Oh cb . . . I thought you were going to say that the Deputy Director Lady gave you three people who solved all your problems, but apparently not. NONE of those people could help you? Such dysfunction!! This is hell!
I thought thre same thing, @VeryHappy . Was she still out there at the desk when the 3 guys blew you off? Did you get her personal cell/email?? There should be some consequence for how they have treated you.
And yes, yes yes @artloversplus !! Totally agree about nest products!! Love my nest products!! Have 2 thermostats and 2 nest protect smoke detectors. I adjust the temp before I get home, and here from my iPad as the a/c is currently blowing too cold (just turned it down from the iPad). If heaven forbid the smoke detector detects carbon monoxide, it tells the thermostat to turn of the heater/burner. Great for managing humidity issues too, such as if you have a beach rental property. Love the nest products. Sorry it’s starting to sound like an ad 
Looks like I will have to invest in the Nest products for this house… I will investigate the costs.
Good news is that we finished opening up the western Living Room wall with shear walls, hold downs, straps, etc. Both french doors are installed and the new window is installed.
I took some pictures with the framing opened up just before new window was installed. As I had hoped… the views are outstanding!! A ray of sunshine in my melt down week
I loaded a couple of photos (there is still plastic on the french door glass which is blurring the views)
No, the Deputy Director returned to the check in desk and the only one of the 3 people she was talking to that came out to the desk was the supervisor. I’m pretty sure that he is really pissed at this point because he probably thinks that I purposely went ‘above his head’. He did not seem happy.
And… while I was there a ‘suit’ came in the front door and started walking around. Someone murmured he was the big dog (Director). I should have leaped up and tackled that guy.
Just looked at the photos. Wow - you weren’t kidding when you said awesome views!
I want to make it clear that everyone else at the City has been wonderful and really helpful. The reviewers from the other departments were prompt and issued comments that were understandable. The structural reviewer was especially helpful trying to find ways that I could eliminate the fire sprinkler requirement.
The issue with the Zoning guy is that he is just really upset, claiming that the designer/draftsman doesn’t know ‘Zoning’, that an engineering firm should not be drawing plans, they didn’t put all the info on the plans that Zoning needs for their review. A portion of that is correct… I don’t think that the draftsman included all the info needed and/or doesn’t exactly know how to draw up stuff in the critical Coastal Zone.
But… the Zoning guy is throwing a fit for no good reason. Our height is 25’ which is way below the 30’ threshold. Our 3rd story addition has limits on the width and depth it can be to the lot. We are way below the thresholds. Our setbacks from the front and back are within the thresholds. Our off street parking handles at least 4 cars which is way above the 2 car requirement (he kept having a fit because we hadn’t ‘drawn’ two cars in the driveway). Our floor area ratio to lot size is 43% which is 1,260 sq ft below the allowable building threshold on the large lot. A 1/2 bath is allowed per building code in a Non Habitable space… but he wasted all kinds of time running around trying to prove that it was ‘unpermitted’. Who cares? it’s allowed with the new permit. But just to get past his anger I removed the basement bathroom.
Here are the issues that he just keeps harping on…
Designer/draftsman needs to show all kinds of nonsense on the plans regarding grade, slope and calculations for the portion of the basement that is ‘exempt’ from floor area calculation. We have no idea why he keeps getting pissed that the plans are not correct. We never asked for the basement to be ‘exempt’, the basement sq ft is included in the floor area. There is no need to show a bunch of delineations on the plans.
He is really pissed that the basement is NOT a basement. What the heck is it? We have no idea what he wants us to do about it. It was 1937 permitted as a basement and he keeps harping that we are trying to make it ‘habitable’ space. There is nothing in the plans that indicate we are trying to make it habitable space.
The other main issue is he keeps crossing everything out on the plans and claiming that it is a 3rd story addition. OK, I get it. The original plans were submitted with everything labeled to a 3rd story addition. BUT, when I went to submit the plans, the lady in submittal (who is the ‘Project Manager’ on paper) reviewed everything and told me that a garage/basement under the house do not count as a floor. She told me to manually change all the labeling on every sheet on the plans (I did a bunch of white out and pen changes right at the counter) and she set up the Scope of Work and description of the project as Second Story Addition. That is why the plans made it to his desk as a 2nd story addition. This last round I changed everything back to 3rd story addition.
I submitted a letter with a full explanation of these two main issues to the Zoning reviewer and an extra copy to his supervisor yesterday, along with a new set of plans changing the dang Floor Area Ratio from 41% to 43% just to make them happy.
So now that you have changed it back to a third floor he will claim that that proves that the basement must be living space. Kafka would be proud. >:)
Spectacular view!
My head is spinning…
Regarding the NEST products, there are about 8 different internet enabled thermomitors on the market that you can control appliances remotely. Price and function varies. NEST is one of the highest priced, the advantage of nest is its learning capability. It will learn how often and when the users are home and adjust temperature according to it.
For those who don’t need that learning function you can save a lot of money. Nevertheless, it’s no longer a $19.99 thermostat from the old days.
I don’t need the learning functionality. Can you recommend other products that are just internet enabled?
Will there be a view deck outside the french doors but the top railing will affect the view?
Nest partnered with Yale locks to make a wifi keyless lock. Here is what else works with nest products https://workswith.nest.com/category/all. Also, it looks like they have a wifi doorbell too that couples with their nestcam camera http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=nest+doorbell&tag=googhydr-20&index=tools&hvadid=72031574227&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=371449783753368840&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=t&ref=pd_sl_3zbqqh8wxr_b
I think some Home Depots had all 8 or 10 of the wifi thermomitors displayed and you can check them out. The HD closest to me did not have them. I’d buy them on line to save money, HD priced them on retail.
What I am really looking for is to acquire a full home automation system that I can control the whole house remotely with ONE interface, that includes heat, cooling, hot water, doors, cameras, alarms, window shades, tvs, garage doors and so on. I am still looking, but I think Bill Gates had done that.
@artloversplus - look at these http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smart-hubs-solution-going-automate-home/ lets not hijack @coralbrook 's thread.
Sounds like Cox home life. Not sure about the garage openers.
Your power goes out… You can’t get into the house. Your Internet is down… A hacker gets a hold of your furnace… As long as there is a reasonable manual override, those products are fine. I would not bend over backwards to install them. The new owners can do that without any issues. They might have a certain preference for the brand, etc.
Dont keyless entry cars have a manual override? Surely this has been addressed.
If it’s not a huge $$ difference I would go with the Nest products because they are heavily advertised, you should look at it like having brand name recognition just as you do for kitchen appliances. It’s one of those little things that I’d personally pay extra for.
I think I saw the keyless entry lock that jym626 mentions on an episode of This Old House earlier this year. I have a Scalage lock on one door that runs on battery that I love, but I thought the wifi enabled door would really be neat for letting a trusted worker into the house or a kid that has lost their key, etc.
Personally, I don’t think that those kind of systems are going to add value on a spec house/ flip. There might be some buyers who will be delighted to have the feature but it is not going to be a make-or-break feature and it is not going to lead to a higher price. And it is not necessarily an expected feature.