GroupGirl, when a neighbor builds an addition or modifies their yard, they are required to deal with drainage issues. If your lovely neighbor plans to pave (shudder) her backyard, it can't shunt the water into your property. Talk to a lawyer and chat with the contractor who comes to do the paving. It's part of the code. I believe such work should require a permit. I know erecting a fence does. The law is your friend. Remember that if she increases your water problem, she could decrease your property value or cause damage to your home. All she's thinking about is that she's too lazy to mow. The code for street-exposed fencing is different than for other fencing. I certainly understand how unattractive it would be to have a solid wall of fencing along the street. I have a six foot, solid wood fence across my tiny front courtyard that was here when we moved in. We desperately need it for a noise barrier (we're right on the busiest street in Grant Park), so I intend to keep fixing it instead of replacing the ugly thing.

First... Manhattan...Thanks for the help. That site is great and I now have the actual approximately 300 page UPC available. Thank You Davidro...Thank you. I could not agree more with your principles and thoughts. Unfortunately with regard to your advice to hire a master plumber, that comes with a significant cost factor that is difficult to overcome in this economy. (The costs that Ca have piled on a homeowner wanting to improve their property, (eg: special epoxy inspectors, special concrete inspectors, special backfill inspectors etc etc etc, make it prohibative for the financially modest homeowner to make improvements, and hire professionals at a reasonable cost. Furthermore there is a matter of principle involved here. I think we as tax payers and honest citizens wanting to do a project correctly, deserve valid and competant advice and answers from our public BO officials who we are paying with our taxes and are drinking from the publc funds. Sorry for the departure. I have reviewed the hard UPC code and can still not find justificaion for the BO position. However, we all know that we don't want to anger a BO official because we all know that no matter how hard we try to do things correctly, we will make honest minor errors in a code that is over 1500 pages and has some nebulous interpetations to it. Regardless of my predicament, THANK YOU both for the assistrance. Peter

That's a generous offer they've made you. The deal sounds good for you, financially. And your parents can rent it out after you leave. As for the privacy question, they probably have the same concern. You and your mom should probably have a talk and come up with some rules in advance. No showing up without calling, or whatever. And that works both ways. Three years doesn't sound like a super long time to me. But I'm older, so 3 years would fly by. That could work for you very well, depending on your attitude and whether you all get along well. And your parents will probably love having easy access to their grandson, and you won't have far to go to drop off baby boy for his afternoon with grandma! It's just possible you'll look back on this arrangement with fondness, in the years to come. It's not like you're single with no kids and will be partying every night, doing things you wouldn't want your parents to know about (like I was doing in my 20s). A problem may come in with the cost. As a poster above mentioned, the renovation may cost more than they originally plan on, and then what? In renovating, problems come up. Problems cost money. Decisions are changed, and that costs money. Could you end up paying more than $500? That's a critical thing in this arrangement, since the renovation isn't done yet. Or will they foot the bill for cost overruns, since it's their property? I moved back into mom's house when I was in my 20s, for a while. It worked out fine, and I wasn't particularly close with my mother. I enjoyed spending time with her and seeing her on a regular basis. I still remember that time fondly, and how kind it was of her to let me stay with her during that time, while I got my life on the right track. I'd do it, if the renovation cost issue I mentioned were ironed out beforehand. How nice of your parents to make this offer. You have some great parents. And I'm sure you're a great daughter, which is why they made the offer!

While I don’t love the idea of living above the garage/having stairs with our 4 dogs, I do like the idea of having room to park our cars if I wanted or have a little shop for projects. I did look at some one bedroom house plans with walk up attics but thought having a garage would be nice and better for resale though I may be wrong about that last part.