Our pre-construction meeting is supposed to be this Friday. It's kind of annoying because they said they can't "confirm" the meeting, we just have to leave the time open and hope they can do it. The PM can only meet between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm, and since we both work during that time it would be nice to know if it's actually going to happen or not so we can take the time off from work. I'm crossing my fingers that everything goes as planned and we can meet Friday and start construction soon after!!!
I have been keeping a list of things to ask the PM at this meeting and/or along the construction process and I've gotten a lot of great ideas from all of you Ryan bloggers so thanks for all of the info/suggestions. This community really has been so helpful. You all are the best!
Ok, so here's my list of questions for the pre-con meeting by room... please offer any additional suggestions or comments. Thanks so much!
Kitchen/Morning Room
1. Can we extend counter top over edge of island for extra seating? (We did not get the gourmet island). Great idea from an RH blogger!
2. Can we get a switched outlet behind cabinets for future under-cabinet lighting?
3. Can we put two of the recessed kitchen lights in the family room (or somewhere else)? (We got the kitchen lighting package, which comes with 6 lights... I feel like I would be fine with 4 and it would be nice to have some recessed lights in the family room in addition to the ceiling fan rough-in. However, I have a feeling this is going to be a "no").
Living Room/Dining Room
4. Can we move the columns in the master bedroom to between the living room and dining room? (We would have had to pay extra to have them between the living and dining room, but they automatically come with our upgraded master bedroom. I'd rather have them downstairs though. To me, it doesn't seem like a big thing to move them since it's an option to have them in the location I want. Does anyone have any experience with this?)
Basement
5. Basement windows… can we move any that are in our “storage area” out to the other areas?
Bathrooms
6. Where will towel bars be mounted?
Garage/Laundry
7. Can they make shelving in laundry room out of empty space between laundry room and powder room? See the black area between the mud room and the powder room in the floor plan below? Doesn't it seem like they'd be able to make some use of that by doing shelves in the laundry room or behind the toilet in the powder room or something. I read this in someone else's blog (I can't remember whose it was!), but I'm not sure if they were able to have it done or not.
8. Could we get a utility sink rough-in in the garage?? Our laundry room is too small to have one, so I think the garage may be the next best place. Plus it's right next to the laundry room, so you'd think it would be fairly easy to just run some extra plumbing out there right?
Outside
9. Where will hose bibs be located? (Thanks for this heads-up bloggers!)
10. Outside light placement (garage, front door, etc).
11. When will final grading/landscaping be completed?
General
12. Which switches go to which lights/outlets? Can we determine?
a. Basement at top of steps
b. Garage – near door to house and near garage doors (can we get two?)
c. Choose which outlets go to switches in other rooms
e. Outlet(s) in island?
f. Can we get extra outlet in garage?
13. When will we have a settlement date? What if it gets delayed after we have locked in our rate?
14. Trim on windows (inside)?
15. Ceiling finish? (Again, thanks for the heads-up... I never would have thought of this).
16. Flooring transitions (carpet to vinyl, hardwood to vinyl, hardwood to carpet)
17. Smoke detectors and CO detectors… how many and where?
Please weigh in if you have come across any issues in construction that I haven't covered here. I'm just really hoping to have very few surprises.
One other question for people who are in their houses already... Did you wait until after your 10-month inspection to do any painting, chair rail or crown molding, back splashes, etc. I imagine you shouldn't do any big projects until after the final inspection, but is it ok to do some little stuff or is it better to just wait? I feel like there's so much I will want to do and it's going to be so hard to wait a whole year to begin!
Have a great day everyone!
I hope you are able to get whatever you want. In our case, we were not allowed to add or change anything by the time we had our pre-con meeting. All of our selections were already "locked-in." We were able to determine the location of our sump pump and have a switch for the garage coach lights added to inside the front door, but that was it.
ReplyDeleteWe couldn't make any changes either by the time we had our meeting.
ReplyDeleteWe have decided to wait until after the 10 month to paint and put up chair rail and crown molding but will do the backsplash now. In our community the colors Ryan used are actually kind of attractive and far from drab white, so we can live with them for a few months.
Here is the list of items that I have been compiling. Your list reminded me of a few that I added too:
ReplyDeletehttp://ravennaspeed.blogspot.com/p/compiled-items-to-review.html
Here is my Triangle of Empty Space post as well. You think they could do a little more with those empty triangles! :-)
http://ravennaspeed.blogspot.com/2012/04/triangle-of-empty-space.html
Ah yes, it was you! Thanks for all of that great information. I really wish I had read your blog before we finalized everything, but I'm hoping maybe a few of the little things I could get them to do... like the extra counter overhang on the island... I would really love to have that. Wish I had thought of it before.
DeleteYes, those wasted wall spaces are so annoying! I figure I can at least find out if there's going to be anything important in that wall so I could do something with it later if not. My laundry room is so small so it would be awesome to have some extra shelving in there. Plus built-in shelving just looks cool :).
Thanks again!
No problem! I will be taking lots of pictures of those empty spaces including where the HVAC goes though the house since it appears that there is space unused in that area too.
DeleteGood luck and let us know what happens! We definitely changed/added a few minor things (light placement, switches) at the meeting .. a few that were ones the PM himself suggested.
ReplyDeleteI am at the same stage as you (pre-construction meeting) on the Courtland Gate and have similar questions. (http://lot106.blogspot.com/2012/06/preconstruction-points.html if you want to take a peak) Good luck!!
ReplyDelete