Traveling during the construction phase?

We were completely relaxed on vacation. The [Bodenplatte] was poured, the house came later.

I reduced my work to 5-10 days a month during the construction phase and my wife had no work obligations. We were often on site to ensure the well-being of our craftsmen and made numerous excursions to select tiles, wall coverings, lights, furniture, bathroom design, switch programs, details, and so on, and to incorporate them in dialogue with the craftsmen.

I think very few people can afford such a luxury.

We certainly can’t :)

But when (in which construction phase) does the well-being of the craftsmen actually begin?

The same joker who already wanted to shift the house? - you notice that yourself, right?

I have to say, we had a follow-up conversation with the general contractor and the site manager. I don’t want to defend the site manager, just point out the fact that the site manager had unfortunately not yet been given the latest status of our construction project during our conversation on site. As I said, I can’t judge to what extent that is true or not, but I did get the feeling during the conversation that it was honest.

Conclusion: go on vacation – but keep someone (godfather, mother-in-law) on standby to replace you during the vacation so that you are available at any time and can pamper the amateurs who would otherwise mess up your construction spectacularly.

That is our main concern, which is why the vacation came up at all. We adults could have “endured” that too.

I will make sure that someone comes to check in now and then, I think that is the best solution!

We were very relaxed on vacation. The foundation slab was poured, the house came later.

That is certainly more relaxed if you know a date :)

We are getting statements about when it could start. We can’t estimate what will happen in the first weeks and whether we need to be here or not.

What else I want to mention is that we are not the clients who want to photograph every single progress.

Honestly: when friends who built showed us their photos, we were more like “aha”... because they photographed every pipe, every wall, or the floor heating layout pattern in all rooms. Maybe some people are interested and look at the pictures afterwards, but that’s not us. Surely a few pictures will be taken, but not a whole story of the construction.

1. Photos serve for documentation
2. craftsmen want to see the builders
3. there is always something to clarify
GU, BL up and down

I was at the construction site twice every day

It depends. There is no general answer to that. I wouldn't necessarily do 3 weeks either. But why not 1.5-2 weeks. Especially since a lot shifts during construction.

So we went on vacation for a week. During the shell construction. But during that time, I was in contact with the site manager from the shell builder and my(!) architect. It’s a strange feeling, but it went smoothly. However, my parents are near the construction site and the neighbor diligently sent photos.

We will travel as usual despite the construction. But I also live a bit further away from the construction site and often work over 50 hours on 6 days; I hardly ever make it to the site before 8 pm anyway. A few weeks of vacation won’t change that, just missing 2 Sunday inspections.

Then there’s also the vacation at the later place of residence: cycling and exploring the area during the day, in the evening going to the construction site and barbecuing ;)

Since we are building in a gap between houses, there’s nothing else to see here or other builders, etc.

The construction site is nothing? Do you want to go on vacation now or later? That can’t be clearly understood.

Honestly: when friends who have built showed us their photos, we were also kind of like "aha"... Because they also photographed every pipe, every wall or the floor heating laying pattern in all rooms.

Honestly: you don’t show those to anyone either, that’s for yourself and documentation. Why are you asking? It’s already decided, isn’t it?