Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Firmly Decided on a 1 Story, Bizarre City Fee, and The Final 1 Story Layout

I have 3 contractors in the mix working out bids. I will see which one makes sense both from a financial point of view, and from a bigger picture "best ideas, best examples or work, best references" point of view. 

After hammering the heck out of this. I have decided a 1 Story is best. 

The trouble with the 2 story concept is that I will need to most certainly do this thing on credit. The city will likely impose a Land Use Review that would cost upwards $1500+.  They will also double the general scope Permit fee of $550 to over $1000. Adding square feet is not as simple as the one city official at 4th and Hall shared. 

There would also be the the additional 5 grand to add the 2nd Story. The extra materials (windows, flooring, lighting, heating, etc). IT. ADDS. UP. FAST. 

Another thing that helped me make the decision was the fact that even though the 1 story quotes are within my budget, I would not have anything for incidentals. I might need to borrow 2-3 grand if something comes up. Some odd fee from the city, or a plumbing or electrical thing, or there is something we just can't do without for the build.  I don't want to end up deep in debt due to an incidental. 

KISS Principle it BE. 

Speaking in terms of some odd fee from the city.. wait it til you hear THIS one. Sit down for this. It's a entertaining "WTH??"

So, I called the water bureau. One plumbing guy said we might not have even capacity for all the faucets. We added up the chart and it appears I would be off by 2 more than the current waterline could support.  The city said it was a simple $180 piece added to allow more fixtures. That's all I was told about 1 year ago when I investigated the fees. 

This time when I called? The rep told me that I would ALSO be required to sign a form that essentially states that I agree to add a waterline to the ADU if it EVER became legal to sell it, AND I chose to sell it, and DID sell it. $550 Smackers. 
??? 

Okay. So. Let me get this straight... I would be "required" to pay a fee to sign a form stating that if something that is totally not legal right now was to BECOME legal, that I would be willing to send a specific waterline unassociated with my home, before I Sold it. "Pay for something in case something becomes something, even though it may never become something, and I want to do that something if it becomes okay to ever do that something in the first place". Why would I also pay for simply agreeing to something that is not something... (I need to just stop thinking, it is going to brake my mind). 

What?. My brain hurts thinking of this one.  Not only is that a total "WTH??" but the place is 5 feet from my home. 228 square feet. Has absolutely ZERO property line of it's own. The ADU is facing my Alley Way. To top it off, it is also part of our only carport. It is technically connected by the roof to the roof of the car port ! ! !
This will never be a place I can sell. I never want to. Never would. It is just a rental that my aging relatives could also one day live in, or kid while he/she is attending school.  

So I will most certainly do everything I can to get out of this fee that I can't afford really, anyway, and it is not relevant to my build- AT. ALL. 

To end this post. Here is the design my friend came up with. I really like it. For one, it creates a nice kitchen layout with a place for a small fold out table on the East wall.  The bath will be a simple stand up shower, preferably 36" to avoid being too tight to stand in comfortably. I might just have shelves high up and a medicine cabinet for storage. The shared plumbing wall was was lead this design to be. I really wanted to avoid possible freezing pipes. 

We are still debating on where to put a closet. Might just buy something from IKEA in the end, or, allow the person moving in to fill in their own "Vision".  

Any ideas?