A very, very interesting question!
Changes are sometimes discussed incompletely. The layman doesn’t know which question they should have asked. This can quickly result in a thicker roof.
I have to admit that we also preferred to have things done by others. Only with the floor plan, electricity, etc. were we involved with heart and soul.
The opening for my doors on the upper floor are all too high (2.30 m instead of 2.15 m). Apparently, this can no longer be changed.
We have two similar things regarding doors: for one on the ground floor the plaster at the top “ran out,” so not everything above the frame is plastered. My husband repaired that. When the staircase was installed, a piece of plaster also chipped off in the office... my husband repaired that too.
On the upper floor, one drywall is not even, so that the left door frame has about 5 mm of space and does not sit flush. No one notices it, and if you hadn't asked here, I probably wouldn’t remember it at some point.
A distributor for the underfloor heating was planned incorrectly. It is shown in the plan as 75 cm wide, but the heating engineer needed one 120 cm wide. Instead of being integrated into the wall, the distributor now stands in front of the wall because the wall was already finished and the opening was too small.
In our case, the distributor on the ground floor is in the cloakroom and on the upper floor in the small utility room in front of the wall. And oops... the site manager noticed upstairs that the built-in part was not clad. The drywall installer was just there, so he had to clad it. We were then asked if we could take care of the top surface ourselves. Of course we can. Ultimately, on the ground floor the distributor is a good shelf, upstairs the top is still not done. But our laundry detergent is standing on it, so... whatever.
Now a spacer ring is needed for the cover because the cover now sits well below ground level. We are supposed to pay for the spacer ring because it is supposedly part of the exterior area, which was not ordered. We have the same problem.
We have that too, but didn’t even have to pay for it. Since our garden landscaper wasn’t there yet, our earthwork contractor left us three spacer rings right away. Now our gap wedge sits on the sewer cover, and another ring surrounds a planted tree in our driveway.
What else is there:
- A now very rocky front garden because the construction route had to be laid elsewhere since the distributor line was on the planned driveway.
- An attic with about 2.35 m ceiling height... but the slants make it hardly noticeable. The hallway is open upstairs anyway. There is a window that we can hardly clean from the outside.
- The bathroom window was supposed to be a ribbon window. We didn’t pay attention to the sill height: now it is lower than any normal window. But we do have a nice view when we sit on the toilet.
- Bedroom electricity: we wanted it symmetrically and centered at the bed, of course. But since we had planned a built-in wardrobe on one side, the head wall has an extra 40 cm on one side. The electrician did not know about our plans, and we didn’t check. Now everything is shifted.
- Dining table lamp: our electrician nicely centered it on the window. Great! However, the table was planned diagonally and thus not centered under the patio door. Now we have a 30 cm long little rope swing.
- Heating: first the heating, then the tiler. So there is a metal base for the heating. This also means: no tiles in the back corner.
- Tiles: the tiler siliconed the joints immediately, which have now obviously cracked everywhere. We keep postponing this job year after year.
- Etc...
How tolerant are you with such points?
Yes, very... maybe too tolerant.
But honestly? You hardly notice many things anymore, visitors don’t notice either, and in return, we have a lot that is nice.
We live nicely, we live well. Perfectionism is negative and does not do the soul any good to chase after, unless it concerns your job.
The distributor boxes have their advantages, the bathroom window has its uses, upstairs there is coziness thanks to the ceiling height.
My husband had a stroke two weeks before groundbreaking, which he recovered from well. Without any limitations. Should one have gotten upset about every little thing??? There are definitely worse things than an unevenness in the wall!