Even better, take a slow moving video. Pictures are VERY hard to place, as one stud bay looks much like the rest. A video will always give you understanding of locations.

If you’re constructing your own home and not doing spray foam, I’d recommend leaving lower half of walls as decretive wood paneling that’s screwed up. Have the bulk of of piping and wiring run in this zone within code. Much easier for future projects. Also easier to find studs.

Your husband wasted a lot of time.

So you want that $100 in one big bill or 4 $20 dollar bills?

You can do them yourself, an Iphone with Lidar (12 Pro and up i think) and Polycam is all ypu need.

You'd also need to standardize or at least have paper copies of the plans, especially for residential use. Software generally has a notoriously short shelf life, and while some businesses or governments might be willing/able to transition from one digital plan program to another when standards inevitably change, I doubt that most homeowners would do the same.

Imagine having your house's blueprints saved to a floppy disk in a proprietary format only used by a Windows 95 program published by a company that went out of business in 2003.

My father built a house for my mother and documented everything, pictures included. Makes repairs, maintenance and renovations a breeze.

I trust that my car is going to get me from point A to point B.

Doesn't mean I don't still take it in for routine inspection.

I trust that my doctor isn't giving me bogus advice.

I still get a second opinion before getting a surgery.

>Maybe in todays digital world they are available but there’s nothing for the old buildings.

Again, I literally have a print from a 100 year old factory behind my desk, which I sourced from my municipalities building department.

As I mentioned, I couldn't submit digitally for years specifically because they needed a paper copy for record.

In my experience if a permit was pulled for construction and municipality is organized they have a copy and can generally find it. Bigger cities stored it on microfilm. Of course some cities are shit shows and not organized at all. In my current jurisdiction the government responsible for planning items is the county, but for building items its the Town. One of the factories I renovated the fire department had copies of plans, the factory was old enough to predate the building department but not the fire department. Barking up the correct tree is half the battle.

Oh man, my dad video taped (vhs) our house's innards years ago. He was so proud of his clever idea.

Tell me you're American without telling me you're American.

This is if you are allowed on site. Very few builders (large scale developments) will allow you on site, especially in a home during construction. Big liability issues if someone were to be injured who is on site and who does not work for the builder. In addition to that, builders typically don't want unwanted or unwarranted questions from people who don't understand construction methodologies or practices.

If you are the General Contractor and building your own house the above advice is great.

Also, give the workers beer or food, I'm sure that will help with the small details and finishing

(I wouldn't know, I don't own a home, but it's probably good advice)

You think a house is only "slightly" more complex than 4 walls and a roof?

Badly damaged or missing shingles. Gaps, gaps, gaps caused by shrinking/swelling cycles around chimneys, vent pipes, etc. Anything that looks at all suspicious for letting water pass though gets silicone or blackjack from me. In spring and fall, we can have extended rainy periods where I live, so I error on the side of caution. It's a good chance to review the overall condition of the roof, too since replacing it is a major expense.

I suppose it depends on the city or county. I worked doing due diligence for real estate transactions throughout California for over 20 years and the best I could ever find were simple site plans and maybe an elevation. No structural plans were ever saved. Maybe in todays digital world they are available but there’s nothing for the old buildings.

I could not disagree with this advice more. I moved away from the city I was born and hated it for the first few months because I had no friends. I eventually made friends and settled in, I consider moving to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I started a new job two years ago and I was incompetent for the first few months. One of my peers I worked closely with (we are around the same age) was very hard to deal with at first, I had no clue how to joke around with him or really even just interact with him in a positive way, I now consider him one of my closest friends.

There’s a learning curve and adjustment period to anything new you will encounter, whether it’s people or a major life change. Just because it feels crappy or uncomfortable at first doesn’t mean it will always be that way. There’s obviously blatant exceptions to this if you are meeting a truly terrible person or starting an awful job where your direct superior is screaming at you during your first week, ect… But just because you had a bad week or interaction with doesn’t mean that’s how it’s going to be forever. Basing any major decision you make off of such a small sample size seems significantly more risky.

Agreed, this post is so bad I had to comment.

Go try something different. It’ll suck then you will figure it out.

There are likely construction drawings for any new construction. What there aren't and you probably want is asbuilt drawings showing any changes that happened. Those require each sub elec, hvac, plumbers, framers to keep red lines to give back to the engineer or architect and some one to then make all the corrections.

Not uncommon on large commercial jobs, would cost more than the average person would want to spend in residential construction. Also asbuilts usually aren't perfect even after all the time and money spent on them.

Styrofoam

Incorrectly wired first outlet and likely easily fixed. Call in an electrician and they’ll fix it pretty quick.

This is a better idea than the banker’s box I have with all that paperwork just crammed in. Previous owner of my house was a bit of a donkey, so guess I should be glad they had any docs at all, as literally every renovation project I’ve started since purchase has uncovered something wonky and half assed.

That is absolutey the worst advice I have ever heard. Firstly everyone and every situation is totally different. Secondly you could have a shitty week for thousand of reasons, it doesn't mean things won't change drastically. Thirdly, advising people that giving up after one week in any situation is a good life tip is completey the reverse. If you give up things before you have barely tried you will have a crap life where you just don't bother. This really is some crap advice.

Also, make sure that you have outdoor outlets on all sides of your house.

I did this. I have videos and pictures. I’ve actually used them a few times.