Pre-Construction Meeting

We finally got a chance to meet our project manager this morning, and he seems every bit as nice as we’d heard from neighbors who have already closed. Plus, he mentioned he has the same granite as us in his kitchen and Shaker style cabinets, so he has to be a wise man, amirite?

Our pre-construction meeting was quick and easy; our PM was very methodical and thorough, so frankly we didn’t really feel we had many questions to ask. The main point of the pre-construction meeting is to make sure the PM has all of your design selections listed correctly, so it's helpful to have a quick reference of what selections you've made. If you have a selections page on your blog, just print that out and bring it with you to the meeting so you don't have to thumb through all the papers that RH gives you.

One thing I really liked is that he mentioned a couple ways in which Matisse models have changed from when Ryan Homes first started building them, even above what building code requires. For example, Matisse units used to come with a 50 gallon water heater, now they come with an 80 gallon capacity. I’m just going to leave the hot water running ALL DAY LONG, y’all. Most important for us, he mentioned Ryan Homes has improved sound attenuation between the units. We were very impressed with the lack of sound transfer in between the Matisse and Picasso model units, so I really hope our home lives up to those expectations. The only change in the building plans was the Matisse used to come with a full wall separating the commode from the rest of the master bathroom; they’ve since cut that down to a little half wall.

If you’re wondering what questions to ask, there are a ton of blogs out there that have sample questions to ask – check out these posts here, here, and here. Some of the questions that we asked were:

• Are screens included with the windows? We love fresh air!
• Yup.
• Can you tell us more about where the radon mitigation system will be placed?
• I'm summarizing his response, but basically the mitigation system sits under the concrete slab and is vented all the way through the Matisse/Picasso unit and vented out the attic. It has an independent inspection from the county to make sure it works.
• Have any of the appliances changed since we signed the purchase agreement?
• Nope.
• Can we adjust dampers on the HVAC to better direct airflow?
• No dampers, but all vents have switches to help push the air.
• What kind of oversight do you have over subcontractors, and how to you ensure quality work?
•  Another summary here, but they review all the subcontractors and make sure they're licensed, etc. They pay by the job rather than the hour, so there's a financial incentive to do it right the first time.
• Where will the mailbox be located? Our community uses centralized mailboxes like these, and we want to make sure it's not going to be an eyesore out our front window.
• TBD. He needs to check with the developer on this, but he thought it would likely be placed in a private alley in between condo units.
• What procedures do we need to follow to have an independent home inspection done pre-drywall
• Let him know in advance, and have the home inspector provide a copy of his license to Ryan Homes (liability reasons). No real hurdles.