April 12, We're $20,000 over budget

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Budget Shortcomings

We had several items crop up:

Foundation $10,000- We initially reserved just $15,000 for the foundation. When we received our first bid of $25,000 we were really surprised and disappointed. We decided to get more bids, which all fell within a few hundred dollars of each other. Then we thought that we could do our own subcontracting work and some of the actual work but our contractor convinced us that this would not be a good option for us.

We have made up our minds about who which foundation contractor we'll hire; he seems the most capable and friendly. Also, I do volunteer work for his wife who is an environmental activist and it was a pure coincidence that he bid on our project. Anyway, we feel good about our choice.

Engineering $900- We incurred extra fees just because they underestimated the amount of time for our project.

Radiant Flooring $7,200- Cost of the upgrade.

Copper Plumbing $800- This was a required upgrade since PEX is not approved for use in unicorporated L.A.

One extra tankless heater $1,000- Required by L.A. County so we aren't using an open hydronic in-floor system.

Tree Removal $1000 We're paying a local to remove 4 Eucalyptus trees as required by the forestry division.

Electric Hookup $1000- The field agent from SCE gave us a quote 6 months ago for $2,300. When she prepared the final estimate (it took her 6 months!) it was $3,300.

Permitting

Still no more progress from the last entry. We've resubmitted our plans with the corrections and we're still waiting.

We will have to close our loan entirely and rewrite another with a higher amount- $300,000 for the whole project. The only catch is that we need to have the house appraise for a higher amount to unlock the extra money. Property values have gone up in the last 6 months, so we're not too worried.