Traveling during the construction phase?

Here in the forum, you probably won't get a representative opinion on the topic. Mainly, the people who are very interested in house construction and have informed themselves about the individual trades during their own house building in order to detect errors early on hang out here. However, those who live further away, have a family, and work full-time simply cannot manage to be on the construction site every day and, ideally, even provide catering for the craftsmen.

I wouldn't mind the follow-up questions, but the objection regarding the correspondence and the invoices to be paid is absolutely justified, and I have completely ignored that so far!

If you are not there for three weeks, you surely have someone who empties your mailbox and waters the plants. You can tell that person to open certain mail and send you photos. Regarding invoices: Apart from the fact that payment can also be made from vacation, you could also contact the main contractor before the vacation and ask if anything might come up in the next few weeks that you need to react to quickly.

I think as a builder you should be on site from the beginning. Even with the not so pleasant things, there are occasionally things to clarify.

A tip from our expert
"Stop by every day, even if you have no idea. Call me if something negative catches your attention. Gut feeling is often right."

The time between pouring the base slab and setting up the house was optimal. Not much happened.
My buddy maybe showed up on the construction site once a week. The house is fine.

Personally, I learned a lot. Especially the foreman during the earth and concrete works explained a lot to me. Of course, not everything runs perfectly and mistakes happen. Neither I, nor my husband, nor the construction manager, nor the foreman noticed that a terrace foundation was missing on the slope. Which is actually good in hindsight, I threw the plan overboard.
There are many small things that come up with workers who think along – also during earthworks. For example with us: "You want a water connection in the garden, right? Should I leave the pipe longer in case you want it behind later? You’re not the first to complain about missing meters. You can always cut it off." Thanks, yes.
Or "Do you want to drain the terrace? It just says 'by the builder'? I can take care of it now ..."
No one picks up the phone for this, it’s settled over a cup of coffee or the after-work beer.

You probably won’t get a representative opinion on the topic here in the forum. Mainly those who are very interested in the topic of house building gather here and have also read up on the various trades involved in their own house construction to detect errors early. However, anyone who lives farther away, has a family, and works full-time simply can’t manage to be at the construction site daily and, ideally, also provide for the craftsmen.

But both work full-time and have a family. Usually someone was at the construction site by 6 a.m., and it often wasn’t until 6 or 7 p.m. that work ended. Coffee and the first conversation before work, the butcher delivered the food and billed me. At the bakery, there was a list which I paid on the weekend. Drinks were always available. Surprisingly little accumulated.

Came together surprisingly little.

Our bricklayers sustained themselves exclusively on Eastern European dance music and their own brought energy drinks. Coffee, water, cake, drinks—they left all of that with us.

Drinks were a few crates at demolition Coffee in quantities Warm food like curry fries, truck and co maybe twice a week sometimes not at all now and then something sweet from the baker so far from full catering

...
I still wanted to be on site from time to time to take a look and take photos. Building is quite an adventure and I wanted to miss as little as possible.
...

Normally, one does not like to leave one's own child with other people for a long time. You want to see it grow. I see it similarly with the house that is being built :)