Framing day is the last cheap day of your build. Everything you have not decided by then starts getting more expensive by the week, and some of it becomes impossible. Here are the ten decisions we push to the front of every new construction project.
1. The kitchen layout, to the inch
Island size, sink location, range wall, refrigerator wall and the pantry door. Plumbing and electrical go in the slab and the walls. Move the sink after framing and you are paying a plumber, an electrician and a drywall crew to undo good work.
2. The slab for the island
The stone decides the island. Slab sizes vary by material, and the seam plan, the overhang and the sink cutout all come from the slab you choose. Choose it before the cabinet drawings are final.
3. Hood venting
Where the duct runs, how big it is, and what it does to the cabinet above. A real range needs a real vent, and a real vent needs a path through the framing.
4. Lighting plan
Under cabinet, pendants, sconces, closets, the shower. Every one is a wire in a wall. Decide them with the furniture plan in hand, not after the drywall is up.
5. Freestanding tub location
Floor drain, filler location, the window you look at from the water. This is a plan decision disguised as a shopping decision.
6. Niches and blocking
Shower niches, recessed medicine cabinets, floating vanities, TV mounts, heavy mirrors and wallpaper that needs a smooth wall. All of it needs blocking in the framing.
7. Ceiling treatments
Beams, coffers, a wallpaper ceiling, a plaster hood that rises past the ceiling line. Each changes the framing above it.
8. Closet layouts
Count the shoes. Count the hanging. The closet system decides where the light goes and where the outlets go, and sometimes where the wall goes.
9. Hardware finish, once
Door levers, cabinet pulls, plumbing and lighting all in one finish family. Decide it once and every other selection gets faster.
10. The things you will touch every day
Faucets, pulls, the shower valve, the light switch by the bed. Hold them in your hand in the showroom before you commit. Standard Nº 6: the showroom beats the sample board.
If you have plans, even preliminary ones, bring them in. The earlier we see them, the more of this list we can take off your plate.