Building a new home in Wiley, Texas and I got some questions (1 Viewer)

[Keith Mickunas]

That's some good advice Ikiru. My builder was a bit picky about me doing stuff in there. I added some speaker wire, and I gave some better quality wire to the HT guy for the runs I paid for. I'm fairly certain in my house most of wire was run decently. I never saw any phone/coax running directly alongside electrical cable.

The food thing is a bit disconcerting. Even if you clean it before drywall, you never know if the drywallers do anything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Fortunately my plan was fairly simple, so I could see most everything before the insulation went in, and they cleaned it pretty good.

The worse part is, there's so much to think about, you'll never cover it all. There's certain lights I'd like moved now for example. And Jim has a recessed light where I have a surface light, so you can't even tell from house to house how it will be. But its satisfying once its done.

So Ikiru, how long until you're finished?

 

[Keith Mickunas]

One important thing to remember if you run your own wiring, make sure its secure in the walls. The drywall guys aren't careful and might put the drywall right over any wires hanging out. You got to be careful with that stuff. My builder used sub contractors for everything, and many of them won't do anything that's the least bit outside of their scope.

 

[ikiru]

Oh yeah, speaking of drywallers, if you put cable down and you have some wire hanging out (I have a bundle of wire hanging out of my closet wall that I am going to use to connect to the components) make sure you label the bundle with "NO CUT!!!!" Dry wallers will cut any hanging wires in order to get their wall up.

The builder said that we should be able to move in around september.

Just keep on them for every thing you might want. If inspiration hits, talk to the builder. Remember, he wants to make sure that this is the house you want (because you arent obligated to buy till closing). The front office people told us that there cant be any changes after the lot walk. Well, I have made some changes already and since our meeting with the builder this morning, I am going to make more changes (I am thinking about extending our patio concrete).

I did notice that your home was energy star compliant. Our home is as well. They have much higher standards than the regular builders. In fact, before you close, they have a third party inspector come in to do a "blow test" on your home before certifying it with the energy star rating. What they do is they seal all the windows and doors and measure heat/cooling/air loss. If it doesnt pass, then the builder has to fix it.

-ikiru

 

[Keith Mickunas]

They never mentioned a blow test. They claim that the overall system, including windows, insulation, as well as the AC, was designed to work together to surpass the government standards. However, I did learn that the AC was specified for max temperatures of 95 degrees. Not so good for down here sometimes. I'll just have to wait to see how it all works out.

My builder was pretty damn adamant about not making changes. And my salesperson jumped on my ass one day when I mentioned that I was upset that in my opinion I hadn't adequately been informed of various options. Suffice it to say I quickly changed salespeople. But they weren't willing to budge at all, even after they screwed up a few things. However they've recently been made aware of my website, so I'm waiting to see if there will be any fallout from that. I've been told the guy in charge of the builders for the area has seen it and finally understands why I was getting ticked off at them recently.