ᐅ Traveling During the Construction Phase?

We were very relaxed on vacation.
The concrete slab was poured, and the house arrived later.

hampshire schrieb:

During the construction phase, I reduced my work to 5-10 days per month, and my wife had no work obligations. We spent a lot of time on site to look after the wellbeing of our tradespeople and made numerous trips to select tiles, wall coverings, lighting, furnishings, bathroom design, switch systems, details, and so on, integrating these choices in dialogue with the craftsmen.

I think very few people can afford that kind of luxury.

At least we couldn’t 🙂

But when (in which phase of construction) does looking after the tradespeople actually begin?

11ant schrieb:

The same joker who already wanted to postpone the house? — you notice that yourself, right?

I have to say, we had a follow-up meeting with the general contractor and the site manager. I’m not trying to defend the site manager, only to point out that during our on-site meeting, the site manager apparently had not yet been given the most current status of our project. As I said, I can’t judge whether this is true or not, but in the conversation, I did get the impression that things were being handled honestly.

11ant schrieb:

Summary: go on vacation — but keep someone (a godfather, grandma-in-law) on standby to cover for you so you’re always reachable and can keep an eye on the amateurs who might otherwise mess up your build completely.

That is our main concern, and why we even considered the vacation in the first place. We adults could have done without it just fine.

I will make sure someone stops by occasionally to check on things — I think that’s the best solution!

haydee schrieb:

We were pretty relaxed on vacation. The concrete slab was poured, and the house came later.

That’s definitely more relaxing when you know the schedule. 🙂

We are getting indications of when things might start, but we can’t predict what will happen during the first few weeks or whether we need to be on site or not.

One more thing I want to mention: we’re not the kind of homeowners who want to photograph every single progress step.

Honestly: when friends who have built their homes show us their photos, we usually just react with "okay..." because they photograph every pipe, every wall, or the floor heating layout pattern in every room. Maybe some people find that interesting and look back at those pictures later, but that’s not us. Certainly, some photos will be taken, but not a complete visual diary of the process.

1. Photos serve as documentation
2. craftsmen want to see the homeowners
3. there are always issues to clarify
General contractor, construction manager going back and forth

I was at the construction site twice every day

It depends. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. I wouldn’t necessarily go for 3 weeks either. But why not 1.5 to 2 weeks? Especially since many things tend to change during construction.

So, we went on vacation for a week during the shell construction phase. However, I stayed in contact with the site manager from the shell construction company and my own architect during that time. It was a strange feeling, but everything went smoothly. Fortunately, my parents live near the construction site, and the neighbor regularly sent photos.

Maxwell8 schrieb:

We will still travel normally despite the construction. I live a bit further from the building site and often work over 50 hours across 6 days, so I never make it to the site before 8 p.m. A few weeks of vacation won’t change much; we’ll just miss two Sunday site visits.

Then there’s also vacation at the future home location: cycling and exploring the area during the day, and in the evening heading to the site and having a barbecue 😉

Yaso2.0 schrieb:

Since we are building in a gap site, there isn’t much else to see here or other builders around.

The construction site isn’t interesting? Are you planning to take a vacation now or later? That’s not really clear.

Yaso2.0 schrieb:

Honestly: when friends who have built showed us their photos, we were more like “oh, okay”… because they took pictures of every pipe, every wall, and the floor heating layout pattern in every room.

Honestly, you don’t really show those to others; they’re for yourself and documentation.

Why do you ask? Isn’t it already decided?