Change orders are not a personality. They are a protocol.

Most remodeling resentment is a change that was never described, priced, or approved. The work moved. The invoice followed. Nobody can find the conversation.

Our protocol is dull on purpose. Changes are written, priced, and approved before the work moves. Allowances are listed with numbers. If the number moved, the weekly update says so.

Known unknowns — moisture, obsolete systems, openings — get named in pre-construction, with a method for handling them. That is not a blank check. It is an adult conversation.

If a contractor cannot show you how a change becomes paper, you are buying a personality. Personalities do not survive month six.