Agree with Mark... Nitpicky is the reason for the walk through. Your contractor should appreciate doing the punch list now rather than being called three months from now because the thing you thought you could live with is really bugging you.

Anything and everything from major things wrong to a crooked light switch or door handle.

Following

We put every little thing on the list. In the end most things were fixed but a few things we let go.

I was super nit picky, but at the end of the day, I will be paying for this for a long time so I need to be happy.

Super duper picky and put it in writing.

- Run every faucet to make sure it has adequate pressure. Fill every sink and shower/tub to ensure they drain properly. Our plumbers forgot to take the drain cover off in our shower in one bathroom in another bathroom some construction material got stuck in the pipes and the sink didn't drain properly.

- look at every painted surface's corners and edges in daylight and artificial light for areas needing paint touch-ups

- check that all cabinets are aligned and close properly

- do your bathroom exhaust fans work?

- check that floors are even and level

- are there any scratches on windows or tears in screens?

- some things may not be noticeable until the winter - drafts, windows whistling, etc. Make sure to reserve the right to go back to your contractor after a season of cold/rainy weather

- don't let a contractor talk you into believing that something is right when you know it shouldn't be that way; do some extra digging and call manufacturers or other tradespeople if you need to.

- overall, don't feel bad if you come up with a lengthy list. Ours was 75+ and we are still finding things a few months later. Think of it this way - If you arranged for each of these jobs individually i.e. painting your living room, you would expect (near) perfection so why wouldn't you have the same standards when you had multiple jobs being done at the same time?

A "final walk-through" should be for the purpose of verifying that the work of the punch list has been performed to the owner's satisfaction.

The punch list should have been written weeks earlier based on a list submitted by the contractor and a subsequent inspection of the property by the owner or (preferably) a representative of the owner.

You could call the earlier inspection an "initial walk-through" but "walk-through" is a term borrowed from the real estate industry and implies a visual rather than a thorough hands-on inspection. A better term is "pre-final inspection."

As an architect, I do the initial inspection with the contractor and I write the list and the contractor keeps me informed of the progress of that work. The final walk-through is usually a formality but an important one.

That’s how my house is working. The pre-final walk through created a list. That list should all be completed (might be one or two things that are back ordered). I expect my final to find almost nothing.

Ok, yes, I am asking about the initial walk through, to create the punch list, done before the final walk and officially taking occupancy.

Ask your contractor for his punch list before you do the initial walk-through.