So we're scheduled to start digging on Monday (barring weather reports) and we wanted to walk the property and the building stakes with the builder today. Of course, it's 45 degrees out and slightly windy, so we were all bundled up, but off we went. The property was muddy from the recent rains so DH put grocery bags on his feet! while the rest of us wore old boots.

The stakes look great, we discussed some trees coming down on my parents' property next door for their house, and we talked about fencing that needed to come down.

Then the builder unrolled our floor plans and said to DH and me, "We've come up against an issue that we need to tell you about." My heart about dropped to my feet. No hole on the property, not even any equipment there yet, and already a problem?? Well, initially the architect had drawn the house with casement windows on the front, which we had no idea about at the time. When the builder priced the house and it was over our budget, he said one of the things that would bring the price down was to replace the casement windows with double-hung. Since we didn't care (we didn't really love the idea of screens INSIDE the house with the casement windows anyway) and we were able to maintain the look of the house with double-hungs, we were good to go. But today the builder says "We can't do double-hung windows in the upstairs bedroom and laundry room because they'd be too small for emergency egress. Since WE missed this issue, we're going to give you the casement windows on the whole front of the house but we won't charge you for the difference." I asked if there was another way to handle it, but he said the only other option was to change the three side-by-side tall windows to two side-by-side double-hungs, but that would change the entire look of the front of the house. "And we just couldn't do that to you," he said.

Stunned. I mean, I know the builder has been fantastic so far with everything (from initial bidding, to all the ruckus with the permits), including being extremely fair with pricing, but I was shocked he would eat the cost of casement windows. And the issue originated from the architect, who labeled the windows wrong on the plans, so it wasn't TOTALLY the builder's fault. And yet he didn't even hesitate to handle it, even though it is going to cost him.

There are so many rants here and in the kitchen section about things gone or going wrong, I wanted to put up some positive news when it came to dealing with builders and contractors. I'm sure we'll have our share of frustration and issues, but this was so reassuring.

If the weather holds over the weekend and they start the dig on Monday, it'll be at 7am...and they're going to have an audience!