Pre Construction meeting

We had our pre construction meeting on March 19. It went well overall with a couple things not as we expected. at the end we are very positive and waiting for the build to start ASAP. Our PM started by giving us an overview of how our house will sit on the plot. Then we discussed all the options we selected. 

They are planning to break the ground this week. We asked him to give us a heads-up a couple days before the scheduled dig date so that we could be there. He didn't give us a definite timeframe but said once they break ground, generally the house is ready in 90 days. So we will see how it goes. We wont have any snow delays but rain could cause delays until the roof is on.

We were told we will not get any egress window in the basement because we are getting walkout basement with sliding glass door. This was a surprise to me. another thing was that if we do not get any bath rough-ins in the basement, we wont have any unfinished storage in the basement. its mostly OK with us since we will have plenty of storage in the garage with a 4 feet extension. besides it will make our basement more open.

1. Timeline - the sooner the better. Cant wait already - sometime in July
2. Ceiling - Rough or smooth (most probably its gonna be what they call knock down stipple ceiling) - Knock down stipple ceiling. They will do a rough ceiling first and then sand it down to a smoother finish. It wasn't too bad from what we saw in the model home.
3.  Morning room door - Sliding glass or patio style. Double patio door.. Yippie!!!
4.  Fan rough in in morning room - how will the outlet be placed on a sloped ceiling. they will install a flat box on the ceiling.  
5. Extra support for wall mount TV in family room and basement. Didn't ask about it. 
6. Will second floor laundry have any additional insulation. NOPE
7. Rough ins for garage door openers. we will have our own garage door openers installed after closing. There will be power outlets in the ceiling for putting our own garage door opener.
8. Windows in Garage?? The garage door is carriage style with windows on it.
9. Outlets on gourmet island?? on one side
10. Deadbolts/ locks on doors?? deadbolts on main door and patio door in the morning room. locks elsewhere. sliding glass door in the basement will have a lock as well.
11. House paint color. Will they leave some for us to touch up? Antique white. they will leave atleast a gallon each of wall paint and trim paint for us to touch up.
12. will our basement storage have a separate door from the area where furnace and stuff is? No basement storage. I have mixed feelings about this one. one one side we wont have any enclosed storage area, on the other side, it will make the basement more open. I guess more space in basement is better. we can make our craft area in that section. 
13. Kitchen backsplash - don't see it anywhere in the MSS and it was there in the model.  could it be standard. I know they will say NO but doesnt harm to ask. We can choose not to have the granite lip installed and can put our own backsplash later. But the question here is, should they leave that granite for us to use later, since we already paid for it.
14. Will they let us pick the Granite slab. I have seen in some blogs people were allowed when they chose Santa Cecilia. They will let us pick. the PM said he will inform us a couple days before the granite has to come. we can go to the granite place and ask them to let us choose. Win!!
15. Location of hose bibs.  (don't want IN the garage) - One in the back and one in front of the house. 
16. Can we change how the shelves are placed in the pantry. we would like ours to have a little more space in between to put our big containers. will discuss at the pre drywall meeting
17. Will the lawn be seeded or sodded. Seeded. They also have a contract with trugreen, who will come and fertilize the yard four times in the first year. 
18. How much backyard space will we have. difficult to visualize at this point. but enough to put a swing set maybe.
19. Attic access and can we change that. I saw one in kids' bedroom in the model and dint like it. Can be moved to Laundry.
20. Will the garage be sheet rocked? Sheet rocked.
21. What does the upgraded landscaping include. same as other houses in the community.
22. How many steps to the entrance of the house. We will have some because of the layout of our model. Not many. But he will know more once the build starts. 

Other than these questions, 

• The subfloors will be nailed/glued and screwed. the dry wall will be nailed and screwed.
• our awesome SR was able to remind us to check the placement of garage lights. we saw on a couple houses, those were placed on the top of garage doors. however we wanted the lights on the sides. so that was fixed for us. we were happy :)
• The island will have cabinets on one side only. i guess it depends on the community.

will add as i remember more.. Just waiting start and have our own house in a few months..