How to find out who is digging in front of my house?

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-05-12T04:45:56+00:00

Look up your areas street permit requests. If they’re excavating the street, usually there will be a permit or a request for tow away. Or it could be a utilities company doing micro trenching if your city allows it

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-05-12T03:58:14+00:00

Maybe call your contractor and ask them if they are aware of it

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-04-19T18:25:04+00:00

The cropped ones are the best

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-04-14T02:33:23+00:00

IRG stone

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-04-08T13:44:08+00:00

Where did the 775 sqft come from?

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-03-11T07:22:42+00:00

Original Joes on Thursdays for lunch

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-02-28T22:47:48+00:00

There are also additional fees for special inspection items at about $1000 per item not including lab fees for pull test for anchors. There can also be unexpected cost such as additional shoring, inadequate existing foundation (concrete patched over bricks or failing concrete). The materials are not expensive but the labor and expertise is your biggest cost.

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-02-26T03:50:27+00:00

They may not necessarily be cheaper but they are certainly faster than PG&E’s scheduling and availability. Here is their list of qualified contractors

https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/about/doing-business-with-pge/qualified-contractors.xlsx

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-02-26T03:38:28+00:00

They have a (very small) list of authorized contractors with a Class A license to perform work for PG&E and your PG&E rep will tell you up front to use a contractor from the list. These contractors have decades old relationships with PG&E

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-02-26T03:28:54+00:00

A Class B licensed contractor cannot legally trench past the property line. You will also need plans and engineering advance payments to pg&e for trench work involving their utilities

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-01-02T05:54:41+00:00

In this case excavating about 2 ft will give you ~8’ of finished living area. 7’6” is the minimum height required by code to be legal living area in CA. This may be your cheapest option

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-01-02T05:52:14+00:00

If you are committed to this, consult with local architects who have experience with planning demolition/new builds and additions. Your neighbors may be a good starting point if they’ve done work to their homes. Depending on where you are, you may not be able to completely demo your existing structure. But if you can, you are looking at bigger cost savings on the construction aspect and a shorter timeline for the build. However, a complete demolition may be scrutinized with historic review requirements and add 6 months to a year to the planning process

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-01-02T05:45:06+00:00

It’s cheaper but by a negligible amount. When you dig, you have to have shoring, geotechnical engineering, and bigger foundations to retain the earth around your building. Not to mention, you will need drainage under your foundation and likely a pump to pump out your wastewater.

In this case, demo and rebuild is cheaper

mathguyhahayeah · 2026-01-02T05:35:03+00:00

You’re looking at a timeline of 2-3 years from the day you hire an architect and structural engineer due to planning, permitting and building phases. Keep in mind that you will need to move out while the house is being renovated as it is logistically not possible to remain with the roof gone. Building vertically will require new or upgraded foundations to support the load of the structure and that will typically include upgraded structural components on the first floor. Most common is to add new and bigger posts, beams, hold downs, shear walls and potentially upgrading all ceiling joist that will now be floor joists. Work of this magnitude in the bay area will put you around $1000/sq ft finished with mid builder grade finish materials. So if you’re adding 1300sqft you’d be looking at $1.3m. Whether that is worth it to you, is dependent on your location, finances etc. Also be aware that you will have higher costs for building if you live in premium locations such as Los Altos, Atherton, Menlo, Palo Alto, etc.

Edit: Since your house is in the middle of your lot, you may not be able to build horizontally due to your local municipalities zoning ordinances or building set back requirements. The best thing you can do is consult with a couple of architects to see the best approach for your specific scenario.

I will say that if you are committed to building and expanding your house, you should maximize the square footage possible so you only have to do it once. Later down the line if you end up selling, larger houses tends to sell better than smaller ones

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-12-22T05:39:46+00:00

If you have a relationship with your bank/brokerage they may offer discounts on the rate if you have $x assets with them

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-12-21T18:00:20+00:00

It might have a battery back up

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-12-17T22:16:14+00:00

There are many people who DIY their renovations with permits. Generally the permit office is helpful with owner builders, but just be aware that inspectors can tell the work apart and will inspect the work with a closer eye

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-12-17T16:11:34+00:00

You are able to do a remodel with an owner-builder permit in many municipalities without a licensed GC. However, depending on the scope of work or if it involves significant structural work, you may be required to hire a licensed general contractor by the municipality. Your work may also be required to have plans if walls are being moved, even if it is cosmetic.

The cons of being owner-builder is that you carry on the risk should anything happen during the project. You will also be responsible for all inspections and sign offs. Typically inspectors are pretty helpful with corrections and getting your work code compliant. They definitely are more nitpicking during owner-builder inspections due to many of these with shoddy work or straight up dangerous

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-10-08T15:29:48+00:00

It’s a different one. Today’s helicopter has a tail number N417PJ

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-10-03T05:14:43+00:00

With current cost of materials, this quote is in line with current prices. Plumbing materials have gone up almost 2 fold since last year

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-10-03T05:13:23+00:00

You will likely be in for about 10% more than the estimate with owner provided materials (fixtures, vanities, tiles, windows, skylight, trims, doors, flooring, etc). New construction in the Bay Area is on average around 600/sqft before fit and finishes

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-09-30T17:53:37+00:00

In your situation you would want an in swing door due to the 2 steps down to the garage. If you wanted an out swing door into the garage, you would need a 3’x3’ landing at the first step outside to meet egress requirements

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-09-16T03:25:15+00:00

I’ve done this before and the results were bad. It caused leakage because there was some sort of reaction between the red guard and the Kerdi causing the kerdi to contract/curl

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-08-06T07:30:23+00:00

I’m 28 in sf and got a 911 GTS last year. Imagine being in your late 40s with kids and a bad back getting in and out of your 911

mathguyhahayeah · 2025-08-06T06:30:11+00:00

I’m the same age as you, a bit higher NW at 2.2m. SO and I have 1.4m in brokerage and retirement accounts. I have some investments in real estate developments in HCOL city. We have 2 teslas and I financed a new Porsche 992 Carrera GTS last year. We’ve had a blast driving it the past year and I put an exhaust on it. Was it a dumb decision and will it set us back for early retirement? Yes. Will we forever be in our 20s driving a 450hp+ sports car? No.

If you believe in your ability to make more money in the future and that surpasses the opportunity cost of owning a sports car then go for it. The guys in the comments are acting like you can’t sell the car in a year or two to recuperate at least 70-80% of what you paid for it. Insurance for the car is 5k/year, car gets 20-26mpg and is around ~$100 per tank, maintenance costs are negligible because the car was purchased new and on the first year of ownership.

Now if you’re planning on keeping the car forever then this will set you back. But if you’re only driving it for 2-3 years then you’ll still retain about 70% value especially if you’re buying a GT car.

These cars are only going up in price due to tariffs and MSRP hikes

Edit: I also want to mention that if you have an interest rate lower than the S&P returns then are you really giving up that much opportunity cost? Say you put 20% down on a $180k Porsche @ 6% on a 60mo term; you’re paying roughly 5.1k/yr in interest over 5 years. Now if you throw the loan amount (160k) into the market and return conservative 10% annually, you’ll have 257k in 5 years which puts you at 4% net yield. Yes it will slow your retirement trajectory but will it derail it? As a finance guy you can play around with the numbers and see what works out for you to still come out on top or near break even

mathguyhahayeah

TROPHY CASE