The other thing that came to my mind after I thought about this was......obviously you expected to pay something for the electric, yes? So even if the bill is 100% more than what you expected - the overage is about $40. If you're going to make yourself crazy about ~$40....you're in for a looooooong build :) I'm not being snarky - I'm thinking more along the lines of what Worthy just posted. It isn't like they're putting the electricity in their pocket and taking it home at night. :) Power tools, air compressors, and space heaters gobble up power. So if you think they're being too cavalier with their electricity use, you can certainly look into it. But in the grand scheme of things, this isn't something you're likely to remember after you've been through the whole build. :)

I'm still in the pre-construction phase, but I have a large 3-ring binder with zipper, add'l pockets and handle on the spine that's my construction bible. It has big pockets on the outside for pens, a calculator and odd items I pick up like samples. Inside, I have large file pockets to hold odd items like folded-up plans. In the binder section, right on top is a business card holder and contact sheet. Then, individual tabs for major items like "plumbing," "lighting," "legal," etc. I keep everything from docs to spec sheets to bids to renderings to key inspiration pics I need to show to the more artistic subs like the trim carpenter. Electronically, I keep all the emails sorted and I can access them from any computer or on my blackberry. I also have a spreadsheet which is my spec list. It's divided up much like the notebook -- by TYPE of item. After all, I don't bid a room, I bid a type of product. The plumbing house isn't going to bid my kitchen cabinets. So for example, on the plumbing page I have all plumbing-related stuff, sorted by floor and room, and then all the items I will need to buy or spec out. Each line item contains a description, specification, model number, source, and estimated cost. It goes on to include cost, tax, and total cost for those items I have already purchased, and is subtotaled at the bottom. A final spreadsheet tab contains misc. items I have purchased for the transaction, like software, money paid to have plans drawn and so forth. If there were two of me directly involved in the build, I'd only make two smaller notebooks with duplicates of important items (like the legal papers and any "hot" topics.) Then divvy up items by responsibility. Maybe one party is in charge of the kitchen, bath and utility and the other is on charge of windows, doors and landscaping. Although I'm a computer programmer, I personally am more comfortable with having a paper based notebook for this kind of thing. There's something creatively visceral about being able to flip back and forth to look at items. But, if it were essential to have two parties with access to ALL information, I'd buy two netbooks and configure a central repository like Google Docs that you both access concurrently to avoid sync issues. Keeping two paper notebooks sync'd could be very difficult, especially if one party is not as organized or as invested in the notebooks as the other. By the way, all parties involved seem a little taken aback that I can grab a tab and flip the book open to the current topic. Except my GC, who seems delighted.

We bought a bunch of stuff early. Lighting fixtures in particular. Also some plumbing items. But… I can't use the plumbing items (1 sink, 3 faucets, 2 shower sets, and 1 antique, refinished claw foot tub that I loved. Sigh.). Our builder is willing to use them, but our plumber simply doesn't want to use brands he can't find parts for locally. Also our local inspector insists on all the paperwork for every CA compliant plumbing item. It came down to time=money issue for our plumber. So we have substituted all items with brands that have company reps. to back up the items locally. Kohler and Rohl. I've researched all my favorite items online extensively and our plumber can get all those items much cheaper than I can. Our builder has been super flexible in every single possible way - we love him. But the local inspections can really slow things down, and I didn't know that beforehand. I thought we could just print up a sheet from the internet about the item and show it to them. We'll just use the other items for later projects. Just our experience. I'm really glad we did the lighting fixtures over time. I was able to grab things I loved when they were on sale. We also bought our antique vanities for sinks and saved quite a bit on cabinetry. But that isn't the look everyone is going for. ;) Oh, and another thing I bought in advance: beautiful rim locks for the doors with porcelain knobs. I loved them! But alas, cannot use them in our county for fire safety reasons. Something else to use for later projects...

I am so sorry. We had something similar happen with our framing, except there was no discussion about it beforehand - they just made a mistake. When the mistake was realized (shamefully for them, I was the one that noticed it - not the framers or GC!) we first consulted with the architect to determine what exactly was going to change internally as a result of the roof changes they made, then went back to the framers and negotiated a discount to keep it mostly the way they built it (they had to change a few things to be per-plan but not everything). I would follow a similar path if I were in your shoes. Get a FULL list of outcomes from this roof change. If you (and the code officer) can accept them, negotiate a discount on your framing cost. I don't think it even matters that you verbally approved the change. He also verbally told you that it would not cause internal changes and he was dead wrong, so you only agreed to that kind of change, not the change you got. And try to look at it this way. Your house isn't wrong just because they didn't follow the plans perfectly - it's unique!