ᐅ Today was the material and finish selection appointment, smile
Created on: 9 Mar 2017 13:40
N
Nordlys
Some leftover vacation days in March. We just had the selection appointment. This morning at nine. Selection appointment with the mid-sized company. Waiting for us were Mrs. L., the secretary, with a coffee; Mr. K., the master carpenter; and Mr. R., the head of masonry and roofing. Mr. K. starts. In front of him, the building plan of our house, next to him a laundry basket full of various bits and pieces. Let’s get started. With windows. He flips through the building specification. Ah, they’re from Poland. He rummages through the laundry basket and pulls out a profile sample. Veka, triple glazing, Roto fittings, Hoppe handles. The handles can also be lockable, costs extra. But then you just lose the keys, no one needs that, and if burglars want to get in, they will anyway; it just ends up broken... My wife examines the profile. Well, you can easily wipe off the dirt, can’t you? And colored, she asks? Mr. K., dryly: Yeah, it’s possible. But it’s a waste of money; it doesn’t make a difference when looking out either... So, it remains white. It goes on in that style with tiles, interior doors. When it comes to the exterior window sills, he really gets going. Yes, those are aluminum, white or nothing at all. He grins. And on the inside? Laundry basket. Granite slabs are brought to the table. Four pieces. Two disappear right away because they are polished high gloss. That’s nonsense, he says; anyway, you’ll just put flowers on them. My wife picks one from the remaining slabs. Done, moving on. The roofing expert chimes in. Hey, I need to take off some joints first, what’s the plan? He takes us outside. There lies a package from Braas with sample tiles. He picks out three. That one, that one, or that one is allowed in the building plan. We choose the dark red one. Gloss coating against moss? Doesn’t work, there are no trees here. In High German: You don’t need it because there are no trees where you are building. Okay, convinced. The roof is done. He storms off. Inside we go. Front door, Mr. K. says, now that’s a topic. So, here are the panels from Rodenberger; from K1 to K6 are included at no extra cost. The long handle costs 100 extra. The very long one 250. But that one is no good, it’s flimsy. Then take the short one for 100. We flip through. That one is good, he says. Stable, timeless, with K5 included, okay price, has some glass, lets some light into the hallway, but it’s not a department store door. Done... that’s the one. Now the interior staircase, he judges... Yeah, you take beech, it’s a hard, quiet wood. It’s coated with parquet lacquer, so it’s also durable. And as a railing, a handrail with metal rods. He grins, done. Can it be done differently? White? Hmm, he shakes his head. It’s possible. But... that costs more, you have to paint, sand, and fill more. You can see on his face what he thinks about white stairs. I give in. Beech, parquet lacquer. Matte. Then he and my wife decide where the towel radiator should go. Here or there! And how and where tiles will be installed... done. Oh yes, facade... we’ll do it like the garage, right? So, everything smooth and seamless. The plinth a little anthracite accent, everyone does that. He rummages for some color samples for the plinth from the basket. Yes, that will do.
Selection appointment with the mid-sized company. Two hours, one coffee, and not a penny extra paid.
Selection appointment with the mid-sized company. Two hours, one coffee, and not a penny extra paid.
K
Knallkörper9 Mar 2017 16:26Hello [USER=32530]@Nordlys
I would say you did everything right. I really dislike it when tradespeople suddenly turn into salespeople (using the lowest tactics). I have experienced this often enough in my professional life. That’s why we didn’t have a selection appointment; instead, we clarified 85% of the "special requests" before signing the contract (unfortunately, not the sanitary fixtures).
I don’t compromise on technical quality and durability when it comes to our house. This doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. Unfortunately, many homeowners focus a lot on the materials to be used but pay too little attention to the correct technical execution of the construction. There is hardly a single house in our development where I haven’t noticed significant workmanship defects.
That aside, we have already spent a lot of money on special requests because the standard specifications did not meet our expectations at any point in the building description. If we had made those selections later, the special requests would probably have cost six figures.
I would say you did everything right. I really dislike it when tradespeople suddenly turn into salespeople (using the lowest tactics). I have experienced this often enough in my professional life. That’s why we didn’t have a selection appointment; instead, we clarified 85% of the "special requests" before signing the contract (unfortunately, not the sanitary fixtures).
I don’t compromise on technical quality and durability when it comes to our house. This doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. Unfortunately, many homeowners focus a lot on the materials to be used but pay too little attention to the correct technical execution of the construction. There is hardly a single house in our development where I haven’t noticed significant workmanship defects.
That aside, we have already spent a lot of money on special requests because the standard specifications did not meet our expectations at any point in the building description. If we had made those selections later, the special requests would probably have cost six figures.
Robson, curly, an honest word. I was born in 1958 and will retire at 66. I am by far the main earner in our household. We have two children, both adults now. One of them still depends on us somewhat. We enjoy traveling and own a boat that we don’t want to give up. It’s not a yacht, but large enough for two people to sleep on board. We had a terraced house, but because of the stairs, we didn’t want that to be our last home. We owned the land. We cannot pay for the new house in cash and want to be debt-free by 65 without straining ourselves because of the house, and without giving up our boat or traveling. Our parents have passed away, and there’s nothing to inherit; they didn’t have much. So we are calculating carefully to manage with a loan of 50,000 (about 50k) — we both agree on this.
Of course, our generation might have different priorities. The color of a staircase is less important to us than accessibility and 98 cm (39 inches) doors. The red roof and slightly off-white facade were fixed choices because, before the meeting, we took photos of other houses we liked and discussed how ours should look. We don’t expect the kind of home technology that younger people do. What matters more to us are our old pieces of furniture, some flea market finds, some with memories connected to our parents. Neither of us is impressed by a designer faucet, but we do appreciate a beautiful piece of teak wood. That is roughly our situation, and I can honestly say “we” here without reservation. We have been married for 32 years, and it fits; it feels like we were made for each other.
So that’s why I like to say: Keep it simple. And, this is just my guess, there are many others in similar situations, with different reasons and lifestyles, but they also have to say keep it simple. Often they don’t dare admit this because there is a certain shame in not being able to keep up with the big, high, wide, flashy standards.
Yes, maybe we are content with less, but we live happily this way. Karsten
Of course, our generation might have different priorities. The color of a staircase is less important to us than accessibility and 98 cm (39 inches) doors. The red roof and slightly off-white facade were fixed choices because, before the meeting, we took photos of other houses we liked and discussed how ours should look. We don’t expect the kind of home technology that younger people do. What matters more to us are our old pieces of furniture, some flea market finds, some with memories connected to our parents. Neither of us is impressed by a designer faucet, but we do appreciate a beautiful piece of teak wood. That is roughly our situation, and I can honestly say “we” here without reservation. We have been married for 32 years, and it fits; it feels like we were made for each other.
So that’s why I like to say: Keep it simple. And, this is just my guess, there are many others in similar situations, with different reasons and lifestyles, but they also have to say keep it simple. Often they don’t dare admit this because there is a certain shame in not being able to keep up with the big, high, wide, flashy standards.
Yes, maybe we are content with less, but we live happily this way. Karsten
That’s how people from Schleswig-Holstein are, and that’s fine. On some points, I would disagree (for example, roof tiles today definitely need to be protected against moss), but on others, he is right. You certainly had enough time to think about what you wanted and how. Starting a discussion about the window color during such a conversation is too late. But there’s no way around it, he is of course right.
In the finished house, we have since noticed that it’s not your own window color or brick type that matters, but rather those of others. Because you see those much more often ^^
In the finished house, we have since noticed that it’s not your own window color or brick type that matters, but rather those of others. Because you see those much more often ^^
haydee schrieb:
Not common, which often means a higher surcharge (small quantity, unusual processing). Maybe they don’t want to get the reputation of being cheap only up to the selection phase.That is probably the case.
RobsonMKK schrieb:
It might be due to age, but I want to build something nice,RobsonMKK schrieb:
and if in the end the total is €5,000 more, then so be it, because that’s what I want.It’s not age that makes you give up on having standards for life or your home. Everyone simply has different priorities. But it may be true that people view values differently in the second phase of life and value ownership differently than in the first. On the other hand, later in life you’ve often built up more equity; one property might replace another, inheritances play a role, so you know where it makes sense to invest money and where it doesn’t. Or what you want to treat yourself to in addition to a house or apartment as you get older. It used to be Levi’s or Wrangler, now Wrangler is out, and actually: the fit of the pants matters more than the brand... and even the fit becomes secondary with age... eventually it matters more that you can take them off quickly
Carsten certainly doesn’t need to justify himself here. However, I was surprised by this approach from the builder!
haydee schrieb:
I’m just allergic to the “classic” salespeople who obviously just want your best asset (namely money).Our builder also did not have a dedicated selection showroom. It wasn’t a laundry basket, but a side room with 5–6 sample facing bricks and roof tiles, 5 door handle options (in a case), 7 door designs (in the catalog with window cutouts plus one plastic and one wooden door to touch) etc... so there were options. The general contractor, in our case the architect and the salesperson, presented us options and waited for our responses. By the way, almost all of these options were standard, so without extra charges.
As already mentioned above by @Curly, you usually have an idea of which features you want (seen somewhere), whether a steel beam or folding staircase. You go to houses with those features... anyone who sees the possibility of choosing something exclusive in every item doesn’t build with a general contractor anyway and is far from a solid and price-conscious house build. But you still want the option to decide against beech (<- placeholder for everything). I WANT to decide if my roof gets glazed tiles.
I am the customer, I have wishes and ideas – that does not exclude being open to advice.
I believe the approach outlined here for selecting fixtures is much more common than the responses suggest. From what I see, most new builds are constructed by the three major companies or by small regional firms. Building with an architect seems rare to me, yet that would provide the freedom (and obligation!) to make choices.
Those who want to know every detail about the technology or want to choose from 500 door handles are probably the ones who actively participate in online forums on the subject. The other 98% just have their house built and are satisfied with that. I am firmly convinced this is the case because, looking at the typical construction costs (“normal and has to be that way”), I don’t see how hundreds of thousands of new builds could be sold annually in this country otherwise.
It is also a misconception that a limited selection must come with poor quality or bad aesthetics. Maybe Karsten’s general contractor offers two really great door handles that everyone can identify with immediately, without spending 20 hours googling and two weekends in specialist stores. I think dismissing this as insignificant is premature.
Those who want to know every detail about the technology or want to choose from 500 door handles are probably the ones who actively participate in online forums on the subject. The other 98% just have their house built and are satisfied with that. I am firmly convinced this is the case because, looking at the typical construction costs (“normal and has to be that way”), I don’t see how hundreds of thousands of new builds could be sold annually in this country otherwise.
It is also a misconception that a limited selection must come with poor quality or bad aesthetics. Maybe Karsten’s general contractor offers two really great door handles that everyone can identify with immediately, without spending 20 hours googling and two weekends in specialist stores. I think dismissing this as insignificant is premature.
Well, we’re glad that we are selecting materials with an architect in a very relaxed manner. Several appointments, some of which have already taken place, are scheduled for this. Some decisions we needed to let sit for about a week before making a choice. The architect is very patient. We didn’t want to do material selection just from catalogues either. Tomorrow: 3 hours for plumbing and 3 hours for tiling.
Similar topics