If I change my mind partway through, how does that actually get handled and priced?

Illustrative — not a real business

Changing your mind about a finish, a layout detail, or an added feature partway through is genuinely common and not a problem — what matters is that every change, no matter how small it seems, goes through a written change order before we act on it, rather than being handled as a verbal agreement in the moment. A change order documents exactly what is changing, the added or reduced cost based on the actual materials and labor involved, and any impact to the completion timeline, and it requires your signature before that work proceeds — this protects you from an inflated surprise cost at the end and protects us from later disputes about what was actually agreed to. Pricing follows the same cost basis as the original contract — material cost plus our standard labor rate — so a change order should look like a natural extension of your original quote, not an opportunity to pad the bill. Some changes do extend the timeline, particularly if they require ordering a new material that was not in the original schedule, and we will tell you that impact honestly in the change order itself rather than after you have already signed and the delay surfaces on its own. The one hard rule we hold ourselves to: no work outside the original signed contract proceeds without a signed change order first, even for a small, seemingly obvious request made verbally on-site.