We are doing time and materials plus his % markup on most, but not everything. You might think that would mean the GC had no motivation to help us manage costs, but that has not been the case. He's mindful of our budget because he wants us to be able to finish the house and to be happy! It really depends on the person (and we are also in a small community.) Another benefit of having things in writing is just to get you on the same page-- the value can be from the discussion that gets you there as much as the final document. We actually got through foundation and started framing before our contract was finished-- (I know, appalling to many.) Our GC has also helped us out by having us pay some of the subs and materials directly, which means he does not mark them up. In some cases (cabinets), he did not have to spend his time dealing with them, but in others (foundation), he did. We have offered him flexibility in timing in exchange. (A later start than we'd originally planned, a month off in the middle for another project, and no hard move-in date because we aren't moving in for a few years.) There are a lot of ways to do things. People can have great contracts and crummy contractors. Good luck with your project!

There's no basement (we're in a So. Cal. split level built alongside a hill). We don't have a mudroom or a laundry room to borrow storage space from. The laundry is in a closet off of the family room. We're currently storing paper towels and bulk items in the wetbar that we don't use (also in the Family Room -- but it's going to get the boot one of these days). The wall between the dining room and family room is only 4" thick -- total, although I'm probably going to beef this up slightly because the family room is currently covered in paneling (it's been painted, but as long as I'm remodeling, we might as well fix that) and there's no insulation in the walls. Other thought I had was to do a partial half wall with support columns there to open the family room up to the dining/kitchen area. I would have to keep part of the wall so I have something to set my barrister's bookcase against, but a half wall would let the cook see the TV. I could move the message center/backpack storage into the closet in the Family Room with a bit of an interior closet remodel (it's currently our games/toys/crafts/office supply closet). That wouldn't be too inconvenient since it is just around the corner from the front entry at the top of the stairs. Here's my floor plan again to help with visualization. The master bedroom is missing from this drawing (it's on the other side of the kitchen) and the kids' rooms/bathroom/linen closet on the third level are not quite to scale (they were sleeping when I was trying to draw it out). Here is a link that might be useful: Floorplan

I guess my perspective is a bit different. Maybe I've been more fortunate in the two GC's we've worked with. The GC for our initial remodel generally took responsibility for the work of any work that he arranged for. We never had a change order because one of the workers made a mistake that needed to be corrected. There was an allowance for cabinet hardware (pulls) and it would have covered a reasonable choice such as the Amerock pulls that we considered. We decided to use the larger Schaub higher end pulls which went over the allowance so we had to pay for that, but the original allowance wasn't out of line with good materials. He generally kept us informed of the plans for work ahead of time. He and his workers did a good job of ensuring that our home and the prior parts of the work were undamaged by work - e.g. putting hardboard down on the wood floors which we weren't replacing to protect them from cabinets and appliances being installed, doorways were masked whenever there was messy work. Before work started, they went through the house and asked us to take pictures down from the other side of walls they would be working on so I felt they were pretty cautious about taking care of our things. I can't recall any damage occurring. Junk or dirt was never left around at the end of each day. They would sweep the floor if necessary, consolidate their equipment into a part of the room we didn't need to walk through, etc. I guess I didn't notice whether they locked up when they left for lunch breaks and we weren't home. My husband is retired and I work from home so generally one of us was there. They had a key and did lock up if we weren't there at the end of the day. They weren't perfect. On the down side, we did from time to time notice something that they were doing that needed correction. We checked progress every day and let the GC or the worker know right away and they would correct it or explain satisfactorily why what was done was correct. Sometimes we would spot a potential problem before the contractor and workers were aware of it. For example, the back side of our island had a row of 12" wide cabinets facing the ends and 12" deep cabinets facing the back. It turns out that the cabinet manufacturer makes 12" deep cabinets a tiny fraction of an inch over 12" and the 12" wide cabinets are spot on so a small shim was needed to even them up. That broke down at the very end over issues with the vent hood. The roof jack they installed was too small for our high CFM hood and we felt that they hadn't mounted the hood securely. They didn't agree that either was a problem so we brought in an appliance installer who agreed with us and changed the roof jack and mounted the hood properly. The GC got in a huff and terminated the contract. All the rest of the work was pretty much done at that point (final inspection was complete) and final less than $2 K payment that we didn't have to make covered our costs for the appliance guy, roof jack, roofing guy and some minor paint touch up. While our spotting things and helping come up with ways to correct them saved them some time and cost, there were clearly times when dealing with such hands on involvement stressed them out.

As others have said, if you own the land, then it's your land and you can visit as much as you want to. When I visit and know there will be people working, I usually take some coffee or food. It goes a long way in your relationship. You'll know when the basement has been waterproofed when you can't see the concrete from the outside. It should be covered in something black. Read online to learn the difference between damp proof and water proof, then talk to your builder about what they're planning on doing. Bare minimum code might not cover what you had intended. The two pipes on the exterior of the house tied to the drain tile might be bi-directional clean outs. It's a little difficult to tell from the photo, but if the vertical pipes are connected to the horizontal with a "y" rather than a "t", and they're facing opposite directions, then that's what it could be. Tough to tell what the other two pipes are from your picture. The PVC is a large diameter pipe that sits away from an exterior wall. This rules out sump pit connection since those sit close to the wall. It can be assumed that it ties to the interior drain tile so it might be a floor drain? Not sure what the thin one is but it looks like 1" copper with a fitting on the end? Do you know if the water valve is installed in the yard? Could be water. If you have plans to rough in a 1/2 bath, then judging by the pea gravel that appears to be in, you should see PVC for the toilet and sink sticking up. Ask your builder. You also don't appear to have any stacks for the other floors so plumbing probably still has to come in to lay the basement rough in and start the stacks. They'll also either have to dig under the footing or drill through the basement wall to connect to sewer, depending on your height differential. It's important to find out how high your basement is above street sewer tie in. Judging by the other houses, I'm guessing you'll be high enough and they'll dig under the footing to connect to sewer. Question: What's with the hole to get into the garage? Are you planning storage under the garage and using a precast concrete garage floor?