else it will be very off putting) and see how the figures look. If they are quoting similar figures as your existing tradesman, unfortunately you will have to accept this is just one of those jobs where the budget isn't going to stretch to your requirement, and you'll have to lower your expectation.

@JenP - Yes it was a max budget of 40k...and I have every single budget meeting all around 38-40k; but then at the very end he explained his error which was on every sheet over the six months!!! This error (not carrying over the figure) meant he got the final totals wrong...and its now 50k. @jonathan - OK good to hear about your mum and I agree with everyone and will get legal advice. In my case, it wasn't even that the work hours or materials were higher, it was his calculations on paper - so the individual totals all work listed, but his actual final totals (and what he would advise me when I would have my monthly budget meeting) were continually incorrect - until he realised the mistake at the very end. Lesson Learned: Even when given a printed budget, always recalculate the totals yourself! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR ADVICE AND TIME - I will update here once I have an outcome. The good news is that I love my apartment and the quality of work is beautiful.