biggerboat's building boondoggle blog
I started this in H&F but this seems a better place for it. These are my H&F posts. A bit long-winded but hopefully entertaining. I'm sure more hilarity will ensue.
I've been debating about doing this, and I sort of thought it might qualify as health and/or fitness so I'm gonna do it.
A little background. I have a very old house that I started to remodel about 10 years ago, then ran out of money and WIM to finish it. I gutted it completely and moved walls and did a lot of interior work. But I never did anything with the exterior.
It is sort of falling apart now. The roof leaks and a lot of the wood siding is so rotten I can stick my finger through it. It needs to be completely replaced.
I just paid the house off so I can sort of afford to completely re-side and re-roof it..............if I do it myself. Another factor is I just got out of a serious relationship and now I have way too much time on my hands. I'm going a little stir crazy.
Now to the health tie-in. The last few years I just haven't been able to do things like this. I used to be able to work sunrise to sundown. But lately I'd be good for about 2 or 3 hours and my back would just tell me to stop. However, due to this forum, my back is really feeling strong again. I think I'm up for the challenge. The other health aspect is mental. I don't feel good unless I have some sort of challenge like this. It gives me something to look forward to. I'm really needing something like this about now.
So, I think I'll sort of log this activity as well as lifting. I'll have to cut back on lifting/running some. Mostly due to time considerations. I'll be working on the house on Saturday/Sunday so no lifting/running on those days.
I haven't committed to this quite yet, but I think I'm close.
On the house front. I went to the city website to see what permits I'll need. It was so confusing that I called, got an answering machine, and never got a call back. So, I went down to city hall to ask some very basic questions. Apparently the appropriate question answerers are only there MWF but a substitute question answerer was available. So, after waiting 1/2 hour the substitute question answerer informed me that he couldn't really answer my question so he told me to come back when the real question answerer was there.
I suspect this will not be healthy in any way.
I tweaked my back Wednesday doing deadlifts.
The back pain has nothing on the pain the city is inflicting on me, though.
Went back to talk to someone again. I at least got the right day. The girl was really friendly and helpful. However, she seemed to not really know what all I was supposed to do. Which, as you will see, nobody could.
The first thing she did was pull up my address.
Apparently, there were 3 expired permits associated with my house. About 10 (or more) years ago, I did a big remodel. I did it mostly myself. The first permit was for an interior remodel. I had to get electrical, plumbing, framing and probably more permits. I remember having each one signed off on. However, apparently there was a final inspection that I never got. This is just conjecture based on what she said and my hazy memory. The second was for a garage. I hired a contractor to pour the slab and I framed and finished it. Apparently the slab inspection failed but the framing inspection passed. I'm not sure how this happens. I really don't recall any of this. The third one was for a bedroom addition. I never did this. I do not recall even applying for this. But, it is there. More on this later.
So I asked a lot of questions and the girl was very polite when she had to repeatedly excuse herself to ask someone else that knew the answers. From what I gathered I can do most of the work on something they call an express permit. However, if I want add a small porch roof I will need site drawings, impervious cover documents, elevation drawings, detailed framing plans and flood plain people approval. At minimum.
Back to the old permits. The girl indicated that I could fill out a form to remove the permit for the addition since I never did it. She then sent me to someone named Tony on another floor to figure out what to do with the other ones. Tony, it seems, did not have his coffee this morning. Either that or he was just an *******. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He told me they couldn't do anything about any of them since he had no idea if I even did any work or not. Which is problematic since I can't get any new permits with these on their computer. After much discussion he agreed to go back downstairs and talk to the friendly girl. Tony then came up and informed me that I needed a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit. He informed me that I needed to go back where I started (the line that I waited over an hour in) to start this process.
So, I go back to the window and explain to them what Tony said. They seemed a bit confused on exactly what a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit was. So, they suggested that what I really need to do is re-submit all three permits and get inspections on the work I did over 10 years ago. Even if I didn't do the work. They then put my name in the computer to talk to someone. However, the number of people waiting had swelled considerably and I had already been there 2 1/2 hours so I think I'll tackle this another day.
keep plugging away boat
sounds like there isn't time for perfect, so do what you think is best at that particular moment and move on to the next decision
sometimes life levies an unexpected tax that wasn't on our radar
keep plugging away boat
sounds like there isn't time for perfect, so do what you think is best at that particular moment and move on to the next decision
sometimes life levies an unexpected tax that wasn't on our radar
Thanks.
Speaking of unexpected tax, there will be a day of reckoning with the city.
I found out AFTER we put the drywall and bathroom cabinets and doors in that the city requires you pull a permit for both of those. I've been around a while and owned several houses and never heard of this. I've also heard that even paint requires a permit.
I suspect that this is fema related and they want to make sure the 49% rule is being followed. Fema dictates that if you have damage exceeding 49% of the house value (not including land) that you must either raise your house or rebuild. We are nowhere near this figure so that isn't an issue.
But, I'm hearing all sorts of rumors about the consequences of not pulling permits for this. I've heard anything from getting fined to requiring you pull out everything you did, get a permit, then put it back.
I'm not sure they even have the manpower to deal with this right now. I keep hearing that if you don't get in line at the permit office by 10:00 Am they just send you home.
The whole thing is a massive bureaucratic cluster. I have no doubt this will come back to bite me and my guess is I'll have to hire a lawyer to sort it all out.
if you're comfortable with it, PM me the local jurisdiction and let me do a little poking around. there is no reason to need a permit for paint, unless you're abating old lead paint. casework and replacing doors are also very odd.
Trying to get a granite installer. Didn't think it would be so hard. There's a lot of them around.
First one I tried, I went into the showroom and nobody was there. I stood there for a while when a guy came in, but he didn't speak english so he didn't seem to realize I was waiting for some help. Stood there a while later when a girl finally showed up who said she couldn't help me but she would take my info and someone would get back with me. Four days later I got a text from a guy. We conversed via text for a bit and he gave me a rough estimate but I needed to go in and check out the stone they had. Went in the next day and there were several salespeople but each one said I needed to talk to Javier. Javier finally showed up but I couldn't pin him down on much of anything.
I contacted a few places via phone and one lady told me she would send an email and I could respond to it with a layout so she could work it up and get back to me. She didn't so I sent an email to the website email address. Still nothing back The others wanted me to come in, which was fine.
So, we hit several places, each one lacking any customer service. We went into the one that I sent the layout to and she said she didn't get my email. Then she said she did, but she tried to send me an email. Not sure I believe her. They didn't have quite what I wanted so she suggested a wholesale place that just has slabs, they don't install. We found what we wanted and called her the next day, which was Saturday. She said she would try to contact a salesman but if she couldn't she would do it first thing Monday. Monday came around and I hadn't heard from her so I called her. She said she would get with them immediately and call me back. She didn't. My wife left a message on her machine yesterday after they closed. Still nothing. I guess it's good I find out now instead of paying them a down payment and learning they have crappy customer service.
None of the other places were great either. I found one today that looks promising. We'll see.
I just can't believe how bad customer service is almost everywhere.
I did find a granite installer that seems good. We'll see.
The woman that didn't return my calls ended up calling me after I chose someone else, three days after we left messages.
We are kind of at a standstill with the house. I can't finish the trim and baseboards until we get doors. Not sure how long that will be. We ordered them a couple weeks ago.
We'll be tearing out the kitchen right after Thanksgiving. I hope to get the new cabinets set next Monday and the granite folks will be there to measure Wednesday if all goes well.
My wife has been a painting beast. She basically repainted the entire interior of the house since we couldn't match paint exactly. Neither one of us likes to paint or caulk be we agreed that I would do the caulking and she would paint.
My wife and I have had so many discussions about "what now." Most of our neighbors are doing the same.
One option is to lift the house. Quite a few people around are doing this. From what I can tell it would be anywhere from $200,000 to $350,000. And, it takes a while so you wouldn't be able to live there for quite a while. I'm a little nervous about this but people are doing it.
One option is to build up. From what I can tell, it would cost more than lifting but it seems less sketchy to me. I don't know. A few people have decided to do this, but not many.
One option is to bulldoze and start over. The guy across the street from us is doing this. Pretty pricey but you get to design it the way you want it.
We have decided to not do any of these and attempt to "seal" the house in the event of future flooding. There are people that have been successful at this. You basically caulk the crap out of every window and door, then apply flashing tape on top of the caulk. Add some tarps and sandbags for good measure.
I haven't done the math yet, but we figured that we got about 12 inches of water in the four hours the tide was high enough to come in. Most of it came in through the garage door, which isn't even close to being sealed. A lot came in through the front door as well, but almost none through the hurricane windows and doors in the back. We figure if we can stop 90% of it and buy a bunch of those "pigs" that absorb water we might be able to survive another storm like this without having to tear everything out. It might be an ambitious goal but there are people around that successfully did this.
No matter what, we've definitely decided this isn't our forever house. Spending the entire summer nervous about where the next storm might go just isn't a good way to live. We'll wait until the market comes back a bit and move on. The other thing we've decided is we probably won't be homeowners again. We'll just take whatever money we get from this house and use it for rent.
A couple things:
I don't understand why trim/baseboards can't be done w/o doors. Is this easily explicable to someone without repair skills?
Does your long-term housing plan (possibly) include a move away from Fla?
The doors are probably coming with new door jambs, the part the door swings into and out of. The trim around the door will partially cover the jambs and the baseboard will butt into the trim.
A couple things:
I don't understand why trim/baseboards can't be done w/o doors. Is this easily explicable to someone without repair skills?
Does your long-term housing plan (possibly) include a move away from Fla?
Well, Mark is right. However, I just bought door slabs so the trim can be put up and has been around the swinging doors. But we have pocket doors too and I'll have to pull trim to replace them, if I'm even able to do that. I think I can do it but I might end up having to get all new assemblies. Fingers crossed. Also haven't replaced trim on the bifold doors yet. Not sure what I need to do yet.
Not sure where we end up. We'll probably stay in Florida because both of her parents are getting older and we need to be close. After they die, who knows. That's one reason we want to rent. We can pick up and go whenever we want.
I see with the jambs. I was thinking of the baseboards out in the middle of the room or whatever. Is there no benefit in knocking them out, and working toward the door openings?
Anyway, best of luck. Maybe this will be the last event, kinda like when T.S. Garp and his wife were home-searching.
I see with the jambs. I was thinking of the baseboards out in the middle of the room or whatever. Is there no benefit in knocking them out, and working toward the door openings?
Anyway, best of luck. Maybe this will be the last event, kinda like when T.S. Garp and his wife were home-searching.
Yeah, this is what I did. I'm guessing 80% of the baseboards are in.
A couple things:
I don't understand why trim/baseboards can't be done w/o doors. Is this easily explicable to someone without repair skills?
Does your long-term housing plan (possibly) include a move away from Fla?
methings golddog may be on to something
seems time to ask yourself how long you think you'll be strong enough to fight the eternal tide
methings golddog may be on to something
seems time to ask yourself how long you think you'll be strong enough to fight the eternal tide
We've definitely made the decision to sell this house once the market comes back some. We've also made the decision never to be homeowners again. It should free us up to go wherever, whenever.
Man, if there was just something that allowed mobility, but also could be a space to live in.
Spoiler
Sounds like time for a bigger boat!
Land Yacht!
Hehe
Burn it down, collect the insurance money, and move to Italy.
Doing structural work or moving plumbing? Wondering if those half-walls are changing.
Cabinets set and ready for countertop people to measure.
That looks nice. Do the drawers/doors/sink/w/e get installed after the countertop is put in?
That looks nice. Do the drawers/doors/sink/w/e get installed after the countertop is put in?
The drawers and doors were already on the cabinets when they got delivered. I removed them to make them easier to handle when we set them. The sink gets installed when the granite is installed.
