Questions for Pre-Construction Meeting

1. Who will have keys to our house? What happens to those keys? Can we have our permanent door locks installed right before closing, so only we have the keys?  The locks are specially designed for construction.  They will have construction keys for their crew, Jeff and Susan.  We will get the master keys when we close on the house.  These keys are difficult to put in the first time, as they are resetting the tumblers as they do so.  Leaving only our master keys as the working keys for the house.
2. What inspections will happen, at what phase of the build?  Each phase has it's own inspection.  Some by the city, and some by the construction supervisor or manager.  Some of them include foundation, framing (two of them), electrical, plumbing, etc.  When asked if these can cause delays, he said the city of Fairborn is very particular, and sometimes they are forced to redo things. 
3. Where will the street lights be placed? The electrical has not gone in to the development.  Placement will be decided after that.
4. Is the garage ready to paint, or does it need sanding, etc?  The garage will be covered in drywall mud and be slightly textured, like a stucco.  You can paint right over it, or can sand it down if we desire.
5. Can we have left over materials? e.g. flooring, tiling, paint, etc...  They leave the leftovers of flooring, brick from the exterior and even small cans of paint for touch ups
6. Where will the a.c. unit be located?  It will be on kitchen side of the house.
7. Is the top soil removed? or inverted? It is not removed, nor inverted.  It is graded into the lot.  It will be used on our lot to smooth out some of the slope, yet leave enough for good drainage.
8. What are the measurements for openings for the appliances?  36" for our refrigerator.  Specifications for the appliances we are buying are being used to place cabinetry above the fridge and for the granite surrounding the slide in range.
9. Who is the landscaper?  When can we meet with them to add on and choose trees/shrubs?  The landscaper has not yet been chosen.  We can meet with them after the final grading has been done.
10. Is there an electrical outlet standard at the end of the peninsula?  Yes, it is required per code.
11. Where will the fuse box be?  The electric has yet to be put in.  If placed on the garage side, it will go in the 3rd car garage.  If it is on the kitchen side, it will be placed in the unfinished portion of the basement.
12. Will there be an electrical outlet under cabinetry next to refrigerator?  Yes, there will be two
13. Can we add extra beams above fireplace and on loft wall (adjacent to laundry room) for mounting television? Yes, we can come in at framing stage and have them placed where we need them.  Studs are already placed 16" apart throughout the house.
14. Can we have a big boulder from the site for our front yard?  There are none to be had.  We can talk to the landscaper about getting one, or they have a development in a nearby town with plenty.  They'd be happy to give us one, but we'd have to haul it away.  (yeah right, like that's going to happen lol)
15. Will there be a strip of grass between the curb and sidewalk? Yes, it will be quite wide.  There is a city code for how far the sidewalk has to be from the curb.  (He told us the distance but I forget.  It was something like 10ft or more to the opposite side of the sidewalk.)  This space will be an easement for electrical.
16. If my mailbox is accidentally run over, can we pick our own? (hahaha, added by my boyfriend)  It is mutually agreed that the cheap mailboxes are awful
17. Will we have dimmers? If so, where?  Do we have the option to choose?  The house comes with switches.  We can work with the electrician directly to have dimmers placed where we want them.
18. How many overhead lights in the garages?  There will be 3
19. How many outside lights?  Do we get an extra one for the 3rd car garage? One on the front porch, one on the back porch, one at the door behind the 3rd car garage, and 3 more placed on the sides of the garage doors.
20. Does the brick in the front go all the way to the ground, or is the cement from the basement showing?  How much of it shows?  Can we get brick to cover it up on the front?  There will be about 16" of cement showing.  There was an upgrade available to get it "notched" but rather expensive.  They didn't have exact pricing.  They suggested painting it, or using landscaping to hide it.
21. Will our yard be disturbed when building on adjacent lots happens?  Do they fix any damage it may cause?  It probably will.  They use a sod cutter to cut out the bad spots and replace with fresh sod. 
22. Can we get pre-wiring for motion sensor lights outside, and can you install them?We can work with the electrician directly.
23. Can the granite be cut around our slide in stove?  Yes, they already plan to work around the specifications of our appliances.
24. Where are the lights in the garage?  The blue prints showed placement, but we can move them when we meet with the electrician.
25. What types of changes will trigger a "change order?"  Almost anything, other than wiring, will require a change order.
26. What is the job schedule?  Starting date? Closing date? The schedule has yet to be determined.  We are waiting on appraisal (maybe a week?), then they submit for permits. (maybe two more weeks?) and then Jeff will put together a work schedule.
27. What is the work schedule? When does the work day start/end?  They schedule will vary depending on what phase of the build.  They work Monday through Friday and sometimes Saturday.
28. Who will run the day to day site?  Jeff will handle all scheduling of sub-contractors, and he has several crew members that will be in and out of the house.
29. Will our special orders cause any delays?  No everything will be pre-ordered and ready by the time the drywall goes up. 
30. When will we receive updates? Week to week? Or as events occur?  He said we would get updates during each phase of the build.  We can email or call when needed.  There is also a white board placed in the front window of the home that we can leave questions/concerns when we visit the site.  Those will be answered within 24hrs.
31. What are the heating vent cover sizes? They will vary room to room.  They should be the same as the model home and we can measure
32. When grading the lot, will it smooth out some of the sloping backyard?  Yes, they will be grading the slope some.
33. With the slope, how high off the ground will our back door be?  He didn't have that measurement, as grading will be decided on site.  There will be a 4 x 6 deck with stairs down though, no matter what height.
34. Are you able to install our appliances, or do we do it?  They don't want to be held responsible for damage or theft, so any items we purchase ourselves will have to go in after close.  
35. Can we get wiring for floodlights? Can we get them installed?  We can work with the electrician.  We can purchase floodlights directly through him, or have our own installed by him.
36. What is our driveway length?  35ft from sidewalk to garage door
37. How close will our neighbors be?  Code requires 7.5 ft from our house to the edge of our lot.  So at least 15 ft.  Depends on what model they choose.  Remember we are pushed back 9 ft and due to the placement on our lot, we will not be lined up with houses on either side.
38. Can we place an electrical outlet under the eaves?  We can work with the electrician.  There are already outlets on the front porch and back deck.
39. Are all the windows at the same height / size?  Since we chose to raise the ceiling height to 9ft, the windows on the main floor, upper rec room and master bedroom are all at 6ft.  The windows on the second floor are 5ft.  Most are 3x6 or 3x5 with exception of the mud room, and double windows.