Quote:
Originally Posted by kscarrol
So issues with design/architect resolved?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spazzyfry123
Is there a clause in the contract that benefits the customer in situations like this? I'm sure they write it, so "no." But it would seem fair that if they are unable to reasonably meet your needs, shake hands and offer a pro-rated refund.
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Sorry guys, I jumped ahead without mentioning where we are at with the architect.
We had some "come to Jesus" meetings with them and are now, I believe, in a much better place. They had a breakdown in internal communication which they owned up to, that lead to us providing input to the architect that didnt make it down to the CAD guy who was actually doing the grunt work. On our side we owned that we sometimes over communicate. Too much unfiltered, unorganized, input too quickly and verbally. It's hard to keep up with us. We also got a little too excited and didnt carefully read their proposal to catch thinks like "consideration will be given to XYZ" as opposed to "a firm requirement for the project is XYZ." Finally, we went a bit overboard talking about "saving every tree on the property" when in reality we understand some will need to come down. They over-indexed on the "save every tree" requirement and that lead to compromises on the layout that we werent cool with. Bottom line we are a classic case of wanting to save the trees, until those tees get in the way of my garage, and then well, "cut those mother F'ers down baby!"
We did a fresh walk-through on the property with the architect and the project manager last weekend. Dropped stakes at possible corners for garage, livingroom, bedroom. Really underscored which views and orientation of the house we want. And went tree by tree mapping out "must keep", "Negotiable", and "dont care if it goes". That all really opened up the sandbox for them to play in and reset requirements and expectations.
Next meeting is this coming Wednesday. That's where the rubber will hit the road and we will see if we actually are in a better place. I feel like we are though. My wife is happy, so, that's a good thing.
Should things truly go south there's pretty reasonable language in the contract about working out issues in good faith, mediation if issues cant be worked out, and only paying for services rendered to date. We can walk at any time for any reason without providing cause.