16. Your Pre-Drywall Walk

You should meet the CM on the job site. It would be nice if your sales person could be there also. All builders do not require sales participation for the sales consultant on the job site. You should request his/her presence just to insure that communications that you have had with the consultant have been relayed properly to the CM and change orders discussed are installed according to your wishes. You want to have a copy of all change orders for your home. You should of received a copy of the paperwork from the builder. Most builders have an approval process for change orders. You should have copies with the proper person's signature approving your change orders. The first thing you want to do in your meeting is verify all of your change orders were received by the CM. This will probably to the first order of business. The builder will verify that all selection are made and what those selections are. Your brick will probably be on the job site at this point and your exterior paint, depending on the part of the country you live in, will be complete or being completed, so those verifications are easy. Once you verify that every one has all of, and the correct change orders you are ready to walk the home. You want to start from the front curb. Just hold the plan up and see if it looks like the picture. Once you have verified that the elevation is correct walk through the front door. Hold the plan as it is on the ground and walk the home. What we are doing is just making sure, that yes the walls and doors are where they show. You shouldn't have to pull a tape on every wall, hall, or door, but if something looks strange don't hesitate to ask for a tape to be pulled. You can now go back to the front door and start a room walk. You really do not want to combine these two parts. On the second time through the home you are reviewing rooms, any and all change-orders, cabinet locations, and all low voltage wiring locations. Once everything has been verified on the interior of the home we should go through the back door to the rear of the home, (some CM's will walk the entire exterior in the beginning which is fine). We want to look at the rear of home to insure it looks like the plan, talk about the patio, fence location and which side of the fence is going to show on each side. You should be shown your sewer line location and clean-out. Your water meter location, water line and where it enters the home should also be identified. Drive way location and entry walks and any other flat work should be discussed. At this point of construction several contractors will be able to work at the same time which will make things go a lot faster. Remember your home is running on two schedules, one inside and one outside. Once you are finish with this walk you should be preparing for closing and move-in.