Agreed, but most competitive bid requests do not define their allowances enough, so sometimes the low bidder is often higher than represented. I would expect you have a vetted group of contractors to bid work somewhat consistently. Examples include "light fixtures" whether they include recessed housings & trim, under cabinet fixtures, garage ceiling fixtures, all of which can swing the number $5-10K. Cabinets? Install, finish, delivery, etc. Tile... I used to give clients a "per foot" number but it was too easy to conveniently misunderstand, so I use totals now. An allowance should be the dollar representation of an understood specification. I try to limit it to materials, avoiding unvetted trade contractors.

I wrote a lot a long time ago and have learned a lot since then. We did three projects with two contractors. All were done to high standards. The first contractor, the one I thought I could trust to do cost plus, ended up being a mess. He wasn't dishonest, just incompetent as a GC. His estimates were almost worthless. He didn't really care if his subs ended up spending more because it just got passed on to me. His scheduling was horrendous so there were too many periods of time where nothing was happening. He always had excuses for why things were late/over estimate. I really don't think he knew how much things were going to cost. In the end, he was no less expensive than the other high priced contractors we talked to, though he appeared to be at first. Hard to say if he was more expensive. And like I said, the quality of work was very high: he did have good subs, so quality didn't suffer. (And his custom cabinet maker walks on water: the nicest guy and such great work. We use him for lots of stuff.) So we went with another contractor for the second project (an extensive cottage remodel) and a finished workshop. We did another extensive search. Both of these projects were fixed price and were fairly expensive. The cottage contract ended up having lots of change orders: but that was because the cottage was a mess. We expected a lot of issues and we got them. It really wasn't possible to know what we would find when we started and the contractor made that clear. When we called references on him, one person, maybe a realtor?, said "I can't believe I'm actually recommending a contractor ..." The second and third projects were fixed price but it wasn't just given as a lump sum: he gave us a breakdown for cost for every division (though that doesn't break out labor/materials). And he added profit and overhead at 25%. The biggest thing about him was there was never an excuse. If something was wrong, it was always "we'll fix it." We mostly dealt with a super (which we also really like) but dealt with him directly on stickier issues. So the big thing for us is finding someone we trust. We've been lucky to find that with a landscape contractor, too: same attitude: "we'll fix it." Sometimes there are issues of "has to be this way" but always trying to achieve what we can and always fixing anything that goes awry. We do smaller cost plus jobs with them on an ongoing basis so we've done both fixed and cost plus. Trusting is not just about the way the work gets done: it's also about pricing. We trust that he's charging market rates and not trying to take advantage of us. We ask about costs for projects now but it's more to see if we can afford it than it is to price shop. (With the cabinet maker, we don't even ask ahead any more ... we totally trust him and have no comparable sources anyway.) We feel really fortunate to have found folks that we have such a good relationship with.

Both would work but which would you prefer? I personally prefer the introduction of a bit of color, but that's me. Either will look stunning. The problem with a wood top on the island, along with the wood around the fan, and the different colored perimeter with a separate color top, is there are so many disparate elements. With the lighter perimeter, there's nothing to tie it into the island. By keeping the countertops the same, it allows you to add other elements. If you don't want to go too light, what about a counter color like the one right above?

@HU-756387808 said, A heavy equipment rental place is literally next door to our office. Those are their rates. I didn't price a skid steer with them. Just specifically a dump truck, and asked a quick off the cuff estimate for all of that equipment. If the OP wants to do a check as to what all of that would cost, that's fine. It is still a large savings over 3rd party rentals, which do not include operators. What kind of new math is this? How is it a large savings over 3rd party rentals if it is more money? I literally checked United Rentals in Portland Oregon... You can check the other equipment and none of it approaches anything that would make it cheaper. In a time and materials contract the cost of the operator would be billed separately and not included in the equipment premium. ----- This is exactly why these things needs to be spelled out in the contract before being billed. Because the OP can now reasonably go back and say that they are not going to pay the contractor $60 per hour because the avoidable rate is $25 per hour. The entire purpose of a time and materials contract is that the owner purchases the materials and those materials are installed by the contractor. The contractor is allowed to charge a markup on materials and may purchase materials for the convenience of owners but they are not allowed to fabricate rates for tools that they provide. This is what the hourly rate is for. This is not to say that a contractor shouldn't charge a premium for using their heavy equipment, it is to say that a rate schedule for that equipment needs to be made available prior to its use.