KristinaB's Garage Conversion

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KristinaB said:
The property tax will go up on the lot as we are improving the structure. For close to 40 years, it had no electricity, water or anything. So, now it will be just like a house, with plumbing, water, electric and A/C.
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Yeah, will be taxed like a regular house? Is your tax down there value based?
 
Tousi said:
Yeah, will be taxed like a regular house? Is your tax down there value based?
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Yes - it is based on the house value and the general value of homes in the neighborhood. Kind of an average on the neighborhood then add your value to that. Luckily, they do not count how well the foundation is built. I mean, if I was being taxed on that, Heaven forbid, it would be through the roof. We found out today, that the floor of the garage is 6 inches thick of concrete. They broke 2 blades on the saws cutting through for the plumbing.
 
KristinaB said:
Yes - it is based on the house value and the general value of homes in the neighborhood. Kind of an average on the neighborhood then add your value to that. Luckily, they do not count how well the foundation is built. I mean, if I was being taxed on that, Heaven forbid, it would be through the roof. We found out today, that the floor of the garage is 6 inches thick of concrete. They broke 2 blades on the saws cutting through for the plumbing.
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Wow...
 
webexplorer said:
Wow...
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Walls are standard concrete block (you know, the one with the 2 section holes that's like 6X6X12 or something like that), stacked, rebar shot down 6 feet into the ground, then filled with cement. This building is not going anywhere.
 
Well - contractor spoke with hubby and I this evening. He will not be back out until we get all this paperwork taken care of. The garage floor has been cut and the trench is made for all the plumbing lines and such. The tile for the floor in stacked in our carport. The front door is in the garage and he has the back door in his garage.

I have emailed the surveyor and given detailed instructions and drawn on a copy of the existing survey what needs to be done.

Contractor has made an appointment with the lady from the Consulting & Design office and will have the Engineer at that meeting to work out those problems. There should be no more cost to us. The surveyor has said that normally he would charge for the addition, but as it is so minor and he has to correct a mistake he made, he will not charge. We are at a standstill for now until all this crap is taken care of. The contractor and the General contractor are both slightly pissed. The Engineer is livid. Complaints has been emailed to the county building department about this inspector and not by us.

Man this is frustrating!!
 
I see that 2 bikes are department store bikes. Front suspensions are cool!!! Would not help notice bikes as bikes are my things.
 
dereksbicycles said:
I see that 2 bikes are department store bikes. Front suspensions are cool!!! Would not help notice bikes as bikes are my things.
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Actually, both those bikes came from WalMart and were $95 a piece. Daughter's needs a lot of work. She's had a lot of accidents. The brakes are not very good, the gears don't shift well, the seat is forever coming loose and the tires are bent. Son has used his maybe 2-3 times in a year and claims that the seat is hard and too small. He wants us to buy him the gel seat and get a larger one if possible.
 
Just spoke with the contractor. He had his meeting with the architect and the engineer. Needless to say, the engineer is NOT a happy camper, but will revise his letter to the satisfaction of the inspector. It will take approx 2-3 weeks for the computer program to be updated for the architect so we have to wait for that. In the meantime, the contractor and some of these other people have check with Florida statutes and find that essentially, the Inspector is not following Florida law. We will see. I also have not gotten any answer from the surveyor, but I am assuming he is a little busy. He usually is. If I don't hear by Thursday, I will email him again.
 
I am glad of hear you new about your Great Congratulation
 
KristinaB said:
Actually, both those bikes came from WalMart and were $95 a piece. Daughter's needs a lot of work. She's had a lot of accidents. The brakes are not very good, the gears don't shift well, the seat is forever coming loose and the tires are bent. Son has used his maybe 2-3 times in a year and claims that the seat is hard and too small. He wants us to buy him the gel seat and get a larger one if possible.
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Next time buy a bike from bike shop, not Walmart.
 
dereksbicycles said:
Next time buy a bike from bike shop, not Walmart.
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Well, I would except that I can't always afford the price. I know for daughter we will have to. She has long legs and her current bike, even with an extension on the seat, it's still too low.
 
wow that is shocked stress lots of for your wow busy!!! whoa!
 
Got an email from the surveyor. We will pick up the revised survey this afternoon. No charge.
 
After reading your thread, I see that you are sensitive to other feelings . inpsectors, contractor, and engineers. This is all supposed to be normal thing and it happens all the time. Is your contractor the General contractor or are you? The general contractor is the one who works out the ruffled feathers. When I was flipping a couple rooms as general contractor, I had issues with city, city inspector, what contractor wanted to do, and other inspectors for various utilities. Its just a matter of listening what THEY perceive as the right way of doing things and personally suggest things to see if it matches everyone satisfaction. 9 times out of 10 I was able to resolve things on the spot but half f the time it may not be what i wanted to do, but it shuts everyone up.

Since the work has been stopped, the contractor was right to step away till its resolved because a stop order is harder to deal with then paperwork being resolved. But in your case, you need to get an personal attorney, not a lawyer to resolve the paperwork between the new inspector and city and have your engineer firm CC'd into it.
 
radioman said:
After reading your thread, I see that you are sensitive to other feelings . inpsectors, contractor, and engineers. This is all supposed to be normal thing and it happens all the time. Is your contractor the General contractor or are you? The general contractor is the one who works out the ruffled feathers. When I was flipping a couple rooms as general contractor, I had issues with city, city inspector, what contractor wanted to do, and other inspectors for various utilities. Its just a matter of listening what THEY perceive as the right way of doing things and personally suggest things to see if it matches everyone satisfaction. 9 times out of 10 I was able to resolve things on the spot but half f the time it may not be what i wanted to do, but it shuts everyone up.

Since the work has been stopped, the contractor was right to step away till its resolved because a stop order is harder to deal with then paperwork being resolved. But in your case, you need to get an personal attorney, not a lawyer to resolve the paperwork between the new inspector and city and have your engineer firm CC'd into it.
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Our contractor is just a licensed contractor. He works under his General Contractor. The General contractor owns the construction company. We originally were trying to do what is called an "Owner/Build" where we could avoid the General Contractor. This inspector has created some issues. We are now paying extra to have the General Contractor come in and do it as a regular build. What made this so sticky was our Town Hall had never had a garage conversion to a house before. They have had a house conversion to a garage. They were not sure what all codes or such they needed to be concerned with. Then, they got this new inspector who claims he knows and the problems started. We will not be suing or filing any legal action. That will only take up money we don't have and prolong this process that we'd rather have done with. Right now, we are awaiting the revised letter from the Engineer and the revised plans from the architect. This will take about 2 or so weeks. Town Hall has assured us that there will be no problem after this. They are familiar with both our contractor and the General contractor since they have done a lot of building and remodeling in this town. They are aware of the quality of his work and have said that we could not have anyone better for the money. They have also assured us, that they will not allow the inspector to create anymore problems and are planning on having a County building inspector to double check all the inspections if there is an unfavorable one. They found out, this inspector has a problem with Latino people and both the contractor and general contractor are from Mexico, as is the Engineer and the architect.
 
OMG...

A few years ago, I had a roof contractor that hired four or six employees. He never told me that his employees came from the community service. I mean the troubled people get paid less and forced to follow their boss's orders by the judge. That's how the contractor took a big advantage in his business. He is very bad man. The SBA stated that his business report card is A. What a bullshit! I didn't know that the judges can provide the community service to work in the real businesses because I thought that they work for the town temporarily (generally). It could be the same thing for the Mexicans in your situation. Three Latino employees were on my roof, and they were so nice, but unfortunately they had some or little experience for roof repairs. That's where I blamed their boss, not the employees.
 
webexplorer said:
OMG...

A few years ago, I had a roof contractor that hired four or six employees. He never told me that his employees came from the community service. I mean the troubled people get paid less and forced to follow their boss's orders by the judge. That's how the contractor took a big advantage in his business. He is very bad man. The SBA stated that his business report card is A. What a bullshit! I didn't know that the judges can provide the community service to work in the real businesses because I thought that they work for the town temporarily (generally). It could be the same thing for the Mexicans in your situation. Three Latino employees were on my roof, and they were so nice, but unfortunately they had some or little experience for roof repairs. That's where I blamed their boss, not the employees.
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All of these guys have been in the US for at least 10 years and all have worked together for all that time. They are all now US citizens. I have done a complete check of all the license numbers they have as well as name (boy, that was hard, Juan Rodriguez, Emilio Vasquez, Carlos Santiago). All check out very well. When I went to the County Building Inspector, I asked about previous work so I could see and speak with the owners, I was given 10 names and such. Everyone was so pleased and they guys will come out and do any repairs for the first 3 years.
 
KristinaB said:
All of these guys have been in the US for at least 10 years and all have worked together for all that time. They are all now US citizens. I have done a complete check of all the license numbers they have as well as name (boy, that was hard, Juan Rodriguez, Emilio Vasquez, Carlos Santiago). All check out very well. When I went to the County Building Inspector, I asked about previous work so I could see and speak with the owners, I was given 10 names and such. Everyone was so pleased and they guys will come out and do any repairs for the first 3 years.
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It's good that you know now. Actually, we talked the previous house owners, and they were satisfied with their roof. I assumed that his employees were different at my house. Oh well.
 
KristinaB said:
Got an email from the surveyor. We will pick up the revised survey this afternoon. No charge.
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how was your reviews? new your enjoy spending to house you are happy or something :lol: pretty you exciting lots of project to work
 
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