Hello everyone! Thanks so much for posting. I am living the nightmare right now! I live in Brooklyn, NY in an over 100 YO brownstone. I bought my house awhile ago and have been really happy, doing little things and then it happened. I went in the basement in Oct. and found a small leak. I called a GC friend who came by and said no problem I'll fix over the weekend. Well that one little leak has grown to...... 1. All the hot and cold water pipes in the house are original and had to be changed. 2. Hot water heater died had to buy a new one. 3. While installing hot water heater found out that gas furnace had a leak and was corruded. Had to buy an new one 4. Changing pipes in the bathroom led to two air vents that were connected to nothing, walls are rotting, hense bathroom gutted. 5. Changing pipes in kitchen, find out the kitchen (an addon) is built on dirt. Thats why my tiles cracked so. And it had 3 vents hooked to nothing. The original brick wall caved in. Thus a brand new kitchen. Vents in both the bathroom and the kitchen was behind walls so never knew they were there. 6. Dining room is right at kitchen and the radiator has a small leak. Ok lets fix, he pulls up a little of the hardword and fines that the beam is dry rotted. Not one, not two but 3. 7. Electrical is all from the thirtys and some boxes were just opened and not connected. It's a wonder I never had a fire 8. Living room has big picture window. But when it was installed who knows when, they didn't put in a steel beam to hold the front of the house. So two beams had to be put in. My house is a mess, my stuff is a mess, things happened so fast I wasn't able to pact everything. I am just shocked, I'm not sure where to go or what to do. I count my blessings that my GC is a family friend and he is working with me and doing everything that needs to be done. Money...what is that....where is it coming from. I just say God is good. So with fingers crossed things should be finished by April and I will have a brand new first floor. GC says in a couple of years he will be back (it'll take that long to pay him) to do the 2nd floor and then the 3rd and lastly the basement. I know in my heart it will get better but the last few months I've done nothing but cry. MadamG2U

Lavender - well, there's all kinds of issues. LOL. I LOVE this house, I could stay here a very, very long time and be happy. But it is in the city and the neighborhood is so/so. Getting better, but I don't like worrying about break-ins. And ours yard is only 37x97, so with the parking pad out back, there's barely room for the dogs, grass, or gardens, but I've made do and have some very beautiful landscaping now. The people across the street were really getting to me and if they kept up like they were last year I didn't know if I could stay here much longer...very ghetto, 10 hoodlums would hang out and it wasn't evne their house, the old people that lived there were moving drugs...I mean it wasn't a dilapidated drug house with crack you-know-whats coming in an out, but it was nonetheless an aggravation. They are much better this year after I contacted the Police Commander and city council. But it makes you worry about any future neighbors. But, I LOVE this house, the yard I've learned to live with. I've made some great gardens. Wish I had more room for the doggies. Love the neighborhood...such an old classic neighborhood with tons to do, even if it is a bit rough, as most gentrifying neighborhoods are. The old house is the opposite. It is on beautiful, beautiful, land, we can only see one neighbor through our pasture, the rest is woods. I love the property. And I love where it is...it's in a very nice area of the metro area. But I hate the house!!!!!!! I hate the ceilings most of all...some 7', some 7'6", some 8', and an ugly (to me, not to most I guess) wood-beam ceiling in the dining room that's kind of arts and crafts I guess. It's been added on 3 times and I can't stand it. To move there and be as happy with that house as with this house, we would have to put in 10's of thousands of dollars to renovate. While this one requires basically no renovation whatsoever. Not to mention neither of us like how the old house "feels", but that may change if it were extensively renovated. I just don't know. The main problem is that we wouldn't be able to move in and do reno's room-by-room - the kind of reno's I'd want to do would require a big reno at once due to structural issues. But god I love that property! And the 4 car garage. And the house its self is quite solid. Now that we've lived here, with a master suite, 2.5 baths, and 10' ceilings, and a decent kitchen, it would be hard to go back. There's always the fact that the old house is "free" because my partner is inheriting it LOL but, free doesn't always equal - good. So yes, it's a very, very tough decision. For right now, we're here, and we're staying here. I love the house so much. And I am liking the neighborhood more and more. But god I love that land the old house is on! Tearing it down isn't an option. honorbiltkit - Thank you for the compliment! My house is actually on W. 50th and Bridge...west side...most of the east side is real bad...I don't think anything is gentrifying there! They are building a lot of new houses, and all of that, but it isn't changing the neighborhood at all...same bad people move into those houses that were there before. It's really really really bad over there...like, Detroit bad. That is an area I would not even drive through! Most of the revitilization is happening on the near west and southwest side of the city. Quite a lot of the houses on the east side have fallen, or are falling, into serious disrepair. It makes my partner and I sad...his Grandma used to live somewhere near 80th and Central, I believe...the houses there were/are gorgeous..just going down the crapper :(. I wish things were different.

Sorry millwork4u and marven and aidan_m and weedyacres: we have not been back for a spell trying to deal with everyone's input and our builder, who was away on Kauai while we waited for our permit changes to be approved. (Long story short: our cottage was bought by us and it was termite-infested. We tried to remove and replace bad wood ourselves but it was way beyond us. We tried numerous carpenters and others who were called builders. We knew we needed better help and hired a draftsman. He was unable to back up his own work when we asked him things like: will this roof be safe? Instead, always deferring us to 'your structural engineer', as though we had one, which we did not. We hired one and he was very shady and would not give us a firm estimate for his services, instead taking $100 cash from my wife when she met him at the property and disappearing never to return calls/emails. Frustrated with draftsman, I called several local architects I found in online yellow pages and one told me to contact my current builder. I did this and he proposed a builder/design 'package' where his father was draftsman and he builder. We visited one of his job sites and spoke to two of his references. He seemed earnest, young, willing to get his hands dirty, and affordable. He told us he had a HI contractor's license but to save us $s he'd knock 15% off the job if we were owner/builder instead of 'putting job on his license'. He poo poo'd the license thing as a technicality and we were too ignorant to know better. Since then we have discovered how stupid we are. In any event, he proposed a building envelope solution including rebuilding all decks, stairs, reframing house as 'double-wall' (was single-wall), new roof, new foundation, doors, windows, siding and paint: $28k labor + materials. It sounded reasonable to us. The photos shown in above threads are of the cottage after it was sided and windows/doors put in. The decking is a combination of a replacement of the old and some new. Since we first started with this builder things were weird. He took our money and then didn't show up for work until several days after he told us he would. He didn't do work, like he said he would, and instead hired it out to two other guys. He was never really on the job site much. But, the tear-down condition cottage was being transformed. The problems are many. He never shows up when he says he will and the word is done when we least expect it. Interior framing done in like a day with no discussion about the plans. Things that we could not easily change were hastily done without telling us in advance. The lack of flashing on the deck ledgers is an example of this. The first post or query about this man's work we have ever done is this thread. By the time I had posted it, we had agreed to expand the job from the original $28k to $53k to $59k. This was all done as progression after we saw one thing we'd add another. We agreed to almost all of this before I made this thread. Both my wife and I were unhappy with this man's 'bedside manner' but we didn't (and don't) think he is a vindictive or nasty person. Immature, a bit of a cheat, a liar yes. We have had our rage over his lack of communication and failure to meet expectations, but having had such difficulty even finding people who will do a day's work at all on this island has not been easy. One builder friend of ours, who is retired, warned us that "all contractors are thieves". We knew going into this there would be bumps, and there are many. Fast-forwarding to now. The wood supplier, Miyake Concrete, insists the hi-bor is pressure-treated and correct for our deck. I have read the PDF and see where it states the exact opposite. Our permit came though just over a week ago. Our builder was totally MIA the whole five weeks we had to stop work. We were furious that in all that time he could not spend any with us to plan. So, he is back on property rushing, laying off for days on end, then rushing again. My wife and I tried a new tactic when he met us the Saturday before the Monday he was to begin work, two weeks ago. She wanted to ask him about the workmanship that all of you have so kindly told us was not so hot. She told me to shut up and play the nice guy, so that she could press him and if he freaked out, it was my job to keep him from walking. Because he has our job structured in three phases, with some things done to varying degrees on each, and payments and material invested in all, it is very difficult for us to delineate where we stand and just 'stop' and fire him. I guess that's the reason for my long-winded post right now. For context. In any event: we were trying to put the screws to him about his work quality and material choice, while at the same time keep things from getting too nasty as we don't have an easy way to unravel this. (We estimate another two weeks before the house is enclosed and we are able to get a final bill and lien release.) Well it didn't go too well. When asked about the lack of flashing he told us much would be under roof and that flashing wasn't required. We read a PDF on deck building from decks.com that showed flashing as IBC required. Also, we read that 6x6 posts were required. He told us there was more than one way to build a deck and that he chose the method he had done and that he was insulted at my wife questioning him. She asked him if that meant she should just shut up and he backed own, but I have to confess it wasn't a good feeling sitting there as this guy told my wife how wrong she was for asking him about his work. When she pointed out the way the beams were nailed together he asked her, sarcastically, if she was complaining about the 'toenailing', and said this was common practice. In short, everything everyone said here he told us was wrong. We felt like to wet poodles after that meeting. We did not want to print this post out and throw it in his face because, honestly, we are afraid he will leave us with a yard full of lumber and a job 3/4 finished and no easy replacement help in sight. The predators will smell blood if we try to replace him, we think. Meanwhile, the work has continued and there is talk that he will put "L" flashing on the exposed part of the deck. We have paid him to enclose the other part of the deck, so it won't get ruined as a result of the lack of flashing there, we hope. (The enclosure is what we always wanted. He is doing it cheaply, and while we hate giving him and his father more of our money, his father redid the drawings and brought them into the county, and he has done the work seemingly well, although while abusing us in the process.) We just don't know what to do. On one hand, this are getting done and seem to look okay, on the other, it is a horrible relationship and the quality of the work we just don't know. You all have given us your best insights. We have tried to discuss them with our contractor. He has slapped me the entire way, and I am hardly proud of it. I just don't know what else to do but to get his portion of the job done asap and be rid of him. Yes, I know we gave him more work. My wife and I both hated to do it. But we would have wasted all the material and money for labor to put in railings and arbor in place of walls and roof. It was a difficult call.

This is very similar to the situation that I had last summer. Same era and type of houses. My neighbors (whose garage was only 1 foot from the shared property line, and only 12 feet from my house) wanted to build a 2nd story onto the garage, and extend the structure both in front and in back (which would have brought the rear corner to within just a few inches of the line since their house did not sit square on the property). I had also had some difficulty with them because of trash issues but tried not to let that influence my feelings about the addition. So, I also was concerned about the loss of light and having a view of only the side of their house rom the dining, living and 2 bedrooms (they are close now, but with the garage placement I do get light and see sky and trees). I wasn't sure it would be putting that side of the house in constant shade, but it seemed like it would and I was concerned. This neighbor told me that I shouldn't care because in another, newer suburb, the houses were all constructed like that (which could be why I don't live in that suburb). . I wrote a letter to the board in charge of the zoning variance permit and simply told them why I was concerned. I did not come out and say that I was opposed but had these concerns. The board did take that as an objection and had quite a discussion at the meeting (I read the minutes later). One board member pointed out that although they may think that they will be there a long time, they possibly won't but the changes would affect my house forever and perhaps my home's marketability. They did not approve the variance, the neighbor blamed me, but he chose to sell in order to get the bigger house that they needed. Turns out though, that the addition would have violated state fire code (too close to the property line) and could not have been approved anyway. I have very nice neighbors now, very glad that I didn't have to find out if my fears were founded or not. You have more room between your houses; I wonder if there is a way to figure out if the proposed addition would block much light?