I agree that you should probably do your best to get out of this deal BEFORE they start actually building the house. If you've had this much grief already just over the lot itself, imagine how bad it is going to get when house building starts! Do you REALLY want to go forward with building a house that cannot be situated to take advantage of views and must sit 5' from a cul-de-sac (did you mean a gully or escarpment of some sort?), on a lot that is considerably smaller than you were originally led to believe it would be, while trying to work with a builder who wants to charge ridiculous premiums to upgrade fixtures and finishes to the kind and quality you want, who is already calling you "difficult" and who you already fear will cut corners on your build to make up for their "lost profits" in other areas.... all to wind up living in a neighborhood where all of the houses are duplicates of one of just four designs??? Sorry but I can't help but cringe just envisioning the resulting neighborhood. Even back in the 1960s when my folks bought their first 1600 sq ft tract house, the developer had 12 designs for them to choose. Still the song "little houses made of ticky-tacky" applied all too well to our neighborhood! Yes, go hire a good real estate litigation attorney. But before you go see him/her, spend some time getting the details of exactly what you've experienced down in writing in a more comprehensible way. I'm not trying to be harsh but your post here on GW rambles around so much that it is really difficult to understand what the important issue are. I can tell immediately that you are distressed but it is difficult to tell whether you have a cause of action or not. Based on what sense I can make of your story, I think you probably have a good basis for having the contract rescinded but it depends on exactly what you were told, when you were told it, and what opportunities you had to discover the truth for yourself prior to signing the contract deeds. But, as an attorney I can tell you that when someone comes into my office with such a jumbled explanation of their problem, if I take them as clients I find that I invariably wind up having to spend hours and hours simply untangling the whos, whats, whens, wheres, and whyfores of their story before I can even determine IF I might be able to help them... much less figure out how best to go about helping to resolve the situation. I absolutely HATE taking on a client, charging them for the time spent untangling their story only to have to tell them that I can't do anything for them. I usually wind up giving them their money back. Much as I sympathize with distressed people who have clearly been hurt, in order to survive financially myself, I simply can't spend those kinds of hours for free very often. So a lot of the time when someone comes in with a disjointed story, I wind up trying to shuffle them gently out of the door as quickly as possible without taking them on as clients. So, before you go see an attorney, sit down at your computer, open a word document and create a table with four columns. Label the first column "DATE", the second column "EVENT," third column "NOTES" and the fourth column "SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS". Now, using the table, organize everything that has happened in your relationship with this development company chronologically. The beauty of using a table format is that if you're halfway thru telling what happened in March and you suddenly remember something that happened in February, you can go back, insert a new row in the table, and add in the event. The date column should have exact dates when you know them...if any communications were by email or letter, dig those out and copy the dates down as well as the pertinent info. If you don't know an exact date, provide the month/year or the closest approximation of it that you can. The event column should list FACTS only without any commentary. (For example, "Sales agent told me the lot was X acres extending XXX feet from front to back and XXX feet from side to side at the widest point.) Use the "NOTES" column to add explanations/commentary such as "I later found out that the lot is considerably smaller - see date." So, if the builder told you something and you later found out that the thing he told you was not true, your table will have two entries related to that fact. The date he told you X and the date you found out that X was not true. Each of these two entries will reference the other with a "see date in the Notes column. Make sense? Finally, if you have any documents that support what you're saying, indicate what the document is in the supporting documents column. For example, if you have an email from the sales agent where she tells you that the lot is a particular size, in the Supporting Documents column you would write "email from sales agent (name) dated XX/XX/XXXX, subject line YYYYYYYYYY. Start at the very beginning which would be how and when you first heard about this particular development. Do your best to put down, in chronological order, all the things that happened, all the things you(or your relative) were told by the builder/developer/sales agent prior to entering into the agreement that made you want to purchase this particular lot, the dates when documents were signed, and all of the things that you have been told by the builder since entering the contract. In your Notes column, also identify each person that you mention. (You only have to do this the first time you mention a person but, as an attorney, I would want to know your relative's name and how to contact her for verification, the name of the sales agent, etc.) When you have all the details you can think of laid out in chronological order, go back thru and highlight those details that seem MOST important to your story. Then when you go see the attorney, use the highlighted portions of your document to tell him in a very cogent manner what has happened to you. He'll be much more likely to want to take you on as a client. And, when he agrees to take you on as a client, you can give him the entire history with all the rest of the little details. He may see something in that that seemed trivial to you but may help bolster your case. The other thing you need to do before seeing an attorney is to decide what solution you would be really happy with and then what LESSER solution or solutions you would be willing to live with even tho they wouldn't make you totally happy. For example, you might to have the contract voided, and get your money back with interest on it plus have the builder pay you attorney fees. Certainly if your builder has been defrauding you and lying to you, that would be fair. But Realistically tho, if it would save you from further aggravation, would you not be satisfied to have the contract voided and get, say, 90 percent of you money back even if you had to pay your own attorney fees as long as they were less than say $5000? I ask because you need to totally aware that in situations like this, it is HIGHLY unlikely that you will come out of it totally unscathed. That is a nice way of saying, do NOT bet on getting your money back with interest. If you hang on thru a full trial, and if you have all the facts and all the law on your side, you might win a judgment that says you get your money back with interest...but then you'd have to collect it and builders have a notorious habit of declaring bankruptcy. Unless your judgment says your builder defrauded you and that your damages are due to his fraud, your builder can totally wipe out your judgment by declaring bankruptcy. Happens all the time. And the homeowners are left paying hefty attorney fees and court costs on top of the damages they've already suffered. So while it might be galling to do, it would probably be better to accept early on a settlement offer that gets you out of the contract and actually gets you some portion of your money back. I do wish you the best of luck.

As a rule, dogs take a course of action in day to day relationships requiring the least energy----saves the energy for more important things---catching food, for instance. A pack leader has several indicative actions---body language, verbal commands, and as a last resort, physical action. In your case, allowing the dog on the couch means you are allowing him to become more alpha. Which is fine---as long as YOU become more alpha as well. The second he begins to stretch into more than the area he needs(that 1/3 of the couch)---you need to make a verbal correction---and make sure he complies. That will establish the bounderies and rules dogs need to have to be happy. Look at a dog like it is water----as long as the water is directed and contained, it is beneficial. Once the direction/containment is removed---the water becomes unmanageable---goes whereever it can and messes up things in the process. Look at dogs that are tied/ignored---they bark constantly, run in circles, chew on things---and act miserably----because they are miserable. They have no structure. My GSD/chow mix was just such a miserable dog. He barked incessantly, attacked anything that moved and was quiet only when kenneled. I gave him a job(guarding) and rules(direction) and exercise---and now he has no issues with people(unless they are uninvited) But, the rules today are just as stringently enforced as they were three years ago----he just seldom tries to break them now. In your case---allow the dog on the couch. But make a verbal correction as he BEGINS the bad behavior. Then he will understrand and the problem will be solved---as long as you make the correction always. I actually have several sounds to stop bad behavior. Mild corrections are an Eh!, more severe are an Aaaaaah! and the most severe is a sort of growl---low and intense. I use those sounds to eliminate the confusion when I correct a grandchild with a No! or similar verbal correction. Oh, and I have a very timid girl dog---I never use any correction with her but the first one----she responds so quickly the others are not necessary. They are so used to these sounds, people often miss the actual correction.

I think it is possible the SD does indeed keep caught in the middle of Mom and SM. I also don't think she 'lied' or told a half truth. At the time the discussion first took place, SD had not yet made plans for the summer break with Mom...after reading some of your previous threads, I can't help but notice there has been long standing feud over exact days/visits. The SD was wrong in that she committed and did not follow through on what she agreed to. The mother is wrong for pressuring her daughter to take 'a summer job committment' seriously and making a big ta-do over a day or day (something that this mother though has been known to repeatedly do). And you are wrong with withholding your relationship with the SD in a temper tossing hurt feeling mode. The girl really is stuck between the two 'moms'. One screaming 'be an adult' one minute while treating her as the 'child' the next. The other one still playing the same old games of rearranging schedules no matter who it affects in an all out path of having her daughter 'at home' as many days as possible (while still treating daughter as a yung child/early teen). In an attempt to keep somewhat harmony between the SD's 'moms' daughter ends up being indecisive, nonresponsibile and still kept very much the child while being told to act the adult. If I were the girl, I'd be tempted to remain where I attend school. Maybe visit for a a short spell with each side and work my summer at a job that would enable me to have something more than 'babysitting' for references. Because you are disappointed and your feelings are hurt you intend to punish the SD. You'll just after 15 yrs of being mommy #2 you'll just suddenly begin being 'her fathers wife'. And you'll label a 'test' to see if the relationship can withstand the 'test'. The first time SD expresed her newly found 'adult views' aka opinions (example, daughter's eating habits) you took a personal offense to it and again you're feelings are hurt and deny the SD who you say you want to start acting/thinking like an adult for her effort in doing so. The SD can't win here. Send LS to the daycare as now planned. Quite frankly you can read all the books you please on 'disengaging' and 'teaching assertiveness', but but until you start practicing actually raising the SD with the open mind that she is becoming an adult (even when her new found adult views annoy you), and continue to treat her as the child (both 'moms') it's just setting up more hurt feelings and keeping the girl a girl stuck in the middle. She's young, socializing with a whole new group of people, seeing different lifestyles and discovering who she is and what she believes. My niece as decided her new found 'thing' in life is to be a veggie,...she'd have a stroke to think you're LS eats skittles and poisons her body blah blah blah. LOL. Once 'kids' start expanding their social network, experiencing new groups and ideas, well they can be quite crazy in their new 'worldly views'. My 2 cents. Good luck to you. Sd has reached the age between childhood and adulthood and she's likely to say many more things that appear to be 'anti-you' (or mom or dad or the neighbor) while she opens those wings and begins to shape her own ideas.

From what I've studied, passive agressive behaivor is kind of sneaky. It's the people who spit in the drinks of customers they don't like, or use other's toothbrushes to clean toilets and put them back. Yes, they are usually afraid of confrontation, but it goes deeper. They'll 'accidentally' break a kid's toy if it was given from someone they don't like. They may not say your food isn't good... but they just won't eat it (implying indirectly that you're a bad cook). They'll be mean in a different way than you would/should expect. It's kind of the opposite of active agressive... Those types tell you off whenever the get mad and don't hold anything in and are often annoying to be around... Passive agressives hold the problem in and express anger about it often secretely in other ways. It's kind of hard to spot an passive agressive person because many times you won't know they are being mean. When they're late because they are mad at something, you'll believe their "excuse". Their anger is NOT out in the open so to say... but behind your back. Although, if you are close to one, you should be able to spot it (and feel it) after a while. They are very negative and often judge things and act harsher than they should. Passive agressives are very insecure (hence are often afraid to react or communicate directly) instead, they have a "I'll show you - or I'll get back at you behind your back" kind of complex going on. Everybody can be passive agressive from time to time (even eye rolling is a form of passive agressive behavior), but a person with an on going passive agressive personality often does have other mental problems associated with them.