<p>Sounds a lot like a third world country’s bureaucracy!..</p>
<p>If it was a third world country, we’d be hearing about how many $000’s cb is spending on bribes and kickbacks. And it would probably be all done by now.</p>
<p>Definite progress! </p>
<p>If the structural engineer concludes that adding the french doors in the manner currently contemplated would render the building structurally unsound, then it is probably a GOOD thing that the structural engineer got involved! Right? Or am I missing something?</p>
<p>Are you going to be able to keep the deck off of the kitchen and dining room? That deck-with-a-view will be a key selling point!</p>
<p>How many square feet will the house now be with the utility room/bathroom and laundry room addition? I really think you will get a very good return on your money for that extra bathroom and space! </p>
<p>Ah, now I understand. I missed the crediting back to your credit card part.</p>
<p>It really does sound like things are finally moving forward, fairly quickly. Fingers crossed that the remainder of all this happens quickly too.</p>
<p>The laundry room addition of measly 37sq ft and front porch at 82 sw ft (because I’m making area smaller by adding new landing at top of stairs and recessing front door will be total addition of 120 sq ft. New sq ft is will be 1140 sq ft. My realtor is insisting she will add the 160 sq ft of back building because its permitted " although not technically liveable space. So I think she will advertise as 1300 sq ft</p>
<p>She visited today and was very optimistic about selling somewhere over $800k. I don’t know how she can see all that in the giant mess we have right now.</p>
<p>Because she’s seen it before and knows what it will look like in compairision to the other properties.</p>
<p>BUDGET UPDATE</p>
<p>Ouch Ouch Ouch</p>
<p>We are shut down as of last night. I cannot pay everyone to keep fiddling around with drainage, fences and gates. It doesn’t make any sense to try to do our landscaping right now because it will just get trompled with the construction, painters and stucco guys. Long discussion about maybe painting the exterior but we still have stuccd to be cut out for windows and doors so we would be painting twice - would need painting after all the stucco repairs again. Also, doesn’t really make sense to have everything painted nice and then tear off the roof with a large amount of dirt and debris coming down everywhere. </p>
<p>SPENT TO DATE: $77,500 and I feel like I have nothing really to show for it (well, except for A LOT of expensive stuff sitting inside and in garage waiting to get installed.) </p>
<p>Based on the final plans we are going to have to re-route some plumbing air vents to open up the door to the courtyard. We are going to have to close up the wall, I have to try to return the door already purchased. But, most importantly it sounds like the structural engineer is going to make us do some really crazy stuff. In order to save the French door out to courtyard I probably am going to have to install some special steel ‘shear walls’ made by only one company (with some long lead time probably). I am guessing cost for that will be about $1,000, not to mention tearing off exterior stucco and interior plaster and then repairing again. </p>
<p>Now he is talking about taking down some of the original roof framing structure and over engineering with some giant plywood panels. For heaven’s sake, this house has been standing absolutely solid for 80 years. That’s at least another $2,000. </p>
<p>It just keeps going on and on</p>
<p>PERMIT COST TO DATE (inside above nbr) $6,700 and I expect maybe another $1,700 before it’s all done</p>
<p>ESTIMATE TO COMPLETE: $40,000 more still. </p>
<p>So, now I’m up to $117,000 for renovation, permits and services. This is $30,000 more than my original budget, of which $8,500 can be attributed to permits and services</p>
<p>Right now my ‘break even’ for this property will be $730,000 with everything included</p>
<p>Ouch!!! Does that breakeven point include the realtor’s fee?</p>
<p>Yes, it includes all costs, including selling transaction costs. So, it’s a little flexible depending on what the final sale price is.</p>
<p>I see, it would be give or take a few thousand. Not a small amount by any means, but in the grand scheme of things… Fingers crossed that the realtor knows the market so that price she “quoted” would sell the house quickly with a bidding war! Doubly crossed that the permitting woes are going to be over soon.</p>
<p>How about taking your thoughts off the bad stuff and start thinking about the remaining finishing touches? :)</p>
<p>I got all of the structural engineering plan updates, calculations and specifications this morning. Of course I don’t understand half of what I am looking at. Most of the notes are CYA by the engineer. I sent him some simple questions and this is the bottom line:</p>
<p>Looks like I have to put some fancy shear wall stuff into the main bathroom wall - OK
Get to keep the French door out to courtyard but I have to special order something called a Simpson Strong Wall and it will take a week to get it. Then I have to tear out interior plaster and exterior stucco to get this thing installed - YIKES
Only minimal changes to the Utility Room roof structure that is already built, RELIEF</p>
<p>But the key thing I am seeing in all these documents is that he is calling for a ‘special inspection’ of the foundation rebar and tie-ins to the existing foundation. First, the foundation is already poured and some special inspector isn’t going to be able to look at anything. Second, this is only a 37 sf addition for heaven’s sake!!! I pulled permits for full room additions and I didn’t have to have a ‘special inspection’. Third, a ‘special inspection’ has to be performed by some 3rd party (not the City) and it will cost $$$$. RIDICULOUS</p>
<p>Today I get to spend my day driving 40 minutes to Structural Engineer’s house to pick up the redlined plans. Then I have to drive them another 30 minutes over to the draftsman’s house so he can work on this stuff on Monday. And then of course I will have to wait for pdf files to be sent to me, go get them printed somewhere and drive paper copies back to structural engineer (who has day job) who has to ‘stamp’ the final documents. All before I can go back into City and try to get final approval.</p>
<p>Perhaps a second opinion is in order? Could you show the structural engineer’s recommendations to your contractor/ mentor to get an off-the-cuff assessment as to whether the advice is out of line? If so, you could then seek a more practical opinion. And if your mentor thinks the advice is consistent with what he’s seen in the past, well, then, it’s probably just the reality of the situation, despite being enormously frustrating. </p>
<p>cb, when you are ready to sell, IMO one of the selling points should be that the entire house is up-to-date, permitted, inspected and approved by the City, so that any changes a buyer wants to make in the future should go smoothly. No one will have to go backwards doing all the research and getting approvals that you’ve had to do. At least get some mileage out of what you’ve been forced to do. Many buyers won’t care, but for some buyers, it might make a difference between buying your house and buying a different house.</p>
<p>PERMIT UPDATE</p>
<p>This is starting to get mind numbing. I am only sharing all this so that everyone understands why I try to avoid this and you can get the reality of these projects, as compared to the TV shows.</p>
<p>Go into the City this morning to try to get the Planning final approval onto my plans. This is one of the last two, I’m still waiting for the structural design to go around in circles before I can bring back into the City. </p>
<p>I spent all morning sending emails and calling into the City to try to get an appointment with Planning guy to do the final review of his requested corrections. His only correction was that I needed to do calculations of all exterior wall modifications or openings because I am in the ‘Coastal Zone’. If you tear off more than 50% of exterior walls then you have to get some kind of special Coastal Permit. It was very clear on the plans where there were minor modifications - 2 windows are getting enlarged and one new French door being punched in exterior wall. But No… you have to put some kind of special exterior wall modification matrix with calculations onto the plans. OK, did that.</p>
<p>The only answer I could get from the City was that I had to bring the plans in and wait in line for a Planning Review at the counter. So, go back downtown and wait 15 minutes in the Check In line. Then I wait 40 minutes for the Planning Review counter to call my name. Get all excited and then the guy tells me he cannot review over the counter because the original Reviewer marked down that the plans have to be re-submitted. This means they go into a black hole somewhere and I wait 5-10 business days before approval. Then he proceeds to tell me that he cannot ‘receive’ them at that desk, I have to be routed to another area for ‘submittal’.</p>
<p>So, I go to the other area and wait in line for another 45 minutes. Then the receptionist calls my name to go up and check that I have all the paperwork in order so that I can wait another hour or so. Luckily the receptionist said they could ‘submit’ the plans back into the black hole. I asked why I could not just take the plans directly to the Reviewer’s desk on another floor. No, it has to go into the computer, get bar coded and then get routed around. The reviewer might get the plans onto his desk tomorrow sometime. At that point I almost just started crying, but I submit the plans into the black hole.</p>
<p>As I am exiting the building, for some crazy reason the original Planning Reviewer calls my phone and luckily, I answer it. I have no idea how he knew I was in the building - guessing the original Planning desk guy called him up and told him there was a crazy homeowner lady looking for him. He proceeds to tell me that he cannot even begin to look at the plans until next week, but he said if I could go back and get them back from the receptionist I could bring them to his desk directly. I RAN over to the receptionist and they were nice enough to give the plans back to me and delete the ‘routing’ out of the system and I got those plans upstairs directly into his hands.</p>
<p>We will see how long the review and approval takes at this point.</p>
<p>Oy. Just – oy.</p>
<p>Yes, my real estate agent (who is the eternal optimist) keeps telling me “it will all be worth it, buyers will pay more to know that everything is permitted and you have a legal 2nd bathroom”. I cannot imagine that they want to pay an extra $20,000 for that luxury. Which is about what it is all going to cost me in the end. Of course, I am the eternal pessimist 
</p>
<p>I prescribe Manhattans. </p>
<p>Wow, what a nightmare. I’ve said this before but maybe it will help to hear it again just about now: I just bought a new house and would not consider any place that wasn’t properly permitted. I live in another beach town in Southern Cal, so I am familiar with the market and the fact that there are many houses with unpermitted additions out there. I’m just too risk averse to have the issue hanging over my head. So I can verify that at least some buyers are willing to pay substantially more for a properly permitted renovation! </p>
<p>(I found a place I LOVED but when I found out there were unpermitted renovations I walked away. It is a gorgeous place, still on the market months later even though it is priced under market. So I can’t be the only person who cares about this!)</p>
<p>Nottelling, let’s hope you are right and the right buyer comes along that cares about all these shear walls, foundation inspections, simpson straps under the covers everywhere, etc. Nothing will be visible to the naked eye, it is all under the covers. My experience is that buyers just care about the finishes that they can see.</p>