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Building a Home

How long were you away from your build?

9 years ago

I haven't flown "across the pond" before and we are going to Europe for 9 days. We are going to sit down with our builder early next week before we leave on Wednesday.

He says they will probably start to brick the house while we are gone. Kind of nerve-racking thinking all of that will be happening when we are not there!

Our builder will be around and hubby's co-worker/our future neighbor/best buddy lives across the street so I know he will keep an eye on things.

I do wonder what we can do ahead of time to help things along while we are gone?

If you were gone for several days from your build, what did you do beforehand?

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Comments (3)

mrspete
9 years ago
I haven't been in such a situation, but I'm wondering if the coworker /friend /neighbor would be willing to shoot a bit of daily video with his cell phone and send it to you.
Aims
Original Author
9 years ago
That sounds like a good idea. I don't quite know how my cell phone will work over there but I think our hotel will have Wi-Fi.
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I just went on a 2 week trip abroad while our house remodel (not new build) is ongoing. Our architect attended the weekly site meetings as usual and emailed meeting agendas, notes, and a couple photos. We communicated via email and called using Skype once. The call was to clarify pricing on a change order I requested.

I asked the contractor before I left for a list of things that would be done while I was gone: siding, new electrical panel, solar panel installation, sheetrock / mudding, and staining the ceiling -- all things I felt comfortable leaving in the hands of my architect if any questions arose. When I came back, they made progress on all except for the ceiling because of VOC content in the stain.

I trust our GC and architect, so I felt I was in good hands. I also timed the trip to take place when there shouldn't have been any major decisions. I would not have wanted to leave when electrical wiring and switching was being put in - I had a lot of input then.

If you have someone you trust, you may want to leave a blank check with them in case anything arises. Our solar panel installation was scheduled right before I left, so I was able to leave the required payment. If they had tried to schedule while I was gone, it would have been delayed until I got back.

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