help! my living room has never been finished just stuff thrown around
Bailey Woodward
4 years ago
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Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Just curious - who has been at this the longest?
Comments (23)Late to the party but couldn't resist adding my horror story, greatly abbreviated to reduce my stress from reliving this hellish experience. DH & I, retirees on a modest fixed income, sold our longtime house in 7/07 & bought a waterfront shack, intending to build a fairly humble retirement home within 18 or so months. Picked a local experienced waterfront builder who gave us a very affordable informal estimate; had our lot surveyed by JIM HART & ASSOCIATES of KIRKLAND, WA in 9/07, & commissioned the builder's in-house designer to plan our house at a cost of $13,600. Meanwhile, the city was busy putting further restrictions on building, so we had to rush our designer to get the plan submitted in time to avoid the new construction limitations - made the deadline by the skin of our teeth! So happy! Our builder, however, was not being too helpful & procrastinated, & we unfortunately followed his advice longer than we should have done - the upshot was that it took us until 7/09 to finally get our wft building permit - cue dancing in street! The builder then made a formal bid that was over twice what he'd estimated many months previously. We found a better qualified builder at a similar cost & were getting ready to excavate when we were informed by the city that our $13,500 building permit was rescinded because JIM HART's 2007 SURVEY WAS INACCURATE , per alert neighbor's report! Somehow the city overlooked a basic error, despite charging us $135/hr for MANY MONTHS of "expert review." JIM HART's survey incorrectly stated the ordinary high water mark. Our lot is small, & waterfront construction requirements are stringent, so this inaccurate survey meant our house design would not fit on the lot & was now useless, as we'd only be allowed to build a tiny hut if we simply modified the original building permit. We ended up forced to reapply for (& pay again for) a new building permit, get (& pay again for) a new house design, & engage an expensive architect to try to resolve with the city the problems related to JIM HART's INACCURATE SURVEY as expeditiously & inexpensively as possible (MASSIVE FAILURE!!) So now here we sit, in 11/2010, no new building permit YET, the city keeps requiring more info, & we unhappily anticipate our 4th Christmas in a rented storage unit-cum-2 bdrm apt! We thought we could at least recoup some of our expenses from JIM HART, KIRKLAND WA SURVEYOR, but unfortunately, back in the ignorant bliss of 9/07, JIM HART'S contract limited his liability to the cost of the survey only. We have lost over $45,000, EXCLUSIVE of our extended rental costs, lost our hard-won building permit & experienced over 1 year's construction delay solely due to JIM HART's BAD SURVEY! However, we know we are EXTREMELY lucky to have this type of problem - something to engage us in our Golden Years (lucky ol' DH, a former engineer, has even more diversion - he now works as an oncall security guard @ $13/hr on the overnight shift to keep us in dog food!)...See MoreNeighbor (from hell) Has Been Vandalizing My Property!
Comments (53)Yes this is an old thread, but extremely relevant; especially in light of Covid and all the insanity it is breeding. I have two nasty neighbors, so I got the luck of the draw. One on each side. The neighbor to the left was syrupy sweet for a few months, but that turned. The neighbor to the right is anal as all get out but feels as if he is entitled to encroach on our property, move things, dig our fence up because he felt it wasn’t level, take deck tiles he agreed to buy from me, but never made good on, mow over my outdoor area rug, and “accidentally“ destroy various things. The man isn’t crazy, just anal and entitled at 50 plus years old. Worse than a toddler. Never apologies or offers to replace what was damaged. I have felt like retaliating in several occasions, but I always pull myself together. My husband is now seeing things more and more. You are not crazy. Those that are calling you crazy must be “that crazy neighbor” to someone else or just plain evil and nasty. There are so many people in the world like this. A person entitled and miserable is extremely difficult to live by. I pray your situation has improved. We are hoping to move in a year or so. I will be sure to pay extra careful attention to the neighborhood and make certain there is ample distance between property lines. I want peace!...See MoreIve just been shoving stuff in boxes and drawers
Comments (63)Tina, don't spend too much time being disappointed in yourself. First, that's just a waste of time, if you spend very much time on it. It's OK to be a little disappointed; that's what motivates you to improve in an area you value. But spend MORE time dwelling on the idea that the work you put in, in the past, made it easier to get caught up again. Let THAT idea roll around your brain, instead of the disappointment part. Then, next time you think , "Oh, I'll file that later, it takes too long to do it now," you will trigger the "last time, filing it made life easier later; it won't either take that long, and I'll be paying it forward," instead of "I'm such a crumb for not filing." Sometimes I think we need to treat ourselves the way we treat our children. Sure, we make them come back and pick up their own jacket and put it away. But if we're smart, we also point out their successes and encourage them. I walked DS to school today, and pointed out to him that he is very good at studying, at reviewing the material he's learned, and drilling, and memorizing, and thinking about it. And I pointed out that he sees a very big payoff. He studied hard for a multiplication-tables test, and got 100 out of 100 right! And he studied the rules for dividing words, and his entire row got to eliminate one homework assignment bcs they recited them back w/ no errors. True, there are times he didn't study, and got a 67 on his test. But every time he has studied, he gets a 97 or a 100. So THAT was what I pointed out. Not the goofs, just the successes. I kind of blew off paperwork this weekend (though I did take care of an envelope full of receipts this morning--can I count that as 8 instead of 1? I'll do more tonight, but I'm out tomorrow until midnight, so I'll have to pick back up on Thursday....See MoreHelp! I need ideas on how to finish decorating my living room
Comments (74)Curtains would be a good idea. Even though you have blinds for privacy, curtains make the windows look finished. A little eyeliner besides the mascara. I would not do a colored curtain here. Curtains are just to darn expensive to have to switch out when your color palette changes. I would suggest white or off white, whichever you prefer in a silk or silk-like fabric, and get a marvelous trim for the edge. The edge trim can be in a white and black or whatever color you want to take from your rug or elsewhere in the room. I would not do a curtain trim in gold here because I see 4 windows, for 8 panels, that would be a lot of gold. You want tasteful gold embellishment in a space, not Liberace in Las Vegas. Here are some examples of trimmed curtains. Buy the plain curtain, and then buy the trim of your choice, and buy extra trim to embellish throw pillows, and buy coordinating different scale trim for other throw pillows. Another curtain option is a white curtain with a subtle pattern woven or printed on it....See MoreUser
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4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoBailey Woodward
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