You're right, I didn't/don't mind my neighbors coming here. And, honestly, I'm glad I set a precident because I'm really glad I live where I do. In a rural yet touristy area I feel very safe, I feel like a part of my neighborhood and I'm enjoying the whole enchilada! WooHoo!

BTW..... what time did you-all say tea was?

:)

Dixie, I'm with you that it is a "class" issue. My own brother and sister wouldn't go into my newly framed house without me there. They said it didn't feel right. It is how you are raised and how you perceive others property and possessions. If I'm paying for that land and that wood and that cement, dammit it's mine and no one has the right to just walk on in like it's a public place.

People are building houses all around me and there is one house in particular I would love to go in and see, but I feel "funny" and feel like I would be intruding to even ask if I could look around. That's just me.'

When we have people stop by and compliment us on our house, we always invite them in. We are friendly people and we're very proud of the house we designed. We like to have people compliment us on our house. We had 2 people ask if we minded if they built the same house. I told them heck no, knock yourself out. It's a house so what's the big deal if someone else builds a house like mine. It's not like it's next door. I find that quite a compliment.

Would you go if a sub invited you in? We are GCing ourselves and are choosing a trim carpenter. He met me at a house he was working on to show me the work. I don't know if the owners knew he was using their house as an "example." He was supposed to meet my husband but my husband couldn't make it on time so the guy gave my husband the code for the box that held the key. I'm sure the owners would not have been pleased with the sub doing that. My husband went to examine the work by himself. Where do people stand on a situation like this?

We'll have to agree to disagree, brutuses. It was/is a big deal to me. Taking one or two ideas/designs and incorporating them into their home is one thing, but to say he was going to "build this house" ticked me off. We made numerous significant changes/additions to the original plans. It's not a money thing, even though we spent a lot of it on the plans - to me, it's stealing a copyrighted design and that's no different than walking in the house and taking a light fixture...Actually, I think it's a bigger deal.

Since he liked the floor plan, he could have contacted the architect and worked with him. Either he was too cheap or wanted to take the easy way out. I've seen this topic discussed on the forum before and everyone will have their own opinion - just like tv's over the fireplace. ;)

Rachelh, I would not be comfortable being given a box code to someone else's home unless the owner gave it to me. I would have made other arrangements to meet the carpenter.

Rachcelh - I would not have been comfortable with going into the home. Especially not with it being a sub who is telling me to go and giving out the box code.

What the hecks wrong with a TV over a fireplace?

Or Ikea for that matter?

;-)

The last time I posted here was at least two years ago, and we were having this same conversation. Wow.

What the hecks wrong with a TV over a fireplace?
Or Ikea for that matter?

(Backing away from the keyboard.....)

Or being asked to take off your shoes while walking through a McMansion... Might as well keep piling them on!

:-p

In the end at least if we can all have a sense of humor about it, we're doin' allright.

I am soooooooo past the people walking through the house!

Now I am dealing with ROACHES in this rent house we are staying in!!!!!!!! I just saw one that was so big he could have taken my head off.....YUK! YUK! YUK! I just called DH and told him buy BUG SPRAY!!!!!!!!!!!! YUK! EEEWWWWW YUK! I would rather have scorpions then roaches. YUK! He was under the toilet seat...oh YUK! DD just said she is not sleeping until we find him! LOL! This is the 5 one I have seen in the last 5 months of living here. We thought we got rid of them after we moved in.....my skin is crawling....YUK!

I'm sorry Allison, I still don't get what the big deal is unless the guy is living next door to you. Anyway, when the people who said they'd like to build a house like ours it was because of the exterior architecture and the porches. The inside would not be the same I'm sure of that because our house is customized for me and my DH and really wouldn't be suitable for anyone else unless they like the same identical things we do, i.e., sizes of rooms, etc. If someone stops and takes a photo of my house and then brings it to an architect, I can't do a thing about that.

Did the man who wanted to build your house come right out and ask you for your plans? I would be a bit turned off by someone that pushy myself.

I had someone ask me to make copies of our plan for them. I told them no! After I said no they said they were kidding but I don't think they were. Takes all kinds :-)

Brutuses, as I stated above, after I told him to leave and not come back he called our GC and asked to buy the GC's copy of our plans when construction was finished. GC told him they were not his to sell. The man then asked for our phone number. GC gave him my DH's cell number. My DH told him they were not for sell.

i don't expect anyone will trespass on our build as it is in our back yard. we're living in the front house until it's done. we're starting in the fall so i guess i'll find out then for sure but i can assure you i will not suffer fools. i can get pretty ugly. ;^) bring 'em on!

The people who trespass on building sites (notice I said trespass, not those that are invited by the owner, construction company, builder, etc...)are the same type of people that think that if something in a museum isn't roped off, behind glass or being flanked by security guards then it must be ok to touch it. Not joking, last time I was at the National Gallery of Art I saw a woman rub at the paint on a Cazin. No idea why, but she did.

Getting back to the topic at hand, just because it isn't finished doesn't mean it's not private property and entitled to all the common courtesy that a completed home would have.

Stumpy

Oh, I have to share this story. We've had numerous times AFTER we moved in where people have stopped by because they'd walked through the house while it was being built. I've had people show up and tell me what I did wrong, one person asked if I was the cleaning lady or the homeowner, (both, as a matter of fact). The best one was the lady and her husband who must be dumb as rocks who, even though our 2 cars are in the driveway, flag on the flagpole, garage doors open with many boxes recently unpacked, just proceed to open my front door to walk on it. The only problem was my doggy didn't think that was a good idea and let them know. I tried really hard not to laugh at these two idiots about to wet themselves, but geesh, people use some common sense!

mcbird, now that is a funny story. LOL

Allison and klntx, that is quite rude of them. I haven't had anyone ask for a copy of my plans, only that they would like to "copy" the roof and porch design which like I said, they can take a photo and copy the design if they'd like. I gave them the name of my architect and told them he could design them anything they wanted just give him an "idea" and some sketches of what they want and he'll go from there.

Our architect was so good that he had it right on the very first drawing and only had to go back to tweek some minor things. I guess I got real lucky finding his talent and at such a good price.

before we started the construction process, i would have probably not liked it at all. But you will realize that it happens so much, it is just so common, that you cant really help it.

I have done it myself. Designers, contractors, everyone in the industry does it, and has told us that we can. I know legally it is trespassing, but in real life people just do it.

We are building a $2 million dollar (not counting $1 million on the land) home and Im sure it will happen there. I won't care i guess. it is very helpful to people in our shoes, and I will understand it when others are doing it.

Now, if someone is JUST looking for the heck of it, and not building anything on their own (i know its not possible to really know) i guess that would bother me more.

I 100% think this is wrong. If a builder or homeowner invites you that is one thing, neighbors being nosy is another thing. This seems to be the common thought of so many people "everyone does it so live with it.
Why do we have to live with something that is not legal, not safe, not right in any way. If this logic is used for everything then we could say "just live with shoplifters, graffiti artists, speeders, the list could go on and on. Just because people do something in real life does not mean its ok. Its not ok. I would never allow my children to have this kind of in your face selfishness. Thats what it is, selfish! Someone wants something without asking and by gosh nothing is going to stop them. Pretty much what's wrong with a lot of things these days , everyone just puts themselves first. I guess I still believe in the Golden Rule.

We are building a large home. If someone was walking through uninvited they would first deal with our dog who lives there full time (partly for this reason) and then they would deal with me, then police. It undoes me to think the homeowner is wrong or "snarky" just because they ask for common courtesy. It is the intruder who should be apologizing not the other way around.

Funny this should come up again. Since we have not put in grass yet I guess it appears our home might still be under construction. Even though we have blinds up, a car in the driveway and a welcome mat at the front door, it could still appear that way. Well the other day I was home and had the alarm set for stay but on instant. Meaning if any door or window opened it would not give you the beep to turn of the alarm it would just go off. For some reason I had the front door unlocked and was sitting at the computer and all of sudden I had the *bleep* scared out of me with the alarm. Someone screamed and then I screamed! I ran to the laundry room to shut off the alarm and then went to the front door. I thought at first it was DH maybe coming home early. There was a man and women walking away rather quickly. I asked them if I could help them and she stated that they have a house down the road and come in to stay at there vacation house once or twice a month. (they were from Houston I think she said). She said that when they would come to stay they would walk around the house to see how far it had come along. I imagined they were pretty embarrassed or at least she seemed like she was. She said when they walked up and saw that the construction door was gone they thought we might have moved in! Well then why did they try to open the door!!! That is three times we have had someone just come up and twice someone has just walked in. A few weeks ago someone walked right through our garage into the house! I heard a "oh my gosh, someone is living here!!" YA THINK?? The garage has all of our stuff in it! He claimed he thought the builder was there and that the owners were just "storing their item's". Makes me mad it keeps happening when I am home alone! LOL! Needless to say I at the point where I want to store a 22 somewhere!

After going through the whole process I would never walk through someones home unless there was an open house sign or I was invited. We live way out in the country too, so I can't imagine how many people would have been walking through if we lived closer in :-) So far I have been insulted (a lady told me she did not like the color on our walls) and scared to death by our intruders! LOL!

Oh my gosh, Keltx! (Kitchen drawer-if no kids around) ; ) We ended up putting in a gate and fencing in our yard - mostly for the dogs, but also to keep people from just driving on up. I don't think being the only house on our street two years ago helped people realize we were finished building. Can't see our house from the street (on 4.5 acres) so they would just drive on up. When two other houses started going up, that could be seen from the street, I think they would still assume we must be under construction too.

The thing that got my goat was the man who kept coming back and telling not only my subs but me he was "going to build this house." WTH? He even called my GC and asked him to SELL his set of plans after construction was finished. When GC told him no, he actually called my DH. This was AFTER I asked him to leave the property and not come back after finding him in my great room for the 3rd time. Aarggh! I'm getting mad all over again!

This is making me glad we are building in a gated community. I know it won't keep everyone out, but with only two houses up out of 12 lots, it should cut down on the traffic.

Hey, how about a guest book?

We are not building in a subdivision, we tore down our old house and are building a new one, so it is our house and land. I didn't know many people in the town, but now when I go back to check, people I meet will tell me they have gone through the house in the initial stages of construction before it was locked up.
The old house was back behind the trees and most people didn't even know it was there and now you can see part of the new house. All of my neighbors know more about the inside of my house then I do, since I am not there.
I have never gone in any house under construction, I always considered that trespassing, no matter if the bank, builder or a person owned it.
Most people went through when my builder was there ( he does know everyone in town) but others were usually confronted by my one neighbor( who is absolutly wonderful). He was more offended by it then us. I didn't really mind but was really glad when the doors and locks went on.

I seem to have repeated myself -sorry. Old threads get brought back up and I didn't read the entire thing.

jodied, we are in a gated community. That does not always guarantee you no lookers or workmen that are interested when out here on another job.

Allison, we had someone ask about our plans as well. I told them where we bought them, gave them the guys name and number and our GC said this person came back and one time they asked one of the sub's for a copy of the house plans. I was livid!

We plan on putting in a gate and fencing in the whole place. Baby steps! LOL! I guess our garden was more important. LOL! No we have been trying to rake up a lot of the rocks and get the out of the yard. DH has a tractor (piece of *bleep*)but every time you give it power it dies! :-) It is of NO help. I am amazed at the dirt we have though. I thought we were just one big rock mess but once you get them up the dirt is wonderful!!! OH NO, the cat just "fell" in the tub.....there is laughter and screaming at the same time....got to run!

I have not started the building process yet but I don't think having people walk through my house would bother me. Now once my personal finishing touches start going in like flooring, paint, fixtures, etc. I may feel differently. I personally will only walk through a new construction when there is a FOR SALE sign in the yard. As far as the people who are asking for floor plans and/or saying they are going to build your same house-WOW! That would really tick me off. I am very much looking to build something different in my town. I would be VERY offended if someone asked for my plans and said they were going to duplicate my home. If I had wanted a cookie cutter home, I would have built one! THAT IS JUST RUDE!

I've scanned through the posts and it seems that this particular topic is a lot like religion or politics. Some people have a strong opinion on this subject, others don't.

My personal take is that the property is a construction site. Unless there are doors with locks, I see no difference between a curious neighbor and one of the hundred+ subs walking around the site through the course of the build. The caveat, of corse, is that no one gets hurt and nothing gets stolen or damaged.

In short, on my build I'll take steps to disuade trespassers (mostly for safety reasons), but I won't get bent out of shape if someone is just browsing the new construction.

At least that is my current opinion. Maybe that will change when I'm a few months into my build and I run into some of those terribly unreasonable people that some of you had to suffer through.

I think the fact of the matter is most people are going to walk through your house no matter what. We put up signs, we put up camera's etc to keep people away. BUT, you have to remember, that same person who thought it was ok to walk around your house at the beginning will think it is ok to walk around at the end. They will walk on your floors when they were just put down because the sub forgot to lock the door and believe me it will happen.....trust me! They will talk about floor, color or appliance choices because they think they can. They get very comfortable in giving you their opinions because they have seen the house being built! LOL! They will take wood because they thought the pile sitting there was to "give away", or pull their truck up to your rock pile and start to help themselves to it. The guy who was taking our rocks told the GC, who just happened to pull up when this happend, that he didn't think we would mind if he took a "few" rocks. He said we had allowed him to walk through the house on more then one occasion and told him to stop by any time. Yeah but he forgot to leave out "when we are here!" and I didn't remember giving him permission to take items from the site. Our subs had to ask certain neighbors more then once to please respect our no trespassing signs. I will say though that once one neighbor found out about our cameras and that they were recording (sound also) I saw a drop in "visitors".

But then again this is just another persons opinion but I have to say going through the building process, if we were to do it again. I would put up a fence with a gate and only the subs would know the code. I don't mean to sound unneighborly at all, matter of fact we have been to a few functions and found most of neighbors to very nice BUT...I asked the guy we snooped all around our house and gave us unwanted advice if we could come by and look at his place and he said NO!!!!!!!!!! LOL! If you can believe that!

My wife and I are certainly guilty of these bad habits. No matter what the stage of construction, we're wrong for entering the property, and I'll make no excuses for my behaviour. It certainly helped explain certain "nuts and bolts" of the construction of a house to my wife, and gave us some ideas of things we wanted (and don't want) in our house.

As bad as trespassing is, I think the people who've tried to get your house plans and that give unsolicited (and rude) comments about your choice of finishes are bad neighbors. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. And if this happens to us, we won't be inviting them to the big parties we like to throw.

Our last home was a tract/semi custom builder, tract homes with lots of options on changing the floorplan and adding things. We were the first built of a particular house plan. We put in a coffered ceiling and completely re-designed the kitchen layout among other things. Well, those "custom" "options" became the norm as everybody building that plan added them because they saw ours being built. One couple even got the coffer for free because the workers thought it was the standard. LOL. We were a little put off at first, but then I remembered that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery and invited people to see just how great a job we did choosing options for our house.

That being said, no one is allowed to build our custom home plan (according to our purchase agreement with the architect, they can't sell it and we can't build another without their permission and a fee). I know everyone who's seen a copy of the plans and I check to make sure it's not being built somewhere else.

This has been a very interesting post to read! We're currently building a house (floor joists are going in as we speak) in a neighborhood that was established in the early 80's. We were lucky enough to get a lot that someone had been holding onto for 20+ years. I understand that nothing has been built there in a long time, so it's probably intriguing to folks. But it still blows my mind how many people drive by all slow staring at it! One guy pulled into our cul-de-sac barely moving, really soaking it in before pulling onto the main road and driving slowly past with his flashers on. So I can only imagine how many are going to traipse through our house as it progresses. And the thought of that just burns me up. It'll be a practice in patience, for sure.

I posted to this thread back in '07 and my opinion is still the same: Get a gate! lol

Since our home construction is totally DIY, we don't have subs coming and going. The gate has been one of our best purchases and has kept lookie-lous off the property for almost 3 years. Not one idea or piece of property stolen! You don't have to do anything fancy either....a farm gate with a heavy duty lock will work just fine. :)
If you want to avoid headache's and aggravation, I highly recommend gating your drive.

kellilou3, I have experienced exactly what you are describing at my current home - we bought a very old home in a very old neighborhood and did a total renovation. As we were bricking the exterior I never saw so many brake lights! lol
People were making all sorts of excuses to drive or walk past, some even wandering into our yard. After a while I really got tired of being in the "spotlight" or having to deal with random strangers standing in my garden. I understand that it's the most exciting thing going on in the 'hood, but it doesn't give folks the right to trespass. Hopefully you won't have to deal with that.
Best of luck to you with your new home!

Dawn

It is funny that this topic is up again. When we built we were 1300 miles away. We moved into our house in the summer of 2007. I had no idea how many people had walked through my home before we moved in, but surely do now! I too have had comments about wall color, scored concrete floors, too much tile, etc from people who really are too stupid to be polite. One of the people that made such comments built their home a couple of streets away and I swore I'd go over and return the favor as they were building, but I couldn't bring myself to even go over there as it felt like I was breaking a law. However, the karma of it all is she did it to several of the folks on our street who were building and snuck into one home while the artisan painter was there, asked to be shown around and to look at his handiwork, then told him she thought it was tacky. They moved into their home and on day two had a flood so bad they had to completely replace the hardwood flooring in two rooms. Several of us toasted that one over a couple of beers.

I design houses for a living and it would never occur to me to enter someone's property without being invited and I would certainly be embarrassed if I did and got caught. Of course I probably wouldn't be tempted to look at a half framed house anyway; what could you learn from it, framing techniques? I take photos of finished houses from the street and even that has bothered some homeowners. When I give them my card they usually try to get an hour of advice for free.

This made me think of something that happened to a friend of my aunt. She is a realtor and went to view a house that was being built (she did have permission as she was going to try to sell it.) However she went late afternoon on a Friday after they had left for the day. You guessed it. She fell off the stairs from the second floor and broke both legs. The fall also broke her phone. No one found her untill Saturday afternoon. She is older (62) and her recovery has not gone well. She just wants to be able to walk without pain again.

No one ever thinks something like that will happen to them, but it does happen. At least in her case someone eventually remembered that she was going to be looking at some houses, but if she was just being curious no one would have looked there and it would have been Monday before she was found. That could have been too late.

Not quite the same, but what does one say to family/friends who ask, "How big is your house?" or "How much did it cost?" That seems invasive to me, like I'm in a contest. I wish I could think of an answer that would not reveal, but also not offend them.

bama, what a horrible thing to happen. OMG, that poor woman. I am too chicken and just not curious enough to go walking on to anyone's property unless I'm invited and have someone there to show me around.

My DH is building our home and he has to keep the front doors closed because people will walk up on him when he's in the back of the house. He's hard of hearing so it's kind of chilling for him to have strangers approach like that. He can leave the back doors open because we don't yet have stairs back there and they'd have a big jump to get onto the porch. People are too cheeky and rude for my taste. LOL

thepond, that subject has come up before and I'm trying to remember some of the excellent answers some people had for the nosey folks. I believe one person said they just respond, I really don't like discussing this so can we change the subject or something to that affect. Another person answered, I'll tell you how much I paid, if you tell me how much you paid, first.

When people ask how much our cost we can genuinely tell them we don't know. We have kept such bad records, we only have a rough idea. It's taken us 6 years. At some point in time I think DH didn't want to know.

I don't mind telling people how big the house is, that's no big deal to me. It's not a large house (1900 sq. ft.), but it appears much larger because of the wrap around porches and it being raised off the ground.

If you want some more discussion on this go ahead and start a new thread. I'm sure you'll get lots of great feed back.

All I can think of at the moment are snarky comments. lol Such as "well, when you want to start helping with the payments, I'll let you know" or "I'm getting ready to set up a donations Hot Line." ;D

We didn't have this issue as we built on the same property - our old home was about 150 ft from the new one. Plus we have big barking, obnoxious dogs.

I will say though it has taken me a year to "get over" the open door policy the subs etc seem to have with a build. This was especially annoying right as we moved in. We had several things that needed tweaked during the first months. One day I was working at the computer and I hear the back door open- NO KNOCK. It's the security company people (of all folks!) to repair something. That about set me off. Our general also was a bit that way at the end. I came home from an errand one day and he was in our basement. Granted he was picking up a shop vac he had left behind but he hadn't been there in over a month and I thought it was rude to walk right in. So glad that is over.

I work a lot and historically when I am home, I do not want to be bothered. I even resent the UPS man coming down the lane when I am home alone etc. I really didn't realize how stressful the continual flow of known and unknown was until it was over. It's taken a year to feel like I have my haven back.

thepond, all I ever really say in response to the many questions I have been asked along that line about our large home is "Why do you ask?" That usually gives me an opportunity to change the subject when my return question leaves them stammering. It works well for many questions, my favorite of which was "Why did you have so many children?" Geez, I only have 4. Not 18, like another family I have seen on t.v.!! Anyway, that response has worked over the years for me in many different situations, and keeps me from feeling forced to reveal personal information.

Good luck!

Amy

Our house has been finished since last May and I still get comments from neighbors who said they took the tour. I was over here all the time, I want to know when they did all this, at midnight with a flashlight??
One of my friends is building now and someone was so desperate to look in her windows, they walked across her wet cement front porch, she now has lovely little footsteps to her dining room window!
To people who ask how much or how big I say, nothing we couldn't afford, or just right for us! If they ask more I just say no, really what can they do?

"The reality is that these "curious" people, and partying teenagers, are breaking the law. They're trespassing."

Unless you have fences and no trespassing signs up to give notice it is very unlikely they have broken any law.

If it bothers you, pay for a temporary fence around the site.
It is done all the time.
10 foot wide by 6 foot tall fence panels with concrete weights to hold them upright are joined together to surround the site.

This seems to be an old post resurrected, but a lot has changed with the economy too since this was posted. My neighbor whose build is a bit ahead of mine, has had issues with theft (Rural area, long blind drive). With the current state of our country theft has now become much more of an issue, so how does one distinguish from allowing neighbors or would be thieves scoping out the place? What if it is the neighbors stealing? I was working up at my lot one day and he asked if he could put no tresspassing signs on my lot too, to keep people away from our lots. Very nice of him to be looking out for me too. We also said that we would question people at either of our lots to make sure they belong, in lieu of the thefts. He ran into my brother in law one time, went over, talked to him to see who he was, there were no issues. Even though we are friendly, and look out for one another, I would never go into his house without his permission or him being there. The difference is like me, he is his own GC. If a builder invites you to look at a house or houses he is doing, it is different, because you have been invited, at least by the builder and that is that way builder are able to show off their work. If it was an issue with one of the soon to be owners of the home, most builders would not recommend that home to be viewed.

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one taken aback sometimes by people's comments. Where we live, a lot of property information is public information on the assessor's website--sq. footage, price you paid for the house, etc. In our current house, since we built it, the price is kind of masked bc we only have a lot price in there; so, the assessor's site doesn't reveal how much it cost to build. If you structure your payment for the build differently though; sometimes, the price shows up. What's amazing to me is that even if sometimes you might peek and be nosey, I would never confront somebody about the size and/or price of their home or let them know that I was peeking into your personal information. We have one neighbor though who is constantly pointing out to us and to other neighbors the size of our house (which isn't even really that big) and also that our house is the most expensive one on the block (it's a very modest tract subdivision-so we're not talking about anything crazy, seriously). He goes off of assessed value to make the latter comment, even though he has no idea what we paid for the house. I'm always taken aback.

Once the walls were framed, our builder got doors on (even though they weren't the final ones and some were even interior doors hung in the frames) and locks. Not that it made things too secure, but it keeps some of the nosy people out. I don't mind my neighbors going through the house but I'd rather like to avoid people being tempted to pick up some of the loose materials, tools, etc...

Our house site is rather prominently placed in the neighborhood so it gets a lot of attention.

We have been in our house for several years and last year had a problem with a neighbor's teenage children. We are on acreage so the neighbor is not that close.

I drove to the neighbor's house to talk to him. He stated what nice sunsets I get from my inside balcony/loft. I had never met this man before.

That creeped me out as there is no way he could have known I had an indoor balcony/loft unless he had been through my house as it was being built.

Those of you who think it is ok to let people walk around your house under construction, think again. An in-laws brother brought his wife over to our lot to walk around the framed house, without our permission. She fell through the floor to into the future stair opening and broke her wrist and cut her head. They sued me, they sued the builder, and even claimed that we invited them. If you invite someone, they are able to get damages from you. As it turned out, they only got money for medical bills and lost days of work. They are scumbags. DON'T LET PEOPLE WALK AROUND YOUR HOME WHILE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!

Somewhat off-topic, but about 8 years ago we were renovating our present home which is a very large home on an entire city block, and is a historcal home in the area. There was a period of time that we could not stay in the house because utilities were turned off. An exterior wall in the kitchen had been taken down and the GC had put up plastic with 2X4s across this area. To gain access, you had to rip the plastic and take a board or two down. (Very small town in northern WI, so pretty safe actually). One evening I stopped by the house to see the progress made that day. There was a strange car in the drive and people I didn't know walking around inside. Not only were they checking out the renovations, but they were walking around rooms not under construction where our personal things were kept. I was pretty upset about it, and I was a bit rude to them. I thought it was pretty forward of them to actually remove the plastic and boards to get in. Can you believe they were actually offended by my rudeness.

Our new house will be built in a much more secluded location. I'm worried about trespassers and also theft. I'm somewhat comforted that a State Patrol officer will be living next door, but it is a heavily wooded area so he couldn't see much from his house.

One of my neighbors has a house that they recently go the CofO on. They are living there but the place appears to be under construction (no yard, no driveway, lots of unfinished trim, etc...) because they are a little short of funds, and frankly, once you're living there the urgency to finish is off (they GC'd it themselves).

A contractor (not one they hired) walked in on the wife one day as he was looking for the GC to offer his services to install the driveway.

While I can understand frustration and anger with people coming onto/into your property without an invitation, I think that any anger about people driving really slow past your build or stopping to look from the road is unreasonable. Curiosity is human nature and it hurts no one to look on from the road, especially when no one is living there. I often check out construction projects from a safe distance because Im interested. Plus it gives me ideas and keeps me informed about current trends. Youre not living or building in a vacuum, youre in a community. Id think it odd and sort of surreal if no one wanted to look. You should take it as a compliment and it will pass anyway.

Hi arisonn, I assume you're addressing my comment? I've driven slowly past people's houses, too, so I understand why people do it! It's fun to see progress and, like you said, current trends. Just this one guy that I mentioned was the most strange (I mean, he was driving on the wrong side of a busy street with his flashers on). He will probably be one who will want to walk through it. Our builder put up a sign a couple of days ago that was, actually, pretty nice. It wasn't a no trespassing sign but said something like, "DANGER! Please do not enter construction site without the accompaniment of the builder. Please feel free to set up an appointment for a viewing."