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For Stonehenge -
First, thank you for your detailed reply. I will try and address some of the points that you have raised:
but I would think that brand and model of sprinkler heads and controllers would be something that would impact the price, but you list them without brand and model, thereby suggesting they are a commodity to you
I am very sure that brand/model/quality of sprinkler heads and controllers (I am getting a battery-operated controller) impacts the price and, no, I don't know the brand(s) & so they are somewhat of a "commodity" to me. Guilty as charged. I appreciate the fact that better quality often necessitates higher cost.
And we don't know about site access - it might be very easy or very difficult, in terms of the labor hours one would have to incur to install that job
The site access is very easy: about 10-16 inches of newly laid topsoil. Don't forget that I mentioned in my OP that plumbing has previously been run to the outer edges berm sections.
We don't know how easy you are to work with. You might be very easy, but you could be very difficult
IMHO, I am very easy to work with. I have developed a very nice rapport with the contractor and would not hesitate to call him a friend. I do not hover over him and "supervise" every aspect of the job but I do politely insist on a weekly update of the overall project (it should take about 30 days and we are about halfway there).
when this thread was started with the implication that a contractor might be trying to get the better of you in their pricing, in general I think the reaction will not be to lend a sympathetic ear to the original poster
As I stated in my OP, "I have told him that I would be happier if the price were closer to $1500 but the fact is that "I just do not know if this is a reasonable estimate". That is the truth. It seemed to me that the actual cost, including labor in easily accessible topsoil, should be closer to $1000 - 1300. I will admit to feeling that he was "self-compensating" for knocking the initial cost (without irrigation) down to $10K. One point that I have not mentioned is that the contractor is very happy to have this job. His is a 1-man business and the projects that he typically takes on seem to be smaller than mine. This will be a "showcase" project for him, both in size and design.
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