I agree. While I would love to have a Nest thermostat it isn’t going to influence me to buy or not buy a house.
Also I think in San Diego or my part of coastal Ca it isn’t necessary. Many of us rarely use our heat or even have AC. I have a programable thermostat that turns the heat on and off at a set time certain days of the week or if the air temp goes below a set temp. The majority of the year I have the thermostat program set to NOT run the program. I don’t need heat or AC. I have AC which is highly unusual living so close to the ocean. I use it a few times of the year. It isn’t likely I would leave for a trip and leave the AC running. What I do have which is great is 2 heating and AC units. Now that the kids are gone I don’t heat that half of my house in our so called winter.
I still think Nest products, assuming they aren’t crazy expensive, will catch the eye of techie people. My DH is gadget happy to say the least. When we built our house in a ‘master planned community’ we had to switch builders because our original builder flip flopped at the last minute on installing Lutron programmable lighting. Still kicking myself we didn’t insist on getting the windows wired for automatic shades! If we were buying a flip this is something we would certainly notice and pay for.
Although I am familiar with the Nest brand name, I don’t see too many programmable houses in the neighborhood. If you look at the comparable sales in the price range, these are not installed. If you look at a brand new contemporary design house (which appeals to the techie buyer), they might be installed.
But I cannot put in any type of programmable front door lock because I am using the original door hardware. I think the best thing to do is put in a code pad on the garage door. If someone gets locked out they can go around and open the garage door and enter the house that way.
We just don’t use our heaters very much, and especially don’t use them much during the day. There are going to be two separate systems in the house, but I can investigate the extra charge (probably $150 each thermostat) for wifi enabled thermostats.
The cost to change all the light switches to some kind of programmable system is not in my budget. These are easily changed by a buyer in the future.
Since I purchased a water heater and circulation pump which can be wifi enabled, I will leave it up to the buyer to set up all the connections. I’m betting there’s some kind of monthly ‘service fee’ to get the connecting app.
And the most important thing I have to consider is that there isn’t any Internet Service in the house right now (all cabling is there for buyer) or wifi router or whatever. There is no way to even figure out if any of this stuff will ever work - unless I try to download everything to my personal phone and set it up.
Frankly, I think you would do much better to put any such $$ into better kitchen appliances or nicer plantings.
@mom60 - the nest thermostat can sense the humidity level in the house and turn on the a/c when necessary.
House will be plumbed for AC, but no AC compressor installed. It’s not an issue because every time we open up the western windows/doors there a full ocean wind tunnel going through the house! In San Diego we don’t need to worry about humidity levels
I heard a massive heat wave is supposed to hit SoCal, with temps approaching 120 degrees!
Be careful out there. Stay hydrated!
That is happening in Phoenix…now.
Highs in San Diego this week…mostly 70’s with one day in the low 80’s.
Honestly, my SIL lives there…and they have nearly perfect weather.
Very hot for June today. High 82 but good ocean breeze. Extreme heat inland
The Zoning supervisor promised they would review the plans today and get back to me with a phone call on whether the Engineer has to come in for a meeting. Or, maybe sign off???
Want to take bets that I will not get any phone call or email at all? And I will have to go back into the City and sit there until I get some answers??? Did I mention that each time I have to go into the Building Department downtown I have to pay $10 to park somewhere!!
I myself do not want to take that bet.
This scenario is why so many people don’t want to pull permits. It isn’t the cost of the permit but the time involved.
It is supposed to be 90 plus today in La Jolla. Stay cool everyone!
@mom60, that’s what I’ve heard from every contractor who has worked on our house. I learned to include permits and passed final inspections in contracts. Our current project is three months behind schedule and the project manager is eager to get us to sign off on it. I just learned that three final inspections have not been done. He clearly did not intend for us to know that and tried to get dh to write the check last week when I wasn’t available. Fortunately, the checkbook was with me.
CB, I hate that this phase of the project has turned into such an ordeal for you. I hope this house ends up being very profitable, despite these set-backs.
^^Noone who gave us a quote for our bathroom reno mentioned permits. One told us no way – too much of a pain and I’d have to pay for them to wait in line. Sorry, I want it permitted for when we sell the place. We would be going down to the studs and running new electrical stuff – I would think that’s enough work to require a permit!
Silpat, you are wise to not pay up til you’re satisfied. And after reading cb’s threads the past couple years, I have no idea what I don’t know when trying to assess workmanship, troubleshooting problems, etc.
Regarding bathroom renovation requiring permits. The only thing in bathroom that would require permits would be removal or move of plumbing inside walls and moving electrical behind walls. Also if you are building a new shower pan. In our City you can go into a regional office and get a’no plan’ plumbing or electrical permit over the counter.
In the grand scheme of things ive never seen a buyer question permits for a bathroom remodel. If you are adding a bath to house and increasing count of bathrooms, then yes
We removed a spa tub with a tile surround and installed a freestanding tub. I can imagine this is a relative popular change these days, and assumed we didn’t need a permit for this. Oh, well.
cb, I’m eager to hear if anything happened today, permit-wise.
You do not need a permit to replace a tub because a bathtub is self contained for leaking. The only technicality would be if you busted open wall and cut copper pipes and routed new copper pipes somewhere else for the tub fixtures. Even if you did, as long as it was tested thouroughly for leaks before closing up walls, no big deal. Future buyer will not ask or care (well, at least in our area)
Well, its now 3:30 and no phone call or email, as promised by Supervisor. They close at 4pm. I guess I will be going to City tomorrow morning again.