I'm currently building in upstate SC, and we have a walk-out basement. Due to the slope of the land, we would have wound up with a very tall crawlspace, so a basement made sense. Might as well have usable space! Properly built, basements should NOT be wet! Unless you build in the path of an underground stream, the basement should be dry if it is built right. There should be a perimeter drain system to collect water and conduct it to a sump pump or down hill. In addition to waterproofing, you want a drainage plane (usually referred to as dimple board). Backfilling should be mostly gravel except for at the surface. Add to that properly sloping of the ground around the house, and a good gutter system, and you can have a good, usable basement. If you have a good slope, you should be able to have a walk-out basement, which is kind of halfway between a basement and a ground floor. I love having a basement. A suspended wood floor is much easier on your knees and back than a slab. Accessibility to plumbing and other utilities and mechanicals is a big plus. Around here, there have been a lot of frozen pipes lately in uninsulated crawlspaces. A basement will stay above freezing if it is properly sealed up. It's also cheap square footage should you ever want to convert it to living space.

Honestly, you can get more finishes than you think from the outset if you're willing to put in the time, creativity and legwork. Are you at all handy? We are far from DIY experts and did quite a bit in our first home including installing dentil crown in our living room, changing out lighting and ceiling fans, painting several rooms, painting the walls and floor of the garage and sealing the cracks, and installing beadboard and chair rails in two of the bedrooms. We also shortened some IKEA Billy bookcases so they fit perfectly on a wall in our sitting room. Everyone who saw them thought they were built-in. Just by doing those simple DIY projects ourselves we saved thousands of dollars. Become familiar with when different stores and websites have their major sales and buy things then in advance instead of waiting until you need them. A friend of mine has a master spreadsheet of everything she needs for her build along with dimensions, budget for each and photos of the look she's going for. She cleaned out her attic and garage to store her purchases. Each week she makes the rounds at the local ReStore, Sears Scratch and Dent and other places. She's gotten to know the salespeople so well that some of them will alert her when sales are about to occur or when something comes in that she might like. For example, when the annual Elfa sale occurred she ordered all of her pantry and master closet shelving because she had already designed them online. When IKEA had their kitchen sale she bought cabinets for her laundry room. She found the perfect sideboard to convert into a guest room vanity at a church rummage sale. She can barely still get her car in the garage but her builder is shocked by how much under her allowances she is so far even though she's thus far gotten everything she wanted.

Honestly I think what you'll be doing is like jannicone and sophie said, over improving for your neighborhood. I don't have a good feeling about what you're getting into with what you want to upgrade. As Sophie mentioned your neighborhood is $400k houses and that's about where you want to stay. Even if you put in an expensive kitchen, it won't appraise for what you invest in it. The appraisals will come in at what the builder basic is. This is not by any means a custom house. It's a development or tract house. The builder is giving you a number of choices and as jannicone said, if you upgrade you'll pay through the nose. As she said, if you decide to go with your appliances, you'll get maybe a credit of $500-$1000 if that. Same if you upgrade anything else. Like I said earlier, it's how tract builders make their money. If you can find a house you like that works pretty much as is, I say go ahead and buy it, but don't go upgrading. It's not worth it. Or if you do upgrade, do it for things that are important such as heating and cooling. Let's take your list and explain: Blueprint Review with Builder Um you said you haven't met the builder Framing Inspection with Builder ditto Full limited Warranty Coverage What does that mean? 24-hour Plumbing & HVAC Service What kind of plumbing and HVAC service? Distinctive Kitchen Features Schrock Oak/Maple front These cabinets are probably one step above Ikea cabinets, although personally I'd probably prefer Ikea. Plus I'd prefer to design a kitchen the way I need it. My guess is if you want to change anything you'll pay a fortune for it. Cabinets w/Dove Tail, Self-Close Do they have soft close drawers or just soft close? Are they full extension drawers? Are they Blum hardware? Granite countertop with 4” Backsplash I'm guessing you are getting a bunch of level 1 granite choices most of which will be ugly. Level 1 granite nowadays is almost considered builder basic. Plus nothing about backsplashes. The 4" backsplash is only done in tract homes nowadays. Double-bowl 8” Stainless Steel Undermount Sink What brand? What gauge steel? What double bowl configuration? Delta 470 single lever faucet Not to be rude but this faucet looks like what my Mother had in her kitchen back in the 70's. Recessed Light over kitchen sink What about recessed lights in the rest of the kitchen? Over the stove, countertops, the island? What about under counter lighting? Let me guess. All are upgrades. Frigidaire FGEF3041KF Smoothtop Electric Range- S/S, Did you know this range is discontinued? And that's what he's putting in all the houses? Granted you want to upgrade to a Wolf, but this range that he has sold for under $1000. You are upgrading to something that is over 5x the price of this range, including adding gas. It's overkill for the neighborhood. A better choice to upgrade would be to go with a GE or a Bosch if you must upgrade. I am building in an area where the houses are in the high 6, low 7 figure range, and I'm not putting in a Wolf! (I'm using Bosch) Frigidaire FGMV174KF Microhood (Non-vented)- S/SFrigidaire FGBD2432KF Dishwasher-SS Both of these are also discontinued. Frigidaire FFHS2622MS Side-by- Side Refrigerator- S/S This is basically one step above an entry level Fridge. Elegant Bath Features Schrock Oak/Maple Front Cabinets w/Dove Tail, Self-Close See comments from kitchen. Ceramic Tile Bathroom Floors Porcelain is better in a bathroom Clarion Acrylic Shower/tub In other words, your tub will have a one piece acrylic surround and not be tiled. One-piece Marbleized Vanity Top We used to call them cultured marble in the 70's. Kohler ‘Wellworth’ Commode Delta 2538 Double-lever Faucets Vanity Mirror Delta Chrome Bathroom Accessories Exhaust Fans – Per Code Kohler Pedestal Sink in Half Bath Final Touch Interior Finishes Bruce Dundee 2 ¼” Hardwood Flooring in Foyer, Dining Room, Kitchen and Kitchen Nook Area Bruce Flooring is HD quality. Superior Gas Fireplace Is this a vented or unvented fireplace. Hopefully it's not unvented. (do some research) Colonial Painted Woodwork What does that mean? What size are the moldings? Crown moldings? Baseboards? What? Smooth Finish Walls and Ceilings What level smooth? Sherwin Williams ‘Dover White’ Paint throughout Living Space Sherwin Williams like all paint manufacturers makes quality paint and builder's special which is garbage. Which is he using? 6-panel Masonite Interior Doors Are they solid core doors or I'm guessing they're hollow core doors Closet Maid Shelving System Also available in HD Solid Exterior Features Viewpoint Slider – Per Plan .Viewpoint Low ‘E’ Vinyl Windows Viewpoint are considered a lower quality window and slider. Near the bottom. Windows and doors really are so important Energy Efficiency & Comfort Central Air by Lennox Lennox Gas Furnace-up to 95% Which ones? All furnace and AC companies have different grades, from bottom to top. R-21 Fiberglass Side Wall Insulation R-38 Fiberglass Ceiling Insulation I agree with Sophie that this is probably minimum insulation and again you need to really check things out. Also what will be the insulation for the basement, the attic, etc. Pressure Balancing Shower Valves Personally I would want only a thermostatic shower valve, especially in your neck of the woods. Do research. The rest is out of my wheelhouse so I'll leave it to others. I can tell you that my specification sheet before I got my final bid was even a lot more specific than what you got.

It is a Toll Brother's house. So I suppose one could call it a tract home. There's a lot of customization they allow for, in addition to all the different options they already have available. Not quite your no substitution Chinese menu. :-) And we were invited to basically go by the site daily if we wanted to monitor the construction. But I'm also new to this, so major things like missing outlets, or a standard outlet vs the outlet we paid for I catch. Other things I appreciate advice on knowing whether it is an issue, something not to worry about, etc. We don't own the land. We picked a lot, and one of the available floor plans, then made changes that we wanted to the floor plan, picked finishes, flooring, paint, electrical, etc. I don't think I have a photo of the master bathroom tile that shows them being offset slightly from the grid. And from a distance, I probably isn't noticeable. The face plates on the outlets I suppose depends on the persons eye. I noticed it, but it doesn't appear to be off enough that a bubble on a level would not be "centered". So as mentioned those items probably not worth dying on a hill over. Maybe not even worth mentioning. I do have pictures of the asymmetrical outlets. That one may be a hill worth dying on for my wife and me. The first photo would be the "East" wall or one on the left and the second photo is the "West" or right side. Someone else pointed out I should check the fuse box to see if we ended up with GFI circuit breakers, since as far as I remember, there is not a single GFI outlet in the house. As for the 3x3 grid of lights, without getting up there with a tape measure, not sure a picture would do any good. Could just be an optical illusion. Anyway, I appreciate everyone's input so far. Thank you.