Hi MsCajunPie, The folks telling you to hurry are misinformed, and the ones telling you it won't matter are accurate. You either won't be able to lock your eventual permanent financing until the project is completed, OR, if you are able to, the rate you can currently lock in will be significantly higher than what you'll eventually be allowed to "float down to" upon completion. Do you have a financial professional guiding you on this, or are you 'winging it' with the retail builders? If you're winging it, I strongly suggest you high-tail it to secure a relationship with a good, competent, trustworthy construction-to-permanent financing specialist. The home will end up however the home ends up... its sexy and fun to pay great attention to the details of the construction.... HOWEVER... The details of the financing are exponentially more critical to your net worth over time. Luck! Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

Both major box stores have policies in place that prohibit giving customers copies of designs or detailed quotes until the kitchen is purchased. That policy gets violated frequently, but they are starting to crack down on it. Too many people take the work elsewhere and they lose the sale. KM is a mid grade cabinet. American Woodmark/Shenendoah is not. It's higher builder grade. The finish quality isn't as smooth and consistent and it lacks sizes and features found in a mid grade line. The Savannah doorstyle in the paint and glaze is the most expensive door in the line, and there are several doors in KM or Diamond/Thomasville that would be cheaper if you could give up some of the detailing. You could have better construction and a better finish simpky by moving to partial overlay door and giving up the glaze. It's dated, even here where trends take forever to reach. A door that is less fussy would stand the test of time better as well. Not shaker though, as that's being overdone. I'd expect cabinets for your room to be in the 10-12K range in a plain paint partial overlay door in a mid grade line. 7-10K in a high builder line. The better hardware and finish is worth paying the difference for. The useless 20% charge to ''upgrade'' to plywood is certainly NOT worth paying for. That money is better spent on moving up to the better line, or a useful upgrade like more drawers. The layout needs tweaking though. It isn't that functional.

We have done 2 DIY kitchen remodels. The first was on a lower scale, but it involved removing a wall, new floors, new cabinets, new counters, new drywall, new recessed lighting, etc...I think it cost us probably $35k. The only thing we hired someone for was to install Cambria Quartz counters. It took about 4-5 months to complete from start to finish. That was while DH and I both worked full-time and we had 2 dogs and 2 cats but NO KIDS. The 2nd remodel only involved recessing a fridge into an existing wall. But DH basically had to remove that wall and rebuild it. We added 2 new windows, new cabinets, new gas stove, new counters, new prep sink, new recessed lighting (old lighting was there but we moved cans and added some new ones). This remodel cost us more like $40k. We splurged on a nice Bluestar range and hood. We kept our old dishwasher and fridge. This remodel started April 2013 with a demo. We had a professional come in to sand and refinish the hardwood flooring. We didnt start installing new cabinets until late July 2013. So from May-June was just working in the kitchen that was down to the studs. We had 2 kids at this point too. I was cooking on a hot plate, microwave and toaster oven from mid April - late August. Awful! We didnt get counters installed until late September. So that makes it about 6 months and there are still tiny little details that need completing. I think your budget is tight for the big items (appliances, cabinets, counters) but you have to remember all of the little things that you will need to run out and buy at the local hardware store or home depot. Those will add hundreds or thousands to your bill. Plus items like faucets, drains, sinks, lighting. Those really add up. And there is no way you will get that all done in 1 week? That is just crazy. I would say you need more like 2 months and thats if you work like crazy. For this latest remodel we hired people to resand and refinish the floors, paid $700 for a guy to come do some drywalling for us, and then paid for the Quartz Countertop installation - Cambria that cost us close to $7k. My kitchen measures something like 16" x 11". Good luck though! I look forward to seeing your progress. I bought alot of things off of ebay (Blanco sinks, Grohe faucets) and that saved me at least $1000.

I'm kinda surprised your lender didn't have an inspector or require one. I'm in a new house, also in a thaw-freeze area, but just over a year ahead of you (year warranty extended because of COVID to minimize people in the house). I have the same problem determining what's important, and it makes me anxious: I don't want anything to get past me, but I also don't want to go into worry-wart mode over something non essential. Apart from technical flaws, there's a separate issue of what is just plain unacceptable. Sloppiness is in this category. I would not caulk or cover or conceal anything until AFTER the one year so you have satisfaction from the builder. Freeze/thaw causes settling, and that can create some alarming-looking cracks. We are just finishing winter, and they may grow or shrink. At any rate, they don't always look the same from one week to the next. Mine aren't too much to irritate me, I do know my builder often has to fill minor cracking during the warranty year. It's normal. While concrete cracking is also normal around here, there are different degrees of it. If your home is on a concrete slab, I'd have an inspector check it. It would definitely be a warranty issue if there's a problem underneath the house. AFAIK there are better or worse conditions to make concrete in, and either some short cuts might have been taken or COVID messed up the build schedule or..... Get it checked. I'd insist they fix the stair "cosmetics" to my satisfaction: those are in the area of completely unacceptable to me, and they're a potential tripping hazard (imagine your toe hitting the edge). There's something definitely wrong with the balcony jury-rig. The "vertical" lines don't all seem to be vertical. For freeze/thaw reasons, builders do use wood shims in this area (though I have no idea if they'd use them in that particular spot), but those shims just look half-baked. ******** While we're doing spring—and we have thaws and rains—there may be some more things to check that may have nothing to do with the build, but are smart to do. I'm sure other folks here can offer some more. A few: -check the dripline from the roof. Make sure water is flowing away from the house. Is there a one-foot margin (pebble, rock, gravel?) around the house to minimize splash? -check all the windows to make sure air didn't leak between the panes -have a good look at the siding. Is it buckling, slipping, etc.? -check water-bearing fixtures (e.g. sinks, toilets, W/D) for any sign of water leakage. -sketch a map of your lot, the house, the trees, everything you see....Take a lot of photos. Then, next winter you'll be in a place to plan landscaping etc. with every season accounted for. Houzzers recommended I wait a year before I made major landscaping decisions, so I could get used to the property. They were so right!