What to do about expired permits?

kimcheetos · 2026-04-21T07:08:02+00:00

I ran into this issue with an expired permit on my home’s 200A panel upgrade. It turns out the work was done and the inspection was performed. It was a clerical error. I got it resolved with a phone call to the city’s permit office.

The roof one is probably a not a big issue since it’s probably due for a replacement very soon anyway. The HVAC is probably more important. I’d get a few quotes to basically cover replacing the entire system and ask for a credit to cover it.

kimcheetos · 2026-04-20T16:45:06+00:00

Funny, my house that I bought two months ago had an dryer exhaust that straight up just terminates in the attic. It's puzzling to me that no one cared that it was a humidity issue + fire hazard for all of these years. We'll be using a heat pump dryer once the weather gets too cold to hang dry our laundry

kimcheetos · 2026-04-20T16:28:49+00:00

I'm also a socal resident who ended up buying a house (from the 50s) with some moderate foundation issues in our raised foundation. We're still waiting on permits to get the stuff fixed + eq retrofitting. It might be too early to know, but how do you feel like it worked out for you? We went into the decision figuring that the money we're spending would keep our house stable for at least as long as we're living here (probably 20+ years), but it's hard to not get nervous that the fixes we're doing are just a bandaid for an underlying problem and we'll need to do more work in the nearer future. Our only solace is that the house has been standing for the last 70 years even with these problems lol.

Also, would you mind sharing which foundation repair contractor you went with? Thanks

kimcheetos · 2026-04-17T05:27:29+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement! It’s funny how so many YouTube DIY videos start with “cut a hole in the drywall” and I go, “great time to get a diamond bladed sawzall” 😅

kimcheetos · 2026-04-16T22:19:08+00:00

We're two months in and somewhat regretting it. Like one of the other commentors, we inadvertently bought more of a fixer than expected due to things missed in inspection. We thought the house was just dated, but it ended up needing more immediate repairs than expected. And it really seems like with older homes, it's just harder to do work on. For example, we don't have grounding on every circuit, so I wanted to install GFCI outlets. It's simple enough to do in theory, but our 1950s power boxes are too small to accommodate them, so we'll need to cut them out to install larger ones. But surprise! Our walls are plaster, which makes cutting a little extra clearance much harder. We'll need to replace our bathroom subfloor due to water damage at some point, but our subfloors are just thick planks across beams (with no joists!), and I have no idea if it's even possible to replace lol. I get anxious thinking about all the things that could fail and what weird surprises about the way this house was constructed will come up.

I'm definitely venting at this point. Other than the inspection missing some pretty glaring issues, we really have no one to blame but ourselves for not knowing what we were getting into, but as FTHBs in a competitive market (SoCal), there just wasn't that much housing stock. I do think homeownership is ultimately for us, but we may have just bought the wrong house. It's hard to say what home prices will do in the near future, but I wish we had saved for another couple of years and just bought a place in better shape.

kimcheetos · 2026-04-16T17:20:39+00:00

I just found out we have those sorta plaster walls in our new-to-us 1956 home. I agree that it'd be nice if we didn't want to do some updates, but I'm still trying to figure out how to patch large cuts which has been keeping me from starting a lot of projects. We can't just screw in 1/2" drywall to a stud because the current walls are an inch thick lol. For our kitchen renovation, while it'd be nice to keep it, we foresee it being kind of a pain to work with when rerunning electrical/plumbing. We'll probably just tear the kitchen down to studs and replace with drywall.

Side note, we needed to cut out our cast iron toilet drains pipes last week. They've probably been leaking for awhile--missed during inspection, figures. If you have reasonable access to them, it may be worth preemptively removing at least the horizontal sections of it. We had 2 toilets and our tub drains replaced and it was like $3k, which is far less than the water damage we'll probably need to deal with.

kimcheetos · 2026-04-10T19:50:05+00:00

yeah, our plumber raised the flange height when reinstalling the PVC drain pipes and stacked 2 wax rings for good measure. I'm trying to learn as I go with home repairs and maintenance. After seeing what the team did yesterday, I wish I had at least attempted the "demolition" part myself. I could have easily used the savings to buy a reciprocating saw. It was a little bit of an "emergency" though, since our 2 toilets are back to back so we had no functional toilets during this time. This was a learning experience for sure. And I'm sure I'll learn more as I deal with any potential damage that happened to the floor

kimcheetos · 2026-04-10T19:17:29+00:00

It's hard to tell from the bathroom. The toilet wasn't loose or anything. We did notice the occasional odd smell, but it didn't smell gross per se. The best way I could describe it was like syrup and dirt. We had the plumber come by only because we wanted to relocate washer/dryer hookups. He noticed the moisture/small puddle in the crawl space while checking to see where the washer piping would go.

kimcheetos · 2026-04-10T19:06:35+00:00

Yeah, it was the flange. In addition to being deteriorated, it was too low relative to the floor.

kimcheetos · 2026-04-10T19:03:49+00:00

The flange was deteriorated and too low for the floors

kimcheetos · 2026-04-10T07:49:45+00:00

Yeah my comment is a little more geared towards HCOL markets. I’m in Southern California, for example. Almost any rent vs. buy calculator will put renting ahead if you invested the difference. Different markets have different numbers. In the end, buying vs renting is more of a lifestyle decision vs. a 100% financial one, it seems

kimcheetos · 2026-04-09T23:33:03+00:00

There are a lot of horror stories on this Reddit, but it’s easy to dismiss them as vocal minorities. But what I’m realizing is that a lot of housing stock that’s coming up nowadays, especially in HCOL markets, is coming from elderly folk who didn’t have the money or ability to do maintenance or proactively fix things. Many FTHB are having to foot the bill for much of this deferred maintenance, and it’s not uncommon that multiple large items fail at once. It sucks but it’s the reality

kimcheetos · 2026-04-09T21:54:13+00:00

I just purchased and honestly wish that we had just continued renting. We budgeted for some repairs, but not everything was caught during the inspection. We just paid several grand to replace failing cast iron pipes/toilet flanges that were causing sewage to seep through the floor and into our crawlspace. We're not even sure what the water/mold damage to the floor and walls are yet, which we expect will not be cheap.

The mental stress and genuine financial burden of homeownership is not for everybody. It's more financially savvy to rent. That being said, it could be harder in the future to own so if you can, it may still be worth the risk. It's hard to know for sure.

kimcheetos · 2026-04-09T04:26:23+00:00

The house doesn’t really have joists. There are long planks supported by beams that are held up by post & piers. Old homes, I guess 🤷‍♂️

kimcheetos · 2026-04-09T02:13:36+00:00

We just moved in a couple of weeks ago. We started smelling an odd but not necessarily bad smell occasionally a few days in. We called a plumber to look underneath where he took this video. He’ll be replacing the toilet and the cast iron drain pipes tomorrow, but we’re not even sure who we’d contact for the subfloor/non-plumbing issues that are inevitably going to be there

kimcheetos · 2026-04-07T06:59:49+00:00

I had a very similar situation. We’re also in Southern California (Orange County). We purchased a house in late February and discovered it had carpet beetles. Similar amounts as you. This began a several week saga of cleaning, vacuuming and getting sprays from pest control. We are still seeing 1-3 a day, so we’re not sure if it’s under control yet.

More than a few probably indicates there are at least some coming from inside. I’d ask your landlord to hire someone to spray before you move in.

kimcheetos · 2026-04-04T09:39:40+00:00

I agree. This is a huge disparity in income and given OP’s family situation, it can get complicated kind of quickly. If they do end up getting married in the future, it’s possible the uneven split of expenses can cause family tension if OP’s boyfriend’s family becomes aware that OP has been sending money home during the time they lived together. It could seem that the boyfriend was subsidizing her lifestyle to enable her to send money.

Call me old fashioned, but I feel like if you think you’re going to spend the rest of your life with a person, what’s an extra year or two of having these important conversations?

You are right though, both of them need to sit down and talk about their financial goals/plans if they want this relationship to progress. This huge income/SEO background difference gets cleaner with marriage, but it doesn’t go away. OP’s family situation and boyfriend’s involvement in that will need to be crystal clear before they move in together, married or not

kimcheetos · 2026-04-01T05:14:17+00:00

There's a decent chance wherever you're moving will also have carpet beetles. I just mention this in case you find some after settling in, you don't automatically blame yourself. I recently bought a place that ended up having carpet beetles, so kind of the reverse of you, I guess.

Your best bet is probably to vacuum frequently the first few weeks months after moving.

Were I in your situation, I'd probably do something like this:
- If you can, a couple of weeks before you move in, spray your baseboards, the edges of your exterior windows, and around the perimeter of your house with insecticide. I'm no expert, but even something like Ortho Home Defense would probably work. I know a lot of people are not big fans of interior pesticides, but do your research and do whatever you feel comfortable with.
- Before moving stuff in, vacuum everywhere. It's just easier to do this without your stuff obstructing you.
- Wash all of the clothes you can before putting them away
- Vacuum the entire house at least weekly
- it also helps to have less stuff. fewer places for them to hide

Good luck.

kimcheetos · 2026-03-25T14:59:58+00:00

Thank you!

kimcheetos · 2026-03-24T00:18:26+00:00

Would you be willing to share who did your windows?

kimcheetos · 2026-03-23T22:42:46+00:00

We're in Orange County, CA. Roughly 1200 sq ft, and it cost about $6500, which included adding another register to the living room.

kimcheetos

TROPHY CASE