Funny - I thought it looked awkward right away. The stairs bug me also though - the runner just makes it more noticeable.

But I also don't think you should redo anything. As someone said, it would really require redoing the entire stairs to "correct" the issue - but it really isn't a big deal - even if I noticed it right away.

Or sell and rebuild.

Ok, funny enough, I agree with centering on top or bottom (or re-doing staircase). You made me look at my own stairs - they are very similar to yours. I need to do something like a runner, too, and you’ve given me something to consider. 👍🏻

Annual touch up paint here for doors that are used more often. No strikes.

I'm putting in an edge pull.

Strike plates for edge pulls do not exist and there is no need for them under normal circumstances. Box stretchers on the other hand . . .

Roll the dice. Leaks aren't very common. Make sure your hoses are new on install.

I haven't done anything differently for 2nd floor laundry rooms. Heck - on a slab, you can get a fair amount of damage from 1st floor stuff - like my interior water heater in 1999. But generally these things don't happen very often. The frustrating thing with tanked water heaters - especially cheap ones - is they leak without warning and are expensive to just replace every X years. Hoses for a washer are way cheaper in comparison.

Our history using the Watts Regulator product is more than 10 years and counting. So far...so good!

It's second nature to us now; when doing laundry, turn on the water at the hookup (it's a quarter turn valve), and when taking clothes out, turn it off. I do wonder if the valve will wear out eventually.

Building permits in various parts of the country take between 2 days to 2 years. Just keep that in mind. Excavation in my area would be $0. If it is such a big cost, how much time does it typically take?

I suspect the variability in time excavation takes is somewhat like the permit variability.

I think if you are stressed about 40% of the excavation bill in cash, you may have other concerns. You do know that loans often fall short of build cost by large amounts, right?

Excavation & grading may be a significant number outside of the home construction. Most lenders don't want ground breaking prior to the loan closing ( as Charles Ross Homes said) unless you have a title company who will cover it.

How soon will the lender close? Are they delayed?

In a local municipality we can't pull the building portion of the permits until after the mass grading is complete & signed off, so the construction loan closes with grading permit.

The lender is waiting for the final build permit to come through! They wont close unless that has been approved by the municipality, which is estimating 6-9 weeks if there are no safety issues with the design. Our lender doesnt have this requirement for grading to be complete, fortunately.

Just a small counterpoint. I have 3800 sqft and the specs built around me are typically 5500. I am sure our house will sell well but at some point the $/sqft mantra makes it to appraisals. One that just sold a few houses down was lived in by a childless couple and they rarely had guests the 2 years they lived there (at least that arrived by car). I am not sure if the 2 years was a cap gains thing or not. But childless couple in 5500 sqft! They spend 1 of the 2 years installing a pool!

People do some crazy things. One of the more dramatic houses built in our hood recently was built be a couple (with HS kids) and the owner's intent is 2 years then sell. They do this over and over to take advantage of the capital gains tax exemption. The strategy is reasonably sound in our very stable/slow growth market but this house is just over the top. I am talking 7,000 + ADU - definitely the tops for the few block area. But I bet the sale price will also set a record.

People build here with the intent of selling all the time and do fairly well. All RE is local.

The OP maybe able to build for $5M which is cheaper than $6M. Just avoiding those pesky transaction costs is a win.

Kudos to you for being so receptive to all the input. My comment on the master bedroom size being small is based on the usable area where the bed would go. It feels a little bit tight for me given the size of house. It looks like you have roughly 14x15'. The sitting area also isn't useful as it would mostly need to be walkway space. I think the total size of your master bedroom suite is pretty reasonable. I would just reconsider how you divide the space up between bedroom, bathroom, and closet, and the layout.

For a larger higher end house, I would consider a larger Master shower that can comfortably fit two people showering at the same time. I would also do larger bathroom vanities with more counter and cabinet storage space.

I would highly recommend keeping the toilet in a separate room. At least around here, I have not seen a newer luxury home with a toilet that doesn't have a separate toilet room in many years. Contrary to Mark's opinion, I think the toilet room helps to isolate any smells as it allows the bathroom fan, assuming you have a good one, to very effectively extract the air from the room. Without the toilet room, the bathroom feels more like a public bathroom and smells will permeate the whole open space.

You've certainly come in with an open mind. It's so easy to get stuck in "I want what I want...". Flexibility is really important.

For us, when we stepped back - We reevaluated our "needs" or what we thought we needed - our kids were getting older, so in only a few years it would be most often 2 of us, with kids (and friends) making guest appearances. Little did we know - that COVID would have all of us back together again... We did build for us, but we also knew that we would eventually be selling. It was not our first rodeo - it was our 4th custom home in an upscale resort market. We also talked with our realtor about trends in the market to help us understand what people were looking for, knowing that we would sell and downsize for retirement.

Some of the things we noodled about: Did we really need large additional bedrooms - could the kids share baths, or did the rooms all need to be ensuite? How big does that master bath need to be? Does it need 2 sink areas or will just one (with lots of storage) be OK? Do we really need a large games room? We made each space more efficiently sized (measured up the old house spaces and worked from there). Did we need a huge pantry? Huge laundry? How about a pocket office? Would we use the rooftop deck/hot tub area? How much wine storage is needed? (We did not make the mudroom/gear storage space any smaller!) Our design kept in mind that lumber is generally sold in 2' increments, so we tried to make efficient use of the materials to keep our costs in check. When designing - counting doors and windows, being mindful of how many there are makes a difference... Further - will the doors be 7', 8' 9'+ ? Things snowball - casing, door hardware, window covering, not to mention the doors and windows themselves, it all adds up quickly! Using a simple roofline, and smooth(ish) perimeter walls helped us use our financial resources where there was the most "bang for our buck".

We also moved the footprint on the site to be farther from our only neighbour (we backed onto forest), and took better advantage of the views by shifting some rooms around. Further, this placement on the lot required less blasting/site prep.

We chose to leave ample space in the public areas, and make more private spaces more efficient. We turned the "kids floor" into a 2bed suite that helped us with our mortgage. Ended up with about 3500 sf plus a 3 car garage with large workshop. The upstairs/main floor became "one floor living" and was super functional for us.

The pause, also gave me time to connect with our designer - to make all the choices for interior finishing so I was not holding us up making design decisions as we were building. I had most everything chosen before they had the forms on the ground.

Yes, we had an elevator - amazing to get firewood to the upper floor (house was designed "upside down" to take advantage of the views). Fabulous for those large grocery runs, and as it came up right beside the kitchen it became our "recycling storage". Handy to send it downstairs to take out when needed. Definitely more cost efficient to put in while building and as others have said - almost "expected" in our market. I'd definitely do it again.

When we sold recently (8 years after the first tree came down) - the biggest feedback was that folks wanted more bedrooms which in our case was easily done by taking the suite portion back into the house and gave us the flexibility to accommodate what others were looking for.

I totally understand the pressure to get things done, and not let them drag out especially when you are carrying more than one property. It's a stressful juggle. In our case, super glad we paused and re-designed. Good luck with your project!

We have a custom panel hood - not that different from yours.

My builder had it built/installed with screw on panels for access - for this exact reason and also to service the hood if needed. It is an appliance and needs access not just a hole you shove it in to and forget about.

If I was an inspector, I would not find it acceptable to use a flashlight to check duct connections. I would want to see the external connection of duct to hood. It might look alright until you heat the thing up a few hundred times because you shoved it in and then threw duct tape on it.

Your canopy has to be uninstalled. You put the cart before the horse and the venting has to be in place or accessible before the cover is installed.