Millwork bid came back at 3x the allowance and I decide this week
Halfway into a 5,400 sq ft luxury reno I'm managing as a partner rather than as the GC, and the millwork package just blew up. Architect's allowance was 95k for kitchen, butler's pantry, primary closets and a paneled study. Two shops bid it. One at 268k, one at 291k. Third shop won't quote until March.
I've built plenty of this stuff, so I know why. The drawings spec inset doors, quarter sawn white oak, hand-applied finish, and a 14 foot run with no seams in the study paneling. That's not cabinetry, that's furniture. The allowance was written for a nice production kitchen.
Options on my desk:
- Eat it. Reno budget was 720k with 80k contingency. This eats the contingency and 93k more, and we're only through demo, framing changes and rough mechanical. Historically I'd expect another 60 to 100k of surprises in a 1988 house.
- Value engineer. Overlay doors instead of inset, rift sawn instead of quarter sawn, seam the study paneling behind a pilaster. My guess is that lands around 175k. But a buyer at this level walks the study and either sees it or doesn't.
- Split it. Do the kitchen and study to spec, do the closets in a good semi-custom system. Maybe 205k.
ARV is 4.6M against a 2.95M purchase, so the millwork delta is roughly 4% of exit. Not fatal on its own. What makes me uneasy is that this is the first line item to reprice and there are five more allowances written the same way.
My partner wants option 2 because he's watching the carry, which is 31k a month. I lean 3. Neither of us has a real basis for that beyond taste, and that's what's bugging me.