Some people want to be able to add Christmas lights to a mantle, but that should be discussed ahead of time and designed as part of the electrical plan and/or the electrical walk-through with the electrician and your builder.

Is the electrician following a plan? Whose plan? Your custom plan or the builders spec plan?

Chispa, thank you for your kind response. Others here have not been. I did consider the "Christmas light outlet". It's one of the best things about a mantle! I eventually decided against it and will use battery powered.

I'm not sure what plan he's following. Neither are on our plans. Unfortunately we are stuck with a builder who is not accustomed to full custom so it's been a difficult build. Hopefully we can resolve this later today as we have a walk through.

Again, thank you for being kind.

With full custom you should be getting what you want or don't want, and definitely what is shown on the plans. Some trades just place stuff in the easiest spot for them and they should be called out if they aren't following the plans and made to fix/correct at their expense.

Good luck!

There is an electrical plan as part of your architectural documents. Pull those out and go over them or you may get other weird and unpleasant surprises. There should have been a meeting with the electrician to walk the electrical, and to add/subtract/move things around, before the final cost would be known. All changes do have costs associated, so look at what was actually specified on those plans.

Yes, we have electrical plans. Different from the project manager. And his are different from the electrician's. And different from the plumbers, cabinet vendor, etc. This has been a terrible experience. We did have a walk through and these items are not on our plans and weren't mentioned by the electrician. We have one for our basement today and this and a couple of other items will be discussed. To make matters worse, our builder refuses to allow us to see prices on any changes. They think we'll just sign without any knowledge of cost.

You're advice is greatly appreciated.

For the outlet,  it's possible that it is being added to meet code for max outlet spacing.  For our fireplace,  the electricians has to add two outlets,  one on each side of the fireplace.  But it was not in the actual stone itself,  just next to it.  Maybe they are trying to save money by just adding one in the middle. 

For the light switch,  you should be able to specify exactly where you want it if it's a custom home.

Seeing prices will depend on how your contract with the builder is structured.

The builder should definitely include a quote with any change orders. It probably won't show the actual cost from the subs, but a total including your builder fees.

We did a cost plus with percentage fee to our builder. We had no "change orders", we just paid what something cost plus the %. We had an honest and ethical builder, so we could trust that we weren't getting fleeced.

If this is a Cost Plus build, as are most custom builds, you see all of the invoices, and then the builder puts his 30% on top of that. Fixed Fee is most often done with production builds, where there are a lot of restrictions on home plans and material choices in order to meet that fixed price. If this is a Fixed Fee, which would be extremely uncommon with a custom home, you are paying a known end price, and the cost of the individual portions are not part of the information that you are entitled to see. He can put a change order fee, or extra markup, on those changes, and the price is the price. You accept or decline the change. Any electrical changes should be done now though, before the drywall goes up. It's far cheaper when the walls are open.

While you're looking at the electrical plan have you checked the lighting plan? Might want to see how many variations of that there are and who has what if you haven't done so already.

Our designer did both for our build and the contractor accepted it but we will still do a walk through with the electrician, contractor and designer. We only have one plan.

Someone needs to tell you why that is there. I doubt it's very common and it might be following code as mentioned above, but with an imagination those things can be addressed and still pass inspection.

You need a meeting with the GC or site superintendent or whoever is there to supervise this build immediately. You need those meetings on site - weekly.

Discuss what's being done this coming week, ensure proper plans, layouts and documentation is on site and available. Verify that it was done correctly from the last week, and if not, point it out and discuss the fix. Make sure you are all on the same page before ending the meeting

Do this in person, follow up in writing.

This is a big project management exercise and that's what you pay a GC for. Hold them to it.

All I can say is I feel for what you are going through. Our contractors halfway followed our architect's plans. Different trades just did what they felt like. Every step of the way I'm asked what is supposed to happen - read the freaking plans people! I have spent so much time arguing with my GC it makes me sick. You have to be aggressive. Look at the electrical plan with your electrician and ask them to do what is shown there. If there is a problem with the design, ask them to explain what it is. Our architect is an idiot and some of her plans just didn't consider the reality of codes or of the physical limitations of the space.

@Kendra - I could have written your post, especially this comment - Our architect is an idiot and some of her plans just didn't consider the reality of codes or of the physical limitations of the space.

In our case the only person who seems to know what she is doing is the interior designer - she even researches and knows the building codes.

@just_janni - Yes, what she/he said with respect to weekly meetings. We have started to do this after the framers put a wall up and forgot to put the door in the wall. I was going to have to go outside and back in through the garage to get to the laundry room..

@blfenton - Good for your interior designer! Researching building codes isn't rocket science. I've been doing it for six months, tell our GC what the code is and he says I'm wrong. How can people be soooo bad at their jobs and 1. Still be in business and 2. Face themselves in the mirror?

Is the switch for the fireplace? We had a gas fireplace in our previous house which had a switch to turn it on. It was not on the front of the fireplace though.