Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Preconstructed

We had our preconstruction meeting yesterday. Having read a bazillion blogs we had a good understanding of what would be covered but we enjoyed it more than expected. Thanks to PM's meticulous attention to details and SR's complete understanding of our selections and requirements. We started with lots of information and checks to confirm our selections. Amazingly everything had made it through, unlike what we had expected from reading feedback from others (thank you Mr. SR).

We found our PM to be a very pleasant man and easy to work with. The SR identified him as a Master Builder with RH for close to 10 years (which means he built more than 250 houses). He is very professional and strictly by the book. He committed to delivering everything that had come in through the paperwork and confirmed that everything will be built based on the blue prints. Several inquiries were met with a very firm "We are not custom builders. The house must be built per RH plans and blueprints. The engineers designed it this way for a reason." When we walked the lot he confirmed that he had built every house on Palmer Lane. I forgot to ask if he had built Covington. We also counted 7 Victoria Falls on Palmer of various elevations (out of 18 in this phase).

On a funny note, our PM talked about how the kitchen is vented externally through the microwave... I came back with a frustrated, "but I don't want that. Is there a way to block this venting? I like to trap the cooking aromas in the kitchen." Both SR and PM looked at me in total bewilderment as if I was totally nuts... Until I couldn't keep a straight face any longer. In truth we would have paid for a hood or external venting if it was not offered as a standard feature (part of energy star 3.0).

I am glad our SR was with us as he pointed out a few things that have just been changed in the Victoria Falls, such the optional dining room tray ceiling now being standard. My previous 3 hour meeting with SR going over electrical and 2 hours going over the TOPO helped a great deal as we spent perhaps one hour on those areas in this meeting because we had every thing marked or answered already. Our PM commended our choice of widening the driveway and the hammer head and said that we would totally find it worth the investment and would pay off in added convenience.

Regarding the laundry room, any moving or or tearing down of walls or doors was a big "absolutely not," along with sound reasoning why it is done this way. But both advised that they will ask the higher ups about our question regarding connecting the laundry hookups on the other side of the mud room wall inside the office, just to see if it is doable. We also asked if the laundry room can be moved to the basement in the future or does it need special plumbing, and our SR will look into that as well.

5 hours later we walked out of the meeting reassured that we are in very good hands. Would have gone longer if not for screaming babies and feeling sorry for PM and SR who had families to go back to. On another funny note, we could not arrange for someone to watch our 2 youngest kids so we dragged them along. Our two year old sat next to the PM for a few minutes, and every time he started talking she started singing.. when he'd stop, she'd stop, but as soon as he started again she started again. When he would speak louder she would sing louder.. guilty, but it was really funny.

We start digging next week on May 22. Estimated closing on August 16 (both maybe 2 days off).

Update: RH approved flipping the laundry connections to the other wall, Office side.

8 comments:

  1. Great to hear everything went well (aside from the no variations from the RH plans thing) and everything was accounted for.

    Cute/funny tidbit about your 2 year old!

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    1. It was really interesting the amount of disclaimers given in the meeting. For example, after every feature you knew the sentence will with, "unlike you see it in the model home." We asked for a few things that we have seen others inquire about during preconstruction and what we got was, "must match blue prints." We understand why they do it this way, but we asked anyway because if we didn't we wouldn't have known.

      Somethings we got an OK on, such as requesting to raise the wire shelves higher in closest to make room for extra shelving that we add later, and adding support blocks for TV mounting later on. So we are glad we asked.

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  2. Hey Ella, 5 hours?! WOW! Looks like you had a great time with your team. And the baby enjoyed it too! ;-)

    Cool deal about the dining room trey ceilings. Our SR had told us during our agreement talks, that any changes other than RH plans and options, were an absolute NO. I was disappointed too, I could think of few things I would change... but oh well!!

    Let the digging begin! :-)

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    1. Yeah, it took a while but we were very happy with the PM. He obviously knew his stuff and was easy to work with within the scope of the features we paid RH for. It is incredible how fast these homes come up. We are gauging our progress by your build by the way since you seem to be about a week ahead of us. We used your "Construction Process Roadmap" checklist in the meeting as well since none was provided.. But as the PM would say, "then this happens," I would check it on your list. right on the money, thanks!

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  3. Wow 5 hours!! That's hard to believe. Ours was 3 and they were pretty much ready to kill me at that point.

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    1. Well.. we started at 1 and finished after 5, then walked the lot with PM for another 20 minutes. Left a few minutes before 6. We were supposed to go till 4, but SR did not schedule any meeting after mine because he knew me too well.

      On the way there my wife looked at my 11 page double sided single spaced printed list of questions in horror and said, "I should have taken my own car!" The kids were a different story, our 4 yr old took a 2 hour nap. My wife took them out to a play ground for close to two hours as well.. But yeah, everyone was ready to kill me about 2 hours into the meeting.

      But we got many questions answered which is important as be on the same page throughout the process.

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  4. Good for you guys.. Ours was around 3 hrs too and honestly they were rushing us out of there with a lot questions half unanswered....we should of made them stay...its such an important part of the process!!

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    1. Three weeks later, thinking about it. We are glad it lasted this long, because the weekly check ins with the PM are not on the same level of details or face-to-face interactions you get at the meeting.. So, if we had to do it again, we'll make sure to get a baby sitter.

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