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About 6 weeks ago we contracted with a design/build firm to renovate one floor of a duplex in Red Hook on which we’re about to close. We thought the one-stop shopping of a D/B firm would avoid some of the problems we had in our last apartment reno, where the architect kept blaming the contractor for delays and overruns and vice-versa. But now we are near the end of the ‘design’ phase and suddenly the reno is projected to go almost 50% over than the original estimate and all kinds of new projected costs keep popping up — even after we’ve dramatically scaled back the work. So we are feeling rather pissed off, not to mention trapped since working with a single firm means no competitive bidding for contractors. Before we pull the trigger we are now thinking about taking the designs this firm has done and shopping them elsewhere. Are we crazy to consider this/has anyone else done it? Mindful that time is money (we are about to close and bc we have 2 kids can’t live there while the work is going on, so we will be paying rent elsewhere for 4-5 months), will we potentially save enough after shopping the job elsewhere to make it worth it? Or is our rage at the firm’s misrepresentations as to cost (which we now suspect was deliberate lowballing to get our business) cutting off our nose to spite our face given the hassles and likely similar bottom line we’ll face if we fire this firm and start (mostly) over? Any advice from others who’ve worked w D/B firms in similar situations would be much appreciated. Thanks.