houses14 - Why did we hire him? Because the ONE thing he turned out to be very good at was talking a good game! He comes across as the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. I called all the references he gave us. Then I found out later that one of the three references was his GIRL FRIEND! Another admitted to me later that the only reason he agreed to give a reference was in order to get the builder to finally come fix punch list items that he'd been waiting over 2 years for! The 3rd was actually a satisfied customer...at the time he gave the reference. But by the time we started doing discovery in my law suit, that customer too was pissed off at builder because he had started having some problems with his house due to some of the shoddy building practices builder had employed. We also talked to a couple of builder's subs before hiring him. Later on we found out that builder had owed them large sums of money and had flat out told them that the only way he'd be able to pay them was if he managed to land another job... so it was in their financial interests to tell me they'd never had any issues with him! When we started having issues ( the second week of the build!), according to builder, the problems were always due to a "misunderstanding" because I had somehow not made myself clear. Builder always promised that HE would make everything right b/c he just wanted me to be happy. Despite problem after problem after problem - none of which ever seemed to actually get resolved to my satisfaction - I continued to believe for quite a while that he wanted to build me the home of my dreams and would eventually do so. It was only after he very clearly lied to me on two separate occasions where there was absolutely no possibility of a misunderstanding that I started insisting that every single communication between us be in writing. Even when we met and talked about something, I started carrying my computer with me and IMMEDIATELY sitting down and writing up exactly what we had agreed to, emailing him a copy to his smart phone and demanding that he read it and sign it if he agreed with it OR that he respond with a revision stating his own understanding before we went any further. That's when it became more and more difficult for him to get me to agree to sign off on additional draws when the work that he claimed was completed really was NOT. Once I was dried up the spigot of easy money, we started getting liens filed against our house by subs and material men. Then builder started claiming that he had more money tied up in our house than we had paid to him - although he could not seem to tell me exactly how much. I told him that if he could show me with DOCUMENTS (receipts and canceled checks) where he had paid out more than he had been given, I would reimburse him every penny of the overage. When he started sending me documents to back up his claim, I called the materialmen and subs and went thru every receipt with a fine tooth comb. Turned out he was sending me bogus documents... eg., receipts for materials that were never put into our house; lien releases from subs who told me that either the signature on the lien release was NOT theirs or that they had signed the release in exchange for a payment check that then bounced so that the release was not valid, and so forth! Builder was only able to reasonably document an amount equal to about 60% of what we'd paid to him in draws...which means that he apparently pocketed close to 40% of the $290K we paid to him. That's over $100K in "profits" taken out UP FRONT on a $540K build that was less than half complete at the time we fired him. Yet he claimed we OWED him money! In answer to your next question about why the builder is not in jail, I talked to the local district attorney about a criminal prosecution for fraud. The DA told me that he had TRIED to bring a criminal case against my builder previously due to the claims of another previous client of his and had failed. According to the DA, builder and his attorney convinced the grand jury that the only thing going on was a contract dispute so it belonged in civil court not criminal court. You should now that Builder is a local boy, son of one of the wealthiest citizens in the area, a deacon in the local church, and - as I said earlier - a very smooth talker. Like us, his previous client who sought to have him prosecuted was a newcomer to the area. Having failed once, the DA was not willing to attempt to prosecute him again. Thus my only option was to go thru the civil court system. And before I could complete that process, builder passed all his assets to his father who put everything into a spendthrift trust leaving builder "judgment proof". Then builder declared bankruptcy.

equinecpa: You wrote: >>Two cents from a CPA: ..... Just the inconsistencies in results tells me you are making input erorrs -I'd count on it. The programs are not calculating the return differently -you are somehow inputting it differently. ========================================== That is not true. Compare TaxAct with TaxCut where you've bought and sold both taxable and tax-exempt bonds with acrued interest. You will find TaxAct understates the final income and therefore the tax. Several years ago I went thru the calculation line by line with both using identical input. (Both on computer and paper). I pinpointed the exact mistake TaxAct was making. I wrote it all up clearly and concisely and sent it by US Mail to TaxAct headquarters which was in Iowa. They acknowledged my analysis; said they'd fix it. They never did. A couple years later I checked it out again and this time emailed em. This time they denied the error. The wording of the reply showed that they did not understand the problem. I wouldn't trust TaxAct with anything beyond simplest of returns; ie wages only with a standard deduction.

OK, The pavers are done, and salt is in the pool. I am putting stone to match the house on all of the retaining walls myself in the next few weeks, then I will cap them off with bricks that match the house. Finish grading and clean up is tomorrow. I then have plenty of planters (4) to landscape too. Overall A&S was fine to work with. Like I was told in the beginning, their on site management could be better. Sometimes it seems they would rather have the subs do something wrong, and then fix it later, than to just keep a project manager at the site more often. But, they did respond quickly to all of my requests and changes. And I am a picky person when it comes to projects like these. Anyhow, I appreciate all of the ideas, suggestions, and comments from you guys and gals. Here are some photos. I will post others after the stone is on the walls and the landscaping is in. (BTW, the pavers are Dublin's Potomac 3 peice, and the water is very dirty from all of the paver dust... it actually is a much crisper blue than is appearing here)

Our sister (who is a lawyer) is the one who recommended that we get a trust in order to avoid probate. When there is only one of us (my brother and me) left, the survivor will sell the house in Los Angeles and live in Cathedral City. When Kevin retires (which won't be until 2032), he said that we should sell both houses and buy a larger house in Palm Springs or Cathedral City. There are some very nice houses in Cathedral Gulch, but a lot can change in twelve years. Right now, a new casino is being built in downtown Cathedral City, far enough away from us, but we are very close to Date Palm Drive, although we do not shop in downtown CC that much. I don't know how much the casino will affect traffic, but I do plan to avoid that area once the casino opens. From what I understand, we do need a lawyer to set up the LLC in California. It's not the same as setting one up in Florida. The lawyer did explain the differences, and he said he was going to set up two trusts for us, as he thought that was the best option for us. He has a lot of experience in this area, and I do trust him. He said he would keep the documents for us, or we could keep them in a safe, if we have one - we do not. I asked him about what would happen if he retires (He looks older than me), and he said he has no current plans to retire but that he would give all his clients a year's notice and that he has an associate who could keep our documents after he retires. I think we should probably get our own safe or safety deposit box - I'm not sure which.