So...my home is basically ruined.

Do you know how to build a tepee?

 

you might want to contact city hall and find out what the rules are. they might give you a break since it's an emergency situation.

even better to talk to someone who knows the low down

it might be technically illegal, but no one will do anything unless someone complains, and the the penalty might be a small fine or something.

do you want to give more details about your plans to move? how far away? undeveloped property, house built later as moonglow said?

 

Sorry. Had to leave this party for another one last night. That was a rager. Perfect time with great friends to get our minds off of the house. But alas....back to reality and trying to find a place to stay.

Anyway....plans to move....we live in Iowa but want to move to California in a year or two. There is a lot involved with that. My wife has family that lives in Carmel (near Monterey). Carmel is probably out of our price range but we probably can afford to live in Carmel Valley which is just a little ways inland. I found 10 acres out there. My wife does stained glass so the plan is to open a shop in the valley and later possibly open another business. So moving a mobile home to where we want to move isn't a bad idea but in this case it's probably not very economical. It would be much cheaper to buy one closer to CA. and move it until we built a house. But all of that is in the future. Things are happening too fast here for us to be able to tie the future move into this deal. But it would be nice to be able to do.

 

We moved 2 shipping containers full of shoe making equipment out of there and up to Ojai when I worked for the boot maker out there. Nice area but dry... Very dry. Before you settle on getting that particular 10 acres, if it happens at all, be sure someone is going to be able to hit a good solid consistent well hole for you. Otherwise it's a useless 10 acres.

 

That is actually my biggest concern. There has to be water and it's really bad out there right now. But I think we've decided against that particular plot of land because it's 17 miles from town but a 40 minute drive because of the hills, etc.

The running plan is to wait on the land and have my wife and daughter move out there about 6-8 months before I plan to sell my business or hire/promote someone to run it. They will probably just rent a place for a while and get established, open the shop, etc while I stay here to hold down the fort. I don't like the idea of not living with them for that long but I can fly out there every couple of months and stay for a week or so.

 

Same thing( sort of) happened to # 2 son. Everyone was gone and a water line above the ceiling broke, flooded the whole house and ruined everything. Insurance gave him a check for 15,000 and he did a lot of the work himself and saved some money for some extras. I'm really sorry about your pets not making it. That hurts.

You may want to change your mind about California what with the drought and all. It's getting worse all the time and well drilling is REALLY an expensive proposition. Sorry you're having to go through this.

We have so much water up here, it's ridiculous.

 

My pets are fine. I think Trysonswoods pet didn't make it though.

But yeah...it's going to be an expensive repair. Substantially more than $15k. They are saying over $50k in damage and they haven't even torn into anything yet. The house is 114 years old and everything they uncover has to be rebuilt to code. I've done a lot of work on this house and every single time I've torn into something it's been 3 times as much work as I initially expected to fix it correctly. I once had a leak in the bathroom. By the time I was finished I basically gutted the bathroom, replaced all the plumbing and built everything back up. One stupid leak! I'm guessing this will possibly be more like $75k in the end.

But the water issue....I have an idea...I say we say to hell with some huge oil pipeline and we build a water pipeline from the midwest. We wouldn't pump water during normal season but when we get the floods we could move massive amounts of water into the aquifers on the west coast. It would be super expensive but if we can build stupid oil pipeline we should instead build a water pipeline.

 

My parents' house caught fire June 1. They've been living in a hotel since. It's not a luxurious life (aside from the daily housekeeping service and the pool and hottub downstairs) but their insurance has covered every penny. They also offered to pay rent on a house until they can get back in their house, but unfortunately there was a huge wildfire 3 weeks prior to the house fire that destroyed a huge percentage of rental houses out here and now all the other rent houses are being occupied by people driven out by the wildfire.

 

Oh, I got confused about the pets. It always seems to me that almost any project takes twice as much money and twice as much time as one originally figured.
Desalination is about the only way to go in Cal, if the geologist that I saw the other day was correct in saying that between 900 AD and 1400 AD was a drought there. If that reoccurs, everything will be worth nothing there. Anyway---good luck with whatever you decide.

 

if it were a closer, less complicated move, i would have said do it now, but that's not the case.

if this drought keeps up, i'd expect land values to go down, though land that has a good water would probably go up quite a bit.

maybe her family should move to Iowa instead

 

Beautiful country near Monteray. I am sure you wll be happy there . Stained glass is beautiful. That is a lovely business....You will have more opportunity in CA to play to crowds with your music, probably.
Things seem crazy and quick to you now, but just keep you goal in mind, like a ballet dancer does.....she spots a spot and can do her turns perfectly, with her eyes on the designation point.. It is the same about life.....keep you eye on your dream,, and you will get there......
Wishing you and your family the best....and a smooth sailing without too many more obstacles....

 

A better idea would be to put an end to the opulence of maintaining an artificial green oasis in the desert. We've got to stop wasting water on stupid shit like watering lawns, giant resorts with their sprawling golf courses, (as much as I love the game) etc...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/25/3464318/groundwater-southwest-satellites/

I would certainly consider the water thing a factor if I were moving... it's bad enough around here. The river is super low, still plenty of wildfire season left I'm afraid .

 

Sorry to hear that. Good thing the insurance is paying though. I bet there are a lot of people in the area living in hotels right now.

 

They used to live here. They would laugh and laugh at the suggestion of moving back. It's not bad here but it's not two blocks from Carmel Beach either. That's one of the beaches you see if you ever watch a PGA tournament at Pebble Beach on tv. I'd love to get to play a round of golf there but it's about $500 for 18 holes and there is no way I'm paying that. But one time I did climb up the bank from the beach to watch people play. They didn't look any better at golf than me. Just wealthier obviously.

 

If anyone cares to know, it's been an interesting and hectic day. I did, in fact, have the adjuster come by and give me a check. I don't know his motive but he said all we needed to do was have the mortgage company endorse it and then us sign it and we could move forward. I said "I'm going to have my attorney look it all over before signing anything." He said "I don't think you need to bring your attorney into it at this point" (Seriously, dude?) I said "I'm a business person. We don't do deals like this on a handshake without my legal interests being represented". He didn't have a lot to say about it after that.

I like the guy. He seems to be wanting to do the most for us. But that doesn't mean shit. When someone tells you that you don't need an attorney.....you need an attorney. My lawyer got a chuckle out of that.

Aside from that....it's been a little surprising to see how this is unfolding. They seem to have given us a substantial amount for things that won't need to be paid for and have even told us that they know they are doing it but we can use the extra money for other improvements and costs if we want to. For instance....since most of the damage was to drywall that was hung over the original plaster (which is why it has to be torn out) they have to pay for us to have the walls and ceilings done with plaster and then also pay for drywall to be hung over the plaster. You would never do that and plaster is super expensive but they have to pay to restore it back to the way it was.

Another cost (of many) that we won't have to incur is the price of moving furniture out of the house and into the portable storage unit outside. They estimated the labor rate to be nearly $600 per effected room. Hell, we can pack everything up, spend $50 on beer, make a few phone calls to friends and have this place empty in 2 hours.

So....some good news but maybe some shadiness too. Maybe everything will be fine. But if there is anything wrong with this process, I have the right guy on the job to sniff it out. I'm halfway tempted to sit on that check and pay for tearing everything out myself just so we know exactly what the damage is. If it's what they say it is, I'll sign the check. If not, I can have them come back out. Going to just wait to see what my attorney thinks though.

 

When someone says you don’t need a lawyer; it’s a case of semantics because it means you need an attorney.

We just had a severe line of storms pass through our ares (no damage) but earlier today 50 miles south; the city of Revere was hit with a F2 Tornado that wrecked houses, businesses, and ruined lives



Hotwater

 

If it's plastered properly you don't need the drywall... Just try to find anyone that knows how to plaster and get it right. Those guys passed on years ago...


Good call on the lawyer, hopefully everything is above board and you can move on with repairs. Watch the timing on that check though, it may be time limited.

 

After I posted that, the contractor who came out with the adjuster called me. I asked if he had emailed his bid yet. He said that what the adjuster gave me was exactly the same as his bid. He said he knew some things looked over-priced but many things were under-priced so it was a wash and they had to do it in an all-or-nothing kind of way to make money. I didn't see anything on that list that looked under-priced. Right down to the cost for dumpsters. So he has a 10% loss on the price of paint but expects to be paid a lot more for everything else and then...on top of that....he expects to be paid thousands of dollars for work that wasn't even done? We aren't talking $2k here. We're talking about big sump of money....for nothing.

I also talked to another contractor who said they use the same computer program. So just giving contractors the complete list of work/specs might not change the bids much. I'm going to have to edit out the things that we aren't paying for. This way, if we take this deal, we have as much money left as possible in case we have unexpected and uninsured costs. (Some costs can be covered later) And maybe I'll just act as the general contractor if need be. I don't have a problem with that.

 

Something smell fishy to you?

 

If the check is in your name---you can then get any contractor/s you want. You won't have to use one/s the insurance company has used for your bid/work. Been through it, as have my son and my late lady friend.

In other words--it's your money--not the contractor/s or the insurance companies money once it's issued to you.