If I were a builder...

I would give my clients a calendar or list of when certain decisions have to be made. It doesn't have to be accurate, just projected. I know why they don't they don't want to be held to anything and I love our contractor but it would save him some exasperation when he calls for info at 7:30 in the morning and I have NO CLUE.



For instance. Last week the electricians needed the schematic for our oven so they could see where to place the plugs and such. Luckily we have chosen our oven. But we don't have possession of it and I certainly don't have any installation documentation for it. I had to scramble and search online to find a installation PDF matching the model number we purchased. Had I known ahead of time I would have called the appliance store and hadthem fax it to us. Crisis averted. Also in that phone call I was asked about our range hood and the size of it's pipe. Well, guess what, we've looked at some but haven't picked one out yet. So we had to scramble and buy a hood. Appliances go in the very last so I thought we would have time to shop around before we had to make decisions. I love the shopping around, researching etc. I hate the decision making part. It's so final. Luckily Ben loves that part. He loves to take my findings into account, pick something and say, definitively, "done".



The whole door thing through me for a loop too. It's a door, how many sizes can there be (turns out there are two or three standard sizes, and when you add sidelights, windows or multiple doors, not to mention custom sizes - the options are unlimited). Also plumbing fixtures have to be selected before they do the rough-in plumbing, which I think is a ploy by the plumbers to get you to have to buy the fixtures and have the finish work through them, but I thought I had at least another month before I even had to look at plumbing fixtures. Instead we had to go to the plumbers plumbing supply showroom and after being dazzled by all the shiny objects we walked out of there over budget. Had I been able to complete this process from the comfort of my own computer and been able to read reviews, cross-check prices etc. That would never have happened.



So back to the problem at hand and my solution to solve it. I've never built a house before. I don't know in what order things need to be decided and provided. But my builder has (and I've heard this has been the case for other people who have built) and I would appreciate a little warning on what is to come and what to spend or not spend my time on.