Beware of one thing when dealing with a bank and doing a teardown - unless you make it very clear to the bank that you intend to tear the house down, they will end up being very concerned when it starts to come down. We recently had a situation where we bought a house and took out a mortgage for only about 50% of the bank-appraised value. We bought the house because it was a fixer-upper and we wanted to tear it down and rebuild. It was in very bad condition, and everyone else looking at it during the time we were making an offer on it felt the same way...there's no way someone could have lived in the house for long without fixing it up. We even told our mortgage contact at the bank that we were planning to tear it down and rebuild (with our own cash not a construction loan). He seemed supportive and commented many times on what a great lot it was and how nice it would be when the house was "done." So, it was clear to everyone involved that it was planned to be a teardown. Long story short(er!) - we bought the house in Sept, and in January, when we had our completed architectural drawings, structural drawings, had received building permits and were ready to start demolition, one of the final items on my list was to obtain "course of construction" insurance, which takes the place of homeowner's insurance when you are dealing with a construction/teardown project. In the process of signing the insurance documents, I noticed that the insurance company wanted to know if the bank should be listed as an additional payee in the case of a claim. I called the bank to ask if they're typically listed on a course of construction insurance, and after speaking with a few different representatives (none of who knew anything!), I was transferred to the office of the VP of Risk Management (or something like that)...anyway, someone on her staff almost had a fit when they heard that we were about to tear the house down. She kept saying that our house is the "bank's collateral" and not ours to do what we wanted with and that we could not proceed until we had the appropriate bank approvals, etc, etc. Keep in mind that we were not asking for the bank to pay for the construction, we are paying for the construction in cash, and we had an appraisal (done by the bank's OWN appraiser!) that was completed in September which showed the value of the entire property to be $1,100,000; they even broke this down between the lot value (approx $950,000) and the house value (approx $150,000). We have a mortgage for $500,000 so obviously, even in a worst case scenario, if the house was torn down and never rebuilt, the bank has FAR more collateral in the land than they ever had in the rickety old decrepit scary house!! Still, this person INSISTED that she had to go to some sort of approval committee and get approvals before we had a demo truck even enter the property. My husband and I were furious (although also somewhat bemused by this bizarre lack of logic and ridiculousness) and we spoke with several others at the bank who listened to our story and believed us when we told them that we had been very clear with the mortgage person during our loan approval process, telling him all the time that we were buying a "teardown"!! Our point was that, if there were further approvals necessary, he should have told us about them up front. Finally, we had a senior VP reluctantly agree with us but we are still being hounded by this VP of Risk Mgmt who is still insisting that we need to forward her a copy of our contract with our builder, our approved architectural/structural plans and all kinds of other info! At this point, we're ignoring her (because we have the approval of the senior VP), and construction has started, but this has been a big pain and total surprise. I'm telling you this long story because it just illustrates how crazy and upside-down the banks are these days and how their underwriting/loan approval processes have gone wildly from one end of the spectrum (super wide open) to the other (absurdly tight). My husband and I are the perfect clients for them - we have stellar FICO scores, have a longstanding history of repaying all our prior mortgages (two of which were with them), and MOST importantly, the bank has MORE than enough collateral in our current property to cover it all even if we never paid another dime!! So, I'm sorry to say it, but like others have basically said, I would be surprised if you get a construction loan with your current situation, and IF you decided to and could somehow do it on a line of credit or home equity situation, BEWARE that the bank will have a fit if/when they find out that you're tearing your house (otherwise known as the bank's collateral) down. Sorry, I don't mean to be a bummer about all this but it's best to go into it with eyes wide open and know the current lending/housing environment. Whatever you do, best of luck!!

Oh my, you indeed have opened up a can of worms. Personally I'd be looking over your contract with Orkin - is it for "spot" treatment, or entire house treatment. We've had termites and they treated the entire house, we were good for probably 10 years and had termites again. They wanted to "spot" treat where the termites were - that didn't fly with us, the entire house was redone and they spot treated. Sadly last year we had them again and there were no questions asked - entire house was treated with different chemical and spot treated. You've got to push for what you want. Don't know if they'll pay for damage. Just start with them and then see what happens next. Oh and take pictures - don't toss anything because they will want to see it to inspect it. Good luck.

I went to school, worked and lived in Cambridge over a 20 year period and my architect stamp still says Cambridge although I now live in an adjacent town. I've dealt with the Cambridge Historical Commission and the Building Department Zoning Officer many times. They are professional but sticklers for accuracy and detail so the process is rarely easy. It helps to be represented by a design professional since some degree of negotiation is usually involved. I can help you with your situation if you tell me the zoning district, the Historic District/Neighborhood Conservation District, the existing lot size, the gross area of the house, and the existing setback (yard) dimensions. You can't add new or enlarge old wall openings where the side or rear setback (yard) does not conform to the current zoning ordinance but you might be able to get a variance if you have enough patience, the full support of your neighbors, and hire the right lawyer. If the existing gross floor area exceeds the area allowed for your lot size and district you would not be able to add on to the house and you would be wise to renovate within the existing shell and convert a garage, basement, or attic into living space (if the spaces already have adequate ceiling heights). There are exceptions for narrow lots and other hardships. You cannot move existing floor area elsewhere or trade areas and there is no exception in the zoning ordinance for keeping some of the walls; if you demolish part of a floor the replacement must conform to the current Floor Area Ratio. The historic commission has restrictions regarding the demolition and rebuilding of older houses and you might be required to present the design to them for their approval. Sometimes the decision of the commission/neighborhood group is binding and sometimes it is not. Everything depends on your address. If you don't want to give your address on the forum, you can contact me at renovator8@gmail.com

Building a shower pan that doesn't leak can be tricky. Keep in mind that if it leaks, the only remedy is ripping out all of your work (tile, base, everything) and starting over. You want to make sure you get it right the first time. There are some excellent YouTube videos that you should watch, even if you aren't doing the work yourself. It will clue you in what to look for. Watch several of the videos so you get a good feel for the right way to do it. There's also this video that talks about a job gone bad. Some of the other issues involve sloping the curb towards the shower (not level), making it the proper width to avoid unnecessary grout lines Note the use of Red Guard, and the correct gap from the wall board to the floor. BTW: If after watching these videos, you see your contractor doing the wrong thing - stop him and have a conversation. You seriously don't want this to be wrong - because it will usually only become apparent several years after he's been paid.