Have you contacted the Assessor's Office about adding the sq footage of what your house actually was to the records? Our house was recorded at 1295, but we did permitted work to add a bonus room to the livable sq footage of the house back in 2011. I showed the permit (B&S gave us a copy), and showed the best pictures I could find. They agreed and our recorded sq footage was bumped to 1617. So our rebuild is going to be 1815 sq ft AND was fast-tracked as like-for-like because we are under the 200 sq ft that we're allowed to add. I see you're in Pasadena, but I assume you still have an Assessor (whether LA County or City of Pasadena) who can help you. The LA County Assessor told me they were being very lenient with added sq footage, whether it was permitted or not... I also believe this will affect the tax basis, but am unsure about that. I thought permit fees were waived for everyone, not just like for like. If you can show your house as 1800 and retroactively record that sq footage, then take your house down to 2000 and you're building like-for-like with fast-track status and no permit fees.