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From the contract date, there are normally 6 months put into the contract to build the home.  There may be a need for more time on larger homes.  During the first 6 weeks or so, it will appear that nothing is happening, although there is a lot going on internally in our company.  When the contract is written, we begin redrawing the plans to be correct for the structural options in your house.  However, the drawing cannot be completed until you have visited the design center, made your standard color selections and picked any options or upgrades you may want.  Many options must be shown on the plans.  The Design center meeting must be done and finalized before the plans can be completed and the process to start your house continues.  To stay on schedule, these selections need to be complete, with no outstanding items, by the end of 4 weeks.

Once this is done, we complete the plans and begin the process of writing the purchase orders to buy what we need to build a home.  Permits and fees are paid during this period.  A technical specification is created.  We also have surveyors locate the house on the lot to help minimize errors.  After the plan is drawn, selections made and the survey done; any architectural submittals are made.  When a house is sold, we slot time during the 5th and 6th week to create all the purchase orders and documents that are needed for construction to build the home. If we have the paperwork back to create the purchase orders by the end of the 4th week, then the start package is usually given to the Construction Department at the end of the 6th week.  It is important to get the selections done by the end of the 4th week or the P&E Department will have to reschedule the time to create the start documents for your house.

Depending on the number of starts in the neighborhood, Construction will schedule the start as soon as it has an opening.  Normally, that is within a few weeks.  The construction process usually takes 16 -18 weeks, if no changes are made.  When changes are made, or requested, it adds time to the house construction.  This is because we have to call everybody up and stop items that are ordered or work that is scheduled.  Then we have to reschedule all the work.  It can take several weeks to get a house moving on a regular schedule again.  Because of the scheduling issues and problems occurring in stopping materials that are ordered there are cut off dates to make changes.

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