The $38,000 Kitchen

You run a licensed general building business. Dana and Sam Alvarez want their tired 1990s kitchen gutted and rebuilt: new cabinets, counters, lighting, and floors. After two site visits the price lands at $38,000. You write it up at their kitchen table. It is a home improvement contract, and every decision on this job is about to matter. One fact about your shop matters the whole way through. You carry no performance or payment bond, no approved bond equivalent, and no joint-control arrangement. The ordinary home-improvement payment rules apply to this job in full.