I think if you stand to make significant revenue and it’s your relationship with the italian artisan and this is something that is unique and special to the project, it’s your responsibility to do all the work on the backend to make sure that it gets to where it needs to go and installed correctly (assuming we’re not talking about just a rug here). I would not want the builder to be responsible for communicating with the italian artisans (what is the time zone, would they take the same care you would in speaking to them, would they know what to ask or to get clear on…) or coordinating delivery/receiving/handling. I guess it would depend on the item and how much the item costs. I am a GC and designer and just thinking of all that goes into scheduling, ordering, coordinating, I wouldn’t put that on someone I didn’t know too well or just pass it off to someone else, I would just be clear upfront about that portion of the project and I am sure they would not be upset about it.
