cancelling a project with home improvement company without paying damages

I’m a first time homeowner and this is our first home project, please keep that in mind as this is a learning experience for us. We signed a contract back in August for a bathroom renovation with a local home improvement company. The letter included in the folder they gave us estimated a start date out 12-16 weeks for this kind of project. However the sales guy gave us a “discount” for being flexible with our start date, saying they would fit us in at their first opportunity. It was very much pitched to us that this was a case of us needing to be prepared to start sooner than that window in case of a cancellation or something similar. The sales guy guessed by the end of 2025. Fast forward, it’s been 30 weeks. We called to check on progress multiple times and we’ve been “at the top of their list” since January. We were only given a start date AFTER we expressed interest in pulling the plug on the whole project. Even after being offered a start date I said we’d still like to cancel as I’ve lost all confidence in this company. We’re also doing our own demo so the last thing I want is to rip my bathroom down to the studs then have more delays. Now they’re saying we’re still responsible for the 30% damages fee (which is almost $6k) if we cancel more than 3 days after signing the contract. How in the heck was I supposed to know three days after signing that I’d be given the runaround for almost EIGHT MONTHS. There is a “time is of the essence” clause that is extremely vague and offers no exact timeframe. Is there any avenue we can take that proves they breached contract and we aren’t responsible for that 30%? I do not want to give these people my business if I can help it at all.