If at all possible, invest in or get your draughtsperson to invest in 3D walk-through type software so that you can see how the doors, windows, layouts, etc will actually look. We got this ourselves for our second build and added in furniture, lighting and colours to help us see it as it will be when finished.
However, don't imagine that because you have shown your builder, or draughtsperson your image of how the house will look, that they will take it all in or be able to reproduce it faithfully. Being vigilant throughout will still be necessary as otherwise things will fall through the cracks.
If we ever built again, I would take screen shots of each of my 3D rooms from various angles and include these in my specs (with measurements) as a clear record of what we needed.
In our current build we had designed a kitchen with an extra-wide bench-top and sent a screen shot to the builder, but our failure to include measurements resulted in a standard-width top. This we agreed to as we had failed to communicate our requirement well-enough.
With a concrete floor, sewage and waste-water pipes must be installed at the time of laying the floor (before there are walls to check placement by). We suffered 2 problems with this - a very off-centre toilet waste pipe in our toilet (thankfully an adaptor more or less fixed the problem), and piping for our extractor fan beside the stove taking 2 extra turns to meet the pipe coming out of the floor. The latter issue is yet to be resolved...watch this space!
Other issues we have had with paper vs 3D plans include:
Roof truss designed to cross the roof at exactly the same point as the log-burner flue;
Size and shape of rooms seeming fine on paper, suddenly too large, too small, or awkward shapes when seen in reality;
Location of items such as pictures, TV and stereo not considered in terms of windows, placement of lounge furniture, etc.
Every hour you spend in planning is worthwhile, but I would recommend keeping a paper-trail of your plans and discussions, or even audio recording them so that there is no doubt about what has been agreed on.
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