The house next door...or how to NOT build a house

[jdurand]

Well, Zillow does show our house has gone down about $100,000 in the last 6 months or so, but all the houses have gone down a little in this area. Still, not too big a deal as long as it doesn't go down a lot before we sell next year. We can't sell until we know the move-in date for the new house and that, of course, depends on winter weather. Last year was VERY wet so our new house wound up with piles under it. The ground wasn't actually soft, but the water table was too close to the surface with all that rain.

I was just discussing our inside staircase with the builders, "no, we do NOT want pretty wedge shaped stairs, we want straight steps, a landing, and more straight steps up to the second floor." I drew up a quick 3D sketch for them, sure handy having a good CAD system. They now appear to understand and even confirmed my stair count (21-22 total steps to get up to the 2nd floor, 3.24 meters rise). They also understand that the top steps should >just< clear a dividing wall on the first floor. They're not used to home owners who can actual caluclate stuff.

Only hassle, there's an 11 hour time difference between here and there, so when I'm going to bed they're up and asking questions.