No matter how picky your are now, you're going to find more stuff after you close. It is also possible that your builder will try to rush you when you do your walk thru with him.

I would advise taking a couple of very persnickity (sp??) friends with you this weekend and

spend several hours going over each room and making lists of the stuff you find so that, when

you're doing the final walk thru it is actually just a time to point out issues to the builder - not be

looking for them. People seeing the place with fresh eyes will see problems that you noticed

months ago, that your builder promised to fix, but then somehow never got around to doing.

Consider making it a game to see who can find the most things that need fixing. Doing the real

looking prior to the "final walk-thru" will also allow you to present your builder with a nice typed

up list of issues. Keep a copy for yourself and then check issues off as they are corrected.

Otherwise, chances are, half the stuff you point out will never get corrected.

Some things to look at:

Whole House 

_ Turn every light switch on and off. 

_ If you have ceiling fans with multiple speeds, check that they work on every speed. 

_ Test every electrical outlet (both top and bottom as we've actually found that on a number of

outlets in our current house - which was purchased from a previous owner - only one half of the

outlet has power and the other half is dead!) 

_ Open and close every window. If your windows tilt out to clean, check that function on every

window as well. 

_ Open and close every door, interior and exterior. 

_ Check that doors are plumb and square. The crack around a door should be even on all sides

when the door is closed and you should not be able to see light coming from the other side

except at the bottoms of interior doors. 

_ Lock and unlock every lock 

_ Check that walls are plumb, that there are no nail pops and that the paint is even. BTW - nail

pops are where the nails holding sheetrock to the studs back up slightly. You see them as little

round bumps in the paint. You should not be able to tell where the edges of sheetrock panels

are. Nor should you be able to notice any dips or high places in the walls where they taped and

floated the sheetrock. 

_ Check floors. Tiles should have even and straight grout lines; hardwoods should not have

gaps between boards; seams on vinyl flooring should not be noticable; carpet should be tight

and should not show seams; etc. 

_ Check ceilings. You should not be able to tell where the edges of the sheetrock panels are. 

- Take a sprinkler with you and set it so that water falls down against your windows (simulating

rain) and check for leaks on the inside. You should not see ANY water on the inside. (Caution -

don't spray water UPWARD against your windows as you may drive water through the

drainholes, set the spinkler so that water falls downward against the windows.) 

_ Check that smoke detectors are working.

Kitchen/Laundry Room/Pantry- 

_ Check that every appliance is working properly 

* Refrigerator 

* Freezer 

* Dishwasher (run thru a cycle to ensure no leaks and that it actually cleans dishes. We bought

a house once where the dishwasher seemed to work when we tested it but when we actually

tried to wash dishes, they never got clean. It turned out that the water had never been attached

and the little bit of moisture we were seeing was just moisture from the air!) 

* stove top - check every burner 

* oven 

* microwave 

* garbage disposal 

* washer (again, run a cycle to make sure its not leaking and that it doesn't dance around) 

* dryer (run a cycle with some clothes to make sure it doesn't dance. Also, make sure the dry

vent is hooked up!) 

_ Open and close every cabinet and every drawer to make sure they function properly. 

_ Look inside each cabinet and drawer to make sure it is finished properly. 

_ Turn both hot and cold water on at the sink. Fill the sink with water and then, after a while,

check under the sink for evidence of leaking. Check around the sink to make sure that it is

properly sealed to your countertop. 

_ Check the countertop for flaws. Check the edges of countertops especially carefully as these

can easily get chipped or scratched (depending on the type surface) during the building

process.

Bathrooms 

_ Actually step into shower stalls and bathtubs to make sure they feel solid underfoot. Acrylic

tubs and shower bases that "give" underfoot will crack over time. 

_ Run water in every sink and bathtub and make sure they hold water without leaking. (Look

under the sinks for leaks). 

_ Run the showers. 

_ Make sure you get hot water when you turn on a hot water spigot. Try it at every sink, tub,

shower, and in your washing machine. 

_ Run water at several locations at the same time to make sure you have adequate water

pressure. 

_ Check that both heating and air conditioning work. 

_ Test that bathroom fans work. 

_ Flush all toilets several times to make sure they stop running when the tanks refill. (Having a

bunch of friends out for several hours also means your toilets may actually get "field tested" to

make sure they really flush adequately... which not something you are likely to test while doing a

walk thru with your builder!) 

_ Make sure toilets sit solidly and evenly on the floor and are properly bolted down. There

should not be any "rocking" motion when you sit down.

MISCELLANEOUS 

_ If your builder installed blinds or operable shutters (inside or out) make sure they work

properly. 

_ If you have a real fireplace, build a fire in it and make sure the chimney draws properly. If you

have a gas fireplace, make sure it works as advertised. 

_ Check that you OUTDOOR water spigots work. 

_ Check all outdoor electrical outlets as well. These often get over-looked. 

_ Check your garage door openers. Also make sure that, it something is in the way of the door

as it comes down, that the door stops and goes back up. 

_ If you have an attic access ladder, pull it down and make sure it works smoothly. 

_ Climb into the attic and make sure you have the amount of insulation you are supposed to

have. 

- If you're really lucky and it rains while you are checking out your house this weekend, go up

into the attic with a flashlight and look for roof leaks. 

- Take a sprinkler with you and set it so that water falls down against your windows (simulating

rain) and check for leaks on the inside. You should not see any. 

_ Make sure gutters are fully attached to walls and designed to drain water away from your

house. 

_ Check that ground around the house has been graded so that it slopes away from the house.

This is all just "off the top of my head." I'm sure if you think about it you can add dozens of other

things to check for. And, no doubt other posters will chime in with other things to add to your

check list.

Ultimately, you don't have to insist that the builder fix every little tiny thing. If something won't

bother you - or if you can fix it easily yourself and don't mind doing so, point it out to your builder

anyway and, once you've gone over everything you can cross those items off your list as a way

to show you're being reasonable but that the rest of the list IS important to you.

PS - check your contract and see if you allowed to hold back any portion of your final payment

until the check list items are done. (This is called "retainage") If your contract doesn't allow for

retainage, then DON'T accept that the house is finished until ALL the major stuff on your list is

completed. Don't move in and don't close until there is nothing left on your list that you don't

mind doing yourself. Without retainage, once you close you will have zero power to actually get

your builder back to finish up the rest of the items on the check list. If he is a good guy, he'll

probably get around to it eventually but you'll be low on his priority list. Others though, once

they're paid, that is the last you'll see of them. So if you find anything major, tell your builder that

the house is simply NOT ready for the final walk-through yet and he need to do X, Y, and Z and

then you'll reschedule the final walk through.