Architect and budget limit... insurance? possibilities

You must not forget that a GÜ has its craftsmen and secures a specific "pipeline" of orders for them. I don't know how your architect does it, but he will certainly tender it to 3-5 known companies. Whether craftsmen will bid with a sharp pencil in the current boom phase... I don't know.

Completely independent of that -> in the current phase, dealing with craftsmen is really completely impossible. They simply get their red carpet and that's it.

Not only is acting impossible, prices of over 50% are possible for the same work...

what do you mean by that? Surcharges of 50%? Can someone still explain to me how there can be such significant price differences when the architect obtains quotes for certain services? Assuming now that you don't change 100 times and make higher-quality changes? For me, that is simply incomprehensible

So we also ended up more expensive with the architect. But simply because we wanted better fittings there and allowed ourselves something better at that point. I would ask the architect for the cost breakdown and thoroughly check it with the help of the forum/expert to see if the prices are appropriate and realistic. Then it should work out and you can stick to it. I fully agree with Steffen that when you have the "FULL" selection, you are often tempted to go for something higher quality. For example, if you only have 5 tiles to choose from during sampling, you just pick one and that's that. You probably know the thread, right?

thanks for the input - we will definitely take that to heart regarding the cost review!
I also understand that it's tempting :-) it's normal because you don't build every day... so better to do it right from the start .-) but somewhere there has to be a limit
Thanks for the tip about the thread, I will go through it since I don’t know it!! THANK YOU!