Yorba Linda, California
Room additions and Home Remodeling

If you have a pool that is used frequently by your family and guests this outdoor bathroom (accessible from outside only) is a way to divert the wet foot traffic into your house. This pool bath with shower and inside/outside shower heads should at least be on your wish list.

Yorba Linda, California
Orange County Patio Cover

Outdoor kitchen, patio cover, teppan-yaki grill, beautiful counter tops, covered roof with outdoor area heaters. This is a perfect outdoor space for family gatherings while keeping the cooking outside.

Mission Viejo, California
Orange Country Room Additions

This is a rear two story room addition with master bedroom seating area above and outdoor loggia space below.
Seating area has glass down to the floor. The California room below is outdoor living space with decorative wall insets in the stucco wall.

​Buying a new home and moving for this reason alone might not be in your best interest. What if you don’t want to move? Perhaps you love your home, your neighborhood and your school district. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of selling your home and buying a new one then open concept remodeling is probably your best option.
 
As you interview contractors for the job you might find that some will scratch their heads and wonder how it can be done. After all, the vast majority of their contracting career may have been building additions outside the footprint of the home. When it comes to structural retro-fitting they might recommend getting a set of plans with engineering first. That’s where we come in.

​Truplans Inc prepares the plans for awesome open concept living spaces. We have a substantial amount of experience designing open floor plans and removing structural walls.
 
Get all the contractors quoting from the same page. Let Truplans Inc design it in 3D and prepare the retrofitting plans with our experienced engineers.
 

California Market - Construction Estimates

Protect Your Money - Invest In Your Home

You might think that homeowners would stop or delay their home improvement projects due to this current period of inflation. Indeed, if everyone believed what the Fed told us earlier, that inflation was transitory, they would simply wait for inflation to taper off.  However, the Fed just announced what most of us already knew. Inflation is going to continue. This is because the value of the Central Bank’s U.S. fiat currency is on a long-term decline. They don’t want to come out and tell you that, but this is why they keep moving the goal post.
 
Stopping or delaying home improvement plans might be the knee-jerk reaction in the short term, but savvy homeowners are telling us that they want to proceed with their design and construction plans. Their resolve is with even more urgency. Why? As one homeowner put it, “I want to put my money into my home, it’s better than letting it sit in the bank and decline in value.”
 
Your home is your shelter in more ways than just a roof over your head. Although, property values can also decline many feel it’s a more secure way to protect their money these days. If you need the additional living space it makes more sense than ever.
 
Truplans Inc will continue to help homeowners get the best bang for their construction buck. This is especially important in these days of inflation and supply chain issues.

Disclaimer - Truplans Inc is not a financial investment firm. These blog articles are the opinion of the executives only. Always seek advice from a qualified financial planner when making investment decisions.

California Market - Construction Estimates

Force Majeure Clauses

​Now, more than ever, in this inflationary period it is important to be aware of situations that are out of the contractor’s control. Most contract these days will have a force majeure clause in their contract. Force Majeure is a French term that literally means "greater force”. This can refer to acts of God, war, adverse weather, tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires, road closures, etc… Actually it covers anything that is out of the control of the contractor.

​Governor Newsom’s new California EPA Standards are the reason for the shipping crisis at California ports. Today, it is reported that approximately 167 ships are sitting out at sea waiting to unload. Cargo ships are anchored offshore of California because the ports are jammed with containers waiting for trucks. It’s all because the new regulations in California for trucking companies are so strict. Few companies can afford the new compliant trucks. Newsom effectively cut the trucking capacity in half by making the air standards so strict for these vehicles. Bottom line: There are not enough compliant trucks to clear the docks. Steep fines are issued to trucking companies that do not have compliant vehichles and therefore they’ve been forced to stay out of California.
 
This supply line issue may affect projects because many of the building materials have been coming from overseas. Your building materials may only be a few hours away, but government regulations implemented too forcefully have created a crisis. Therefore, force majeure is in effect for building supplies and project pricing.
 
Couple this with the current rate of inflation and you have a very challenging work environment.

California Market - Construction Estimates

Future Solution: Alternative Currency
 
In this article when we say Central Bank [CB], The Fed, or Federal Reserve we are referring to the private Western Central Bank that controls our U.S. fiat currency.
 
As the Federal Reserve note (U.S. fiat currency) loses more and more value we were not surprised when several clients started asking us if we might accept alternate forms of currency. Bitcoin and silver are two subjects that have come up in conversations. We had already been thinking ahead to this possibility before the question ever came up. So we have a little forward thinking on the matter.
 
At this stage we do not have anything solid planned, however, we are in the research phase with regard to alternate currency acceptance.
 
Currency Watch – Texas
Texas Governor Abbott recently created a Block Chain Committee to head up the increased mining of Bitcoin. The head of the new committee recently introduced a proposal to make an amendment to the constitution that would allow homeowners in Texas to pay their property taxes with Bitcoin.
 
Currency Watch – Florida
Last week it was reported through independent journalist that Miami was considering a plan to pay city workers with Bitcoin.
 
Currency Watch – California
Governor Newsom recently signed a bill calling for a new public banking system in California. This is obviously a step connected to the central bank agenda to try and migrate fiat currency users into their new system. However, the Newsom plans have been a disaster across the board. He cannot even get merchandise ashore at our ports due to his own increased EPA air standards which makes half the trucks in the U.S. non-compliant. This means fewer truckers are able to pick up containers from our ports. As of today there are approximately 157 ships backed up off Long Beach and Los Angeles ports. This just further contributes to the whole problem of inflation and supply line shortages.
 
Central Bank [CB] Push Back
Obviously, any conversation about ditching the U.S. fiat currency and migrating to cryptocurrency is going to be strongly opposed by the Central Banking system (i.e. Federal Reserve). Remember, though, the Fed is not actually Federal, it is a private banking corporation. They want to introduce their own form of digital currency and tie it to carbon credits, but you know it will come with a central ledger that they can control. The block chain technology is not a central ledger so you really can’t cheat and you can’t just print more money like what they are used to doing.
 
SEE PART 2 OF THIS BLOG – Friday October 22, 2021

Disclaimer - Truplans Inc is not a financial investment firm. These blog articles are the opinion of the executives only. Always seek advice from a qualified financial planner when making financial decisions.

Riverside, California
Architect Plans for Rear Elevation Home Extension

OC Kitchens project (Mark Horton Constructions) in Riverside. New extension of family room, bedroom and bathroom are in the preliminary planning stages.

Truplans Inc is preparing to begin the design process for this Riverside home. We will be producing the design, architect planning documents, structural plans and acquiring permits for this home improvement project.

California Market - Construction Estimates

Solution #1: Scaling Back To Essential Space

It is the month of October in 2021 and Americans are all starting to feel the pain of inflation. In some cases hyper-inflation. We were told by our government and the Fed that inflation was 5.15% over last year, but that’s not what we’re feeling in real life at gas pumps, restaurants and with construction prices. In the grocery store Beef prices have doubled just in the past month or two.

Inflation & Hyper-Inflation
The Federal Reserve (not actually Federal at all, but private) started out this year telling us that inflation will be transitory. Yesterday they announced that we should get used to it, that inflation is probably going to be with us for a while. Thank you, but we already knew that based on basic math and the evidence around the world that the central bank fiat currency is failing and hyper-inflation is occurring everywhere. Lebanon’s fiat currency has already collapsed with hyper-inflation and the electricity went out to the whole country last weekend for a whole day because the government could not purchase the fuel for the two sustaining power plants.

Upcoming Blog Special: Solution: Alternate Currencies

Construction Contract Prices Go Up – What Next?
Since Truplans Inc secures a good number of construction permits each month throughout California we see the immediate impact of inflation in our industry. Homeowners that received construction quotes at the beginning of the planning process are shocked when the project is requoted based on approved plans. Like a weed growing in your garden you don’t see the growth daily, but come back after 4-6 months and it’s surprising how fast it raised it’s ugly head.

Solution #1 – Essential Space Only
Many homeowners realize that it is still a very good idea to put their cash into their home and property. Home improvement seems to be a much safer place than leaving your money anywhere in the central bank’s declining system. However, inflation has caused budgets to be exceeded and homeowners are scaling back on the scope of their projects. Over the past several months we have seen many major projects scale back their design to essential space only. Many had designed beautiful additions with lots of new functional space. The effects of inflation are very real.

​Scaling back means reprioritizing and building only what you need verses what you want.
Scaling back is the first and obvious solution. We will talk about other solutions that are becoming apparent in upcoming blogs.

Disclaimer - Truplans Inc is not a financial investment firm. These blog articles are the opinion of the executives only. Always seek advice from a qualified financial planner when making financial decisions.

California Market - Construction Estimates

UNDER-PRICED / PAY FOR IT TWICE
What happens when a project is under priced?

It might seem like you’re getting an awesome deal, but if a construction quote seems too low compared to others you should ask why. The contractor may never have told a lie is his life. What happens, however,  when your contractor, striving to be both honest and competitive amidst rising prices, unknowingly quotes your project too low? Do you think you’re getting away with a deal?
 
You might think you are getting a great deal, but a construction price that is too low should raise your concerns. Here’s my experience;
 
During the 2008-2009 market collapse I was asked to come to evaluate a two story addition where the contractor had walked off the job. The roof was still open to the sky and I thought what a dirty contractor he must have been. When I saw the scale of the project and after asking a few key questions I began to realize what had happened.
 
ORIGINAL QUOTE?
One of the questions I asked was, “How much was the original contract?”. The homeowner said the whole job was contracted for $75,000. This was an immediate red flag. I knew by experience that ball parking the project should have been around $150,000. They said the contractor kept asking for payments earlier than expected until they had paid everything and the project was only half done. It did not take long to figure out what happened here. I told the homeowner that the contract amount should have been more like $150,000. This is why the project was only half done. The contractor went out of business on this job because he had failed to properly quote the project.
 
COST TO COMPLETE (Double the Original Contract Plus)
Walking in on a failed project is not so simple. Completing the remainder of this project would undoubtedly cost more than $75,000. The original price tag should have been around $150,000. To add to the problem as a contractor starts running out of money they start taking short cuts. Yes, shortcuts had been taken that needed to be fixed in order to pass inspection. Damaged insulation that was sitting in the open attic had to be thrown away. The new contractor is also in a bad spot. They like pleasing their clients and don’t like walking into a nightmare situation. No matter how hard they try they can’t make up for the unexpected additional funds the homeowner needs to raise to complete the job. There is just no easy solution for a failed project. Everyone loses.
 
BEST PRACTICE TO AVOID NIGHTMARES LIKE THIS

• Get multiple quotes. And then Get more quotes!
• Question everything. Especially when the quote seems a little too low.
• Throw away quotes that seem too good to be true.
• Don’t make your decision solely based on contract price.
• Understand that some contractors will give a “too low price” unknowingly.
• Remember that other contractors might give low prices intentionally. Then they raise the price through change orders because “this and that” were not included.
• Be ready to scale back your project if no one can meet your budget.