As for the pictures, that’s a great idea I’d have never thought of. It makes total sense to take advantage of the fact that I actually get to see the guts of my house, but I don’t think I’ve given proper thought to how to best use that. Glad you mentioned it now so I can give some thought as to how to catalog all of that.

1) be VERY sure your builder will allow you to get into the house prior to drywall going up for you to do any wiring yourself. Builders are very paranoid and don’t want homeowners coming on site at all (I’m betting their insurer would not allow it). My builder hated it when we showed up (of course, my builder Quaker Group was the absolute worst company to do business with – so YMMV). In this economy, I’ll bet you can negotiate anything, but be very sure you tell them what you want to do and remind them OVER AND OVER until the day you show up to do the work what you are going to do. And don’t be surprised if they tell you no.

2) Regardless whether your builder will allow you or not, it is a must that you get into your house when it is fully framed, WIRED and WITH PLUMBING, then take as many still pictures as your camera can hold and video as much as you can of the entire house, from attic to basement. I can’t tell you how many times this has saved me when I need to do work on my house since then. “I need to install a ceiling fan – what’s behind this wall? Where’s the wiring go? Where’s the framing? What directions do the beams go? Is there a pipe behind this wall?”… or… “I have a leak stain on my ceiling! Damn! What pipes are up there and where do they lead?”…or…”I need to drill a hole in this wall, there isn’t a sewer PVC pipe behind there is there?”. You get the idea. Make a photo album with all your pictures and/or put every thing on a DVD – I guarantee you will use it, probably more than once.

Regardless, it’s going to be smack in the middle of my fall semester. My students are going to really luck out since my free time will be pretty damn thin