independent contractor agreement: Mayıs 2012

30 Mayıs 2012 Çarşamba

March 22: Open Bar and Small Business Primer at Shanahan's in Woodridge

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O'Flaherty Law and DDZ Accountng invite you to join us on Thursday, March 22, 2012 for an informative and fun evening at Shanahan's pub (1999 W. 75h St., Woodridge, Illinois). Open bar and free appetizers will run from 7pm to 9pm.

Attorney Kevin P. O'Flaherty, accountant D Zorea, financial adviser Justin J. Villanueva, and commercial real estate broker Troy Golden will discuss strategies for small business success. Whether you are just starting your business or an experienced business owner looking for a tune-up, this event will provide you with a road map to keep your business legally and financially secure.
After the presentation we hope you will stick around and get to know the speakers as well as the O'Flaherty Law staff.
If you have any questions about this event or any other topic, pleas feel free to give us a call at (630)324-6666, drop us an e-mail at info@oflaherty-law.com, or check out our website. We look forward to seeing you there!

Videoblog: O'Flaherty Law Small Business Seminar

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Please enjoy part 1 of the Small Business Primer seminar presented by O'Flaherty Law and DDZ accounting. Parts 2 and 3 of this seminar can be found on our youtube channel along with our previous seminar on wills and trusts and all of our informational videoblogs.

The topics discussed in our Small Business Primer seminar include:

I. Entity Selection - how to choose between S Corps, LLCs, C Corps, and Partnerships

II. How to get your business up and running

Incorporation and maintenance of your corporate book
Quickbooks
The initial meeting with your accountant
Insurance
How to obtain an EIN (Employer Identification Number)
Contacting the Illinois Department of Revenue for a Tax Identification Number
Dealing with special licenses and regulations that are necessary for your particular business

III. How to make the transition to being an employer

Hiring a payroll service
Dealing with benefits - steering clear of ERISA problems
Obtaining Department of Labor posters
Registering with the Illinois Department of Employment Security & Dealing with Unemployment Insurance
Worker's Compensation insurance
The elements of an employment agreement

Non-compete clause
Confidentiality of trade secrets and other info
Enforcement clause
Probationary period

Creating an employee handbook for systematized and documented expectations and discipline
The importance of termination letters
Considering independent contractors as an alternative

IV. Finding space for your growing enterprise.
If you are a small business owner, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have, or to set up a free consultation.

O'Flaherty Law is based in Downers Grove and Chicago, Illinois. Our attorneys have expertise in Corporate Representation, Commercial Litigation, Divorce, Bankruptcy, Estate Planning, and DUI defense. Please visit our website at www.oflaherty-law.com for more information and resources or e-mail us at info@oflaherty-law.com with any questions or suggestions for future articles.

"I'm a new business owner -- how many different types of taxes do I need to pay?"

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Today, our friend, D Zorea of DDZ Accounting Group, submits the following article:

If you're a new business owner and are feeling overwhelmed by the prospects of paying too many taxes, it might be because there are so many different types of taxes for which to account. Depending on your type of business, an Illinois business owner will be liable for different taxes including (but not limited to):

Sales: Does your business sell widgets, or food products? You are responsible for collecting the state (and sometimes local municipality's) Sales and Use Tax and remitting these back to the appropriate taxing agencies. Sales tax rates can range around 7.5% to 10%.
Payroll: Do you have employees? You will be matching your employee's payroll withholding taxes, as well as contributing to federal and state unemployment insurance premiums based on your employees' earned wages.
Franchise: The state of Illinois charges a Franchise tax of 1.5% for corporate business owners. This includes LLC, C-corporations and S-corporations, but not sole-proprietors or unincorporated partnerships.
Income: Similar to sole-propietorships, S-corporations and LLC's are considered "pass-through" entities. In other words the net profits of those businesses "pass-through" to their owners and are taxed at the business-owners' individual tax rates. The income tax returns for S-corps and LLC's generate a K-1 form for each shareholder or LLC member; these are the business owner's equivalents to an employee's W-2 form. However, different from a W-2 which typically already includes income tax withholding, a business owner with net-income from his/her business can either file and pay quarterly estimated taxes throughout the year or pay the lump-sum with the year-end income-tax return.

For the above taxes, the IRS and Illinois state agencies may apply late file or late-pay penalties; so work with your tax-professional to calculate the correct taxes due, maximize your tax return, file on time, pay on time, and save all that time and headache of doing it alone. For other questions, please contact D Zorea at DDZ Accounting -- e: d@ddzgroup.com, p: 630-368-0183, other client-testimonials at www.facebook.com/ddzaccounting.

If I file for bankruptcy, can I keep my house and cars?

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If you file for bankruptcy, you still have an opportunity to keep your house and vehicles. Whether this will be possible depends on two factors: (1) how much equity you have in the property that you are attempting to keep; and (2) whether your equity in the property exceeds the bankruptcy exemption for that type of property; (3) if you have a loan secured by the property, whether the bank will agree to reaffirm the loan despite the bankruptcy; and (4) whether you will be able to afford to continue to make your loan payments after the bankruptcy.

Step 1 - How much equity do you own in the property you are trying to keep?

First, you must determine how much equity you own in the property that you are hoping to retain. Equity is determined by subtracting the balance of any mortgages or other loans secured by the property from the value of the property. For example, if your house is worth $100,000.00, and you have a balance of $75,000.00 on your mortgage, then you have $25,000.00 of equity in your house.

Step 2 - Does your equity in the property exceed the bankruptcy exemption for that type of property?

Second, determine whether your equity in the property in question is greater than or less than your state's bankruptcy exemption for such property. Federal and state statutes provide that certain types of property are exempt from inclusion in the bankruptcy estate, up to a certain monetary value. This means that if your ownership interest (equity) in a piece of property is less than the statutory exemption amount, the trustee cannot sell such property for the benefit of your creditors.

For example, the Illinois exemption for residences is $15,000.00. So, if you have less than $15,000.00 of equity in your residence, the trustee cannot sell your residence for the benefit of your creditors.

Illinois has a $2,400.00 exemption for vehicles and a $4,000.00 "wildcard exemption" that can be applied to any personal property (meaning anything but real estate). So, if you use to use your wildcard exemption on your vehicle, you can keep your vehicle so long as you have less than $6,400.00 in equity in the vehicle.

You should note that the vehicle and residence exemption amounts are doubled if you are filing jointly with your spouse and you and your spouse jointly own the property in question.

In your analysis, you should also bear in mind that if your equity in a given piece of property is slightly greater than the exemption amount for such property, you still may be able to keep the property, because the trustee may decide that the monetary benefit to your creditors would be outweighed by the burden of taking possession of the property, selling it, and distributing the proceeds.

So, the bottom line is that if you have less equity in a particular piece of property than the statutory exemption amount for that type of property, or if it is close, the trustee will not seize the property and sell it for the benefit of your creditors.

Step 3 - If you have a loan secured by the property, will the bank agree to a reaffirmation agreement?

If you own the property in question free and clear, then Step 2 should be the end of your analysis. Usually however, property such as residences and vehicles are secured by a loan. If you want to retain the property in question, you will have to reaffirm the loan. This is accomplished by executing a contract with the bank that holds the loan, called a reaffirmation agreement, whereby you and the bank both agree that the loan will not be wiped away in bankruptcy with the rest of your debt. After your bankruptcy, you will still have the debt represented by the loan and still be required to make payments as you were prior to the bankruptcy.

If you do not execute a reaffirmation agreement and file it with the court, you will no longer be responsible for the loan, but the bank will have the right to collect the property secured by the loan (i.e. you won't have to make your mortgage payments or be responsible for the mortgage balance, but the bank can take your house).

Banks are almost universally willing to execute reaffirmation agreements.

Step 4 - will you be able to afford to make the loan payments after the bankruptcy?

When you file your reaffirmation agreement with the court, you will have to determine whether the assumption of the loan creates a presumption of undue hardship. This is done by subtracting your monthly expenses including the loan payments from your monthly income. If you do not have enough monthly income to pay for your monthly expenses (including the loan payments), then the court will presume that reaffirmation of the loan creates a hardship upon you. If this is the case, you will have to appear in court and explain to the judge how you expect to be able to make monthly loan payments after bankruptcy. The judge will then determine whether to allow the reaffirmation agreement.

If there is no presumption of undue hardship or if the judge allows the reaffirmation agreement despite the presumption of undue hardship, you will be able to keep the property after your bankruptcy.

Tenants' Rights 101

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Most apartment tenants have a horror story or two: busted pipes, leaks, mold, infestation, horrible neighbors, etc.--and many of these apartment tenants probably did nothing about these horror stories, believing that their only remedy was moving out. Historically this was the case, but today tenants have a variety of rights to ensure that they live in peace and comfort.
Implied in every lease is an implied warranty of habitability, which requires that the apartment be maintained in a livable condition by the landlord. Working pipes, plumbing, heat, removal of insects and rodents, and keeping the premises within the housing code are the some of the basic requirements of this warranty.
If a breach of the implied warranty of habitability arises and the landlord fails to remedy the problem within a reasonable time, the tenant has several remedies. The tenant may (1) move out and terminate the lease, (2) repair the problem and deduct that cost from the rent, (3) reduce the rent by the damage done, or (4) sue for damages. If the tenant does not wish to take advantage of these remedies, he or she should document all of the damage to ensure that the security deposit is not reduced due to the landlord’s negligence.
Additionally, If the tenant entered into a nice, clean apartment with relatively high rent, only to see the place fall into disrepair, the tenant can sue to have rent reduced by the lowered property value of the premises.
Tenants may not own their apartment, but they do own the possessory right to that apartment: they are entitled to exclusive possession of their entire apartment for the term of the lease. Unless the law of the city provides otherwise, even landlords are not allowed to enter a leased apartment without permission. If the landlord does so he or she is committing a trespass.
Further, Landlords cannot evict tenants without good cause. Good cause generally requires nonpayment of rent for no reason, illegal activities, or severe damage to the building. Historically a landlord could personally enter into your apartment and evict tenants, but today only police are allowed to evict tenants, and they need a court order to do so.
Every city has different rules regarding landlord-tenant relations. Therefore, you should consult with an attorney to determine your rights and remedies before taking action against your landlord.
--Submitted by Eric Turner

26 Mayıs 2012 Cumartesi

How to Control Construction Cost

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Hi Carl,

Using the cost to build estimator on your web site, the results just seem way too high.

When I enter in a 2500 sq ft house as plain as can be; 4 corners, no garage, no fireplace, no attic, no porches, and standard quality everything – basically a plain box of a house, the estimated cost WITHOUT land and contractor markup is $300,000!

This is in ZIP 76227, Texas, not an expensive place to live.

Mark,

Using your input information I come up with a cost of building new house in zip code 76227 of $168,582…not $300,000!

This is only a rough estimated cost to build a 2500 square foot, one level new home, in Fort Worth, TX, including a general contractor’s markup of $19,385 and including central heat and central A/C...continued.

Carl Heldmann

Ekiden athletes' transfer of high school

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Due to indirect influence of the catastrophic earthquake last March, 10 Ekiden team members who went to one of prestigious high school in the area severely hit by the quack decided to change their school far away from the prefecture, which school was also famous for its tough ekiden team. Ekiden is long distance running by several team members. The original ekiden team won good grade in national ekiden competitions every year, but last year it did not that good due partly to bad physical and mental training condition caused by the quake. Another reason was reportedly resignation of a good coach too.

On the other hand, the association of high school track and field club in the prefecture to which 10 members transferred has to face with a difficult question. They have a national rule to ban transferred students from joining competition as a new team member within six months. The policy of the rule is to prevent schools from correct potential high school athletes unfairly. However, the the rule was not strictly applied in the case where students evacuated from the area hit by the big earthquake in light of a humane perspective. The association committee will make a final decision how to apply the rule to this case.

____________________________________

I used to be into track and field club in my high school and college days. I feel sympathy to those who evacuated from the area, but I do not think it is good and fair for the school which admitted the students to get too strong due to the contribution by the members.

Impression of writing blog

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Almost one month has passed since I started writing this blog. Except for the end of month, when I made a trip to Hawaii, I could have updated this blog almost every day. That was a big accomplishment for me because I had given up my personal diary in my Evernote page only after a few days.

I found that writing skill is not automatically developed however much I practice reading and listening. Formulating a little complex-structured sentence and selecting the most proper word or set phrase is really important for me non-native learner to learn English. I'm feeling this is a little late to realized it, but better than never. I definitely would like to keep going this blog ever after.

Also, I did not experience any tough day to find a good topic for this blog. At first, I thought looking for the day's theme would be hard for me which might be bottleneck to continue writing. However, that was not the case. I could choose broad topics from daily life, school class to Japanese news. Actually, translating news into English is difficult and time-consuming task, but it really helped me train English vocabulary.

What I could not do in this blog in this month was reviewing and rewriting. I know it is not so good to remain unchecked what I hurried to write. Although I guess this will take more time than just writing the day's topic, I would like to challenge next month.

Lastly, as a one more thing, I would like to add a new vocabulary which I learned the day to the end of this blog. Today's phrase is "accommodate."
- He quickly accommodated himself to the white culture.
- The hotel can accommodate up to 500 guests.
- The bank accommodated him with a loan of $1,000.
- Our proposal tries to accommodate the special needs of minority groups.

Barbri

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Should I apply for Barbri to study NY bar? Almost all law school student here do that, but my concern is whether studying on my own will work well for me without attending its lectures, given I got an old set of Barbri textbooks at Ebay and got sufficient outlines.

Barbri's course costs more than $3500. It is pretty big money. On the other hand, I can get old full version textbooks at Ebay, less than $1000. As far as I researched in the web, what I will need to do in the lecture of 3.5 hours every weekday from end of May to early July is just taking note to fill in blanks in the handouts. Some say this helps us remember important concept and Barbri's professors are wonderful, others say this is waste of time and money if you can study on your own.

According to blogs written by past Japanese LLM students, most of them seemed to join Barbri's lecture, though some of them did not. However, what I should not miss here is the people who record their study on their blogs are likely to be diligent enough to attend Barbri classes without fail. Also, the students who failed this exam will probably not disclose how they studied to public.

In my experience, I passed Japanese bar exam without attending basic lectures at cram school, which cost more than 500,000 yen, maybe nearly 1 million yen. That is partly because I can control myself to study on a daily basis and partly because I am enough patient to study on my own.

I know even if I failed, that is not a big deal for me because I won't stay this country next year. Yet, I still feel hisitation to do that because I will have one regrettable issue if I failed, like "I should have applied for Barbri as I expected." Actually, I have not yet made this big decision, but the deadline of Ebay is coming soon.

Fixing a flat tire

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Yesterday my car got a flat tire. When I drove to a supermarket nearby to pick up my wife and our baby, I found it. Honestly I got little nervous because this was the first flat tire in my life and on top of that, it happened not in Japan but in LA, but I pretended to be calm and drove home safely.

What I was really surprised about this event is how quickly the flat tire was fixed today. This morning I went to a tire shop in my neighborhood which I found on the Internet yesterday. It took five minutes from my place. Fortunately there was no other customer when I got there so I did not need to wait at all. Soon the technician got to his job, and he done it in ten minutes! The price was $45 to get a new tire because he told and showed me the old tire was damaged so much. Actually, the brand of the new tire was different from that of other three existing ones, but I think no one cares about the brand of the car tires as long as I can drive safely.

Also, I realized there are separated type of car maintenance shops here in US, unlike Japan. In Japan, one car repair shop typically offer almost every types of car maintenance service. I did not have any doubt it, but now I'm feeling that separated types of repair shops, like body shops, tire shops, engine shops, in US makes more sense because this enables each shop cut cost to prepare all kind of devise necessary to each work and a qualified workmen.

render
The news rendered me speechless for a moment.
The typhoon rendered the rice crop worthless.
I render a service to him.
He rendered thanks for her kindness.

23 Mayıs 2012 Çarşamba

Independent Contractor Agreement

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After I returned from a birthday party for my wife's friend's kid, I started assignment of contract drafting class, which was to revise a independent contractor agreement. "Independent contractor" means someone who provides several kind of professional service to its customer who wants to outsource some task. For instance, a programmer, an engineer, a designer and of course, a lawyer is an independent contractor.

As far as I analyzed its question, the point of this assignment is likely to to draft its core articles, services and payments, as accurately as possible. I have learned lots of boilerplate clauses, so I need to pay attention to these kind of articles too. However, they do not appear to be the main issue of this homework because no specific clue regarding boilerplate clauses exists in the problem. Rather, most part of the problems are occupied by information regarding the hypothetical project our client have in mind. As a result, the volume I need to consume in the draft is not so much but it is really tough homework because I cannot find any good sample of this part in independent contractor agreements available online, which rather omits only this part. Yet I can think about it in this way-the reason why online sample does not provide this part is that we lawyer can and should provide additional value at this stage.

The good thing I felt was my improvement in writing English when I drafted memorandum for client. We are also required to submit a memorandum which works as a cover letter attached to the agreement and asks our client about open issues or unclear facts. This pretty looks like what I did when I was a Japanese lawyer. We always needed to add our comments to explain our intent why we choose the wording in the draft in a way and to ask questions to client whether that wording is good with it. While writing this part, I felt I could draft this part more smoothly than used to. I was really happy about that because I believe my study paid off.

Destroying data of my USB media

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My accomplishment in my two homework was accidnetaly destroyed. It happened around 8pm today and due of each assignment is 9am and 5 pm tomorrow. I stored those data on my USB memory, but only on it. When I begun to open the file in a different computer from one I did my homework, the data totally gone to somewhere else maybe because something wrong occurred when the USB memory was pulled out from my laptop. I tried to restart the memory hoping that will recover my data, but it did not help me. I panicked for a while.

However, I fortunately managed to have finished retyping two assignments. I do not think these files are not completely same as the prior files, but I think I reproduced more than 90% of them. Because I reviewed these files yesterday, I remembered most part of what I corrected. Also, it was lucky I could find files which saved half way of the assignments. If I had to restart from scratch, I might give up doing it.

Anyway, the lesson I learned from this experience is that I need to backup my data as often as possible. The reason why I saved the data in USB memory, not in laptop, is I would like to revise the data in seveal PCs set up in different places, like home, in business center in my apartment and in the school library. However, I should also save the data on hard disk in my two laptop from now on.

NEW IPAD

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I have been interested in the release ipad 3 and it did today. I love ipad 2 so much, but in my first impression, I was not so attracted to new ipad.
All my family members love ipad 2 very much. I got ipad 2 last May before I left Japan. My wife uses it for browsing Internet even while taking care of our baby. It also help my wife change diaper for our daughter by let her pay attention to some short video of kids. I enjoy reading ebook and new apps, and also use it for my English study. Without that high tech gadget, our life would be less interesting and convenient today.
Online news regarding releasing new ipad today was not so impressive for me, however. They really emphasize how much progress, especially its basic specs, they have made in this latest model, which will be on sale at the end of next week, I have been expected much more drastic progress in this model. I am not sure how other people feel about it, but as far as stock price shows, investors did not appear to be moved so much.

MPRE has finished

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Today I took MPRE test, which is ethical examination for future lawyers. I believe I have reached the goal score of the test, so I got relieved now.

I thought the test was a good simulation for me to study NY bar. The test was actually not that difficult especially for native American. A native examinee talked with her friend that she had just started preparing the test last night! However, for us foreign students, it was not so easy. I've heard some Japanese classmates, including a Japanese lawyer, and most Chinese classmate failed the test last November when just four months had passed since they came to this country. On the other hand, the date of this test was terrible because it is the last Saturday of our one-week spring break. As a result, I just went to have lunch with my colleague and to California Desnyland with my family. After that, I have studied for full three days, which means almost thirty hours in total. In my case, it was enough, and probably too much for me to pass the exam because I felt the actual question was not as difficult as practice questions I solved. During those three days, I just read through the outline three times to remember basic ethical rules, and then solved 180 practice questions to understand how to apply the rules to actual fact patterns. This process is basically similar to studying bar subjects. What I have learned from this experience is that I would pass NY bar if I took the exam in Japanese; which stands for the only hurdle for me is language barrier. I really felt that it would be much easier for me if I knew more English legal technical jargon in the questions. It is critical to understand the point of the fact pattern of each problem.

After the exam, I prioritized issues what I would like to do from now on to the end of April, the exam week. Because this is the last chance for me to concentrate on English study, I would do that for my first priority. More specifically, I would like to updating this blog as often as possible, chatting via Skype with Filipino teacher, finishing legal writing last assignment, and preparing Contract drafting class and in-class presentation in International trade policy class. Second thing I would like to do is study India law. Last one is other class preparing. I have only almost four months left before leaving this country. I will do my best.

Reviewing today's Skype conversation

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I have just finished Skype conversation with Filipino teacher. I would like to refresh the class, of which topic was friends.

(There are two pictures.)
- The first one has a boy sitting in front of the beach with his dog, also sitting. He is pointing our somewhere with his left hand.
- The second is a funny picture. There is a mouse sitting on the cat's back, which is sitting on the dog's back. Those three are typically enemies; mouse dislike cats and cats was chased by dogs.

How do you think borrowing money from friends?
- I do not think it is good idea because borrowing money may damage friendship. When I have to borrow money, it is more often that I have already been in trouble. Borrowing money would make the problem more serious. Fortunately, I have neither borrow money from nor lend money to my friends.

What a friend should do and should not do?
- What a friend should do is to help or just listen to someone in trouble. What a friend should not do is to invade his or her privacy too much.

How do you think about a fair-weather friend?
- I think I have some of such kind of friends. Some of my acquaintance might regard me as a fair-weather friend. I mean I can say the same as someone. I think that kind of situation is inevitable more or less because it typically needs long time to make and find best friends and we have limited time, cost, interest and energy in our lives.

I already had 13 classes in this website. I am feeling a little improvement so far, and am satisfied with those classes basically. However, I need to spend more time to review and refresh the classes because this is the most meaningful time for me to improve English skill.

17 Mayıs 2012 Perşembe

Be Your Own House Contractor

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Hello,

Are you planning a sixth edition of "Be Your Own House Contractor"?

If so, I might hold off buying it until then.

It's been six years now so I was just wondering.

Thank you! Nancy

Hello Nancy,

There are no plans for a sixth edition at the present time.

The 5th edition gives reference to www.byoh.com for any more current or additional information.

Thanks for your interest in my book. Carl Heldmann

Cost to Build a House in Northern California

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Why it is so expensive to build in the Bay Area?
I see $300 - 400/sq ft on many blogs about the actual cost of building here.

It does cost more to build in this area, as well as the LA basin area, and that is due to more expensive (and bureaucratic) permitting and subcontractor labor. Subcontractors charge more because it costs more to live in these areas and people are conditioned to paying higher wages.
But, it does not cost $300-$400 per sq ft ...continued

Here’s a Modern Stucco Design House from HousePlansandMore.com that I estimated the cost at $135 per sq. ft.
Carl Heldmann

Heat Your House With a Heat Pump and Save Money

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Summary: A heat pump can provide energy efficient heating and cooling for your home in almost every state in the nation.

A heat pump works like air conditioning in reverse. In fact, in the summer the heat pump operates in reverse to give you central air conditioning.

You get an energy efficient heating system as well as an energy efficient cooling system all in one.

I would not build a new home or replace an old heating system with anything but a heat pump, unless I lived in an extremely frigid climate.

The only real complaint I ever received was ...continued

Stay warm...stay cool!
Carl Heldmann

Small Green Home

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Hi David,

I want to build a very small, green home, but want it to be viable to receive a building loan mortgage.

I find banks are pretty conservative and balk at tiny homes, or anything very different.

Can you suggest a plan site?

Carol

Carol,

You're right that lenders are hesitant to lend on projects which are unusual in size or style and which may be difficult to resell if the lender has to foreclose.

I'm not sure what type of design you're looking for, but you might want to look at my home plan site, www.originalhome.com. I've done some research on typical plan layouts for small houses and you'll find a range of small layouts starting at 1,700 square feet.

Good luck with your project,
David Moore, AIA

Original Home Plans
Dear Readers,
Do you have a question for David?
Click here to Ask the Architect.
And, you might want to read my Build an Energy Efficient Home.
Carl Heldmann

Home Building Suppliers

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Hi Carl,
We will be building in the next 5 years. I just printed your online book and am anxious to read it this weekend.

I have a question. Would you recommend joining a membership to "Direct Buy?"

I look forward to hearing from you and thank you so much for all your "FREE" information...you are awesome,

Karen

Hi Karen and thanks!

I know nothing about Direct Buy, but you can check them out and compare their prices with other home building suppliers.

Always keep your home building budget allowances in mind when shopping.

Good luck with your build job.
Carl Heldmann

13 Mayıs 2012 Pazar

How to Use a Cost Estimate Spreadsheet

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Summary: Whether you build your own new home or have it built, controlling construction costs is the most critical part of construction. A cost estimate spreadsheet gives you that control.

Carl,

I bought your book, Be Your Own House Contractor, and after reading it I went onto your website and I found where I could download the Cost Estimate Spreadsheet.

Oops, I only have a Mac computer and this software program is for Windows only. So I thought I will build this spreadsheet in Excel.

I got to studying the Cost Estimate Spreadsheet in the book and I don't understand why columns B+C+D should = total of column A.

You don't cover filling out this form in the book. At least if you did, I missed it.

Don

Hi Don,

You didn’t miss a thing, it’s not there. I will attempt to explain B + C + D = A, below.

As for the software for the Cost Estimate Spreadsheet, yes it will only run on a PC.

There is however, a free, already formatted Excel Cost Estimate Spreadsheet available on the same web page (Excel Cost Estimate Spreadsheet).

The Cost Estimate Spreadsheet basically represents your total original estimated cost to build vs. the actual cost to build.

As construction proceeds and the real costs are realized, the Adjusted Cost Estimate Column (A) total may have to be changed. It will have to be changed by whatever the difference is when you add B + C + D.

If you are lucky, the total of column A will decrease as construction proceeds.

More likely, it will increase.

As long as you have sufficient funds in the Misc. category, you can adjust for increased costs in other categories. When the Misc. category hits zero increases in the total of column A start coming out of your pocket…ouch!

I have a web sample that works on a Mac or PC that will give you an idea how my Lender friendly formatted Cost Estimate Spreadsheet looks and works. You can see a web sample of our spreadsheet here.

If you are using FireFox or Safari as your browser, use the Tab key or your cursor to navigate the columns instead of the Enter key.

Play with some numbers on the sample (sorry, you can’t save them on the sample). When you see a “red” number (or minus sign) in the far right column (D) for a category, you have gone over budget for that category and need to adjust column A for that category…and so on, and so on.

And that’s how B + C + D = A, works.
Hope this explanation helps, if not please let me know.

Thanks for buying my book,

Carl Heldmann

One year has passed since great earthquake

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Today is the first anniversary for the catastrophic earthquake hit especially northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. Almost twenty thousand people were killed or is still missing reportedly.

I clearly remembered what happened one year ago. At the time I stayed in my office, which was located on the 35th floor of the tall building. Suddenly we felt big shaking, literally the ground moving, and almost everyone ran out from their rooms. Even a quite heavy copy machine began moving because of the strong shaking. The shock continued more than a few minutes due to the huge energy of the earthquake and the architectural structure of the building to ease the shock, which is typical for tall buildings recently constructed in Japan. I really cared about safety of my wife and our baby because our baby was still two months old then. However, my cell phone, including email, did not work at all and the security of the building required us to stay the floor because the building was designed to withstand such a huge shock but outside of the building would be dangerous, when things would fall easily due to the shock or road might be damaged. After several hours, we were allowed to go out home. We had to walk down on stairs from my floor though, because none of elevators was working then. Of course all of subway stopped too. I was really surprised to see many people walking to their home on foot outside. Fortunately my apartment was relatively close so it took me about one hour to get from my office to my home. It was still unbelievable experience in my life.

I know the area severely hit by the earthquake still spend pretty tough time to recover from the damage partly because of the impact of nuclear material emitted from the damaged nuclear power plants in Fukushima prefecture. I hope the day when people will be relieved will come as soon as possible.

Objection against bill of reemployment over 65 years old

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Government official are thinking about amendment of act which encourages companies to reemploy those who retired but are willing to work until at the age of 65, which amendment will mandate corporations to reemploy them. The purpose of this amendment is to increase the working population so that public pension system will be able to work in the future. However, most major corporations are objecting this idea because existing workers will be demoralized if they are automatically reemployed just by applying for reemployment. Their motivation to work is likely to totally depend on each person. Some argue this will deprive companies from motivation to hire new younger employees.

I think though keeping pension system itself is of course important, the government should rethink about this is one of the methods for elderly people to make their living, not the purpose itself. The government should decide how long-term future generation it needs to protect now when it is facing the threat of bankrupt of this system. In order to keep balance between generations, a paradigm sift might be required today.

Lunch Box

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I have been feeling there is a difference between American lunch boxes and Japanese ones, which shows distinctive character of each nationality.

US lunch box is very simple and often contains only one menu. I think lots of students here go to cafeteria to have lunch, but not a quite few people bring lunch for each purpose. Some would like to just save money, others have to bring it because they are vegetarians. But in any case, US lunch boxes or bags do not include as many menu as Japanese ones have. I have seen there only contains some piece of pizza, or pasta without any vegetables in a transparent plastic box that has no decoration. In other case, a female students only had a big plastic bowl of salad for her lunch. It looked like healthy, but was that enough lunch for her? I think those lunch boxes are very easy to prepare so I think it is very reasonable, but it does not look like interesting.

On the contrary, Japanese lunch box has lots of small helping menus in colored box. Further, decorated lunch box has been popular in Japan recently especially among young women. It usually takes more time to cook in busy morning, but it seems that they enjoy not only having lunch but also the process to cook it. Colorful dishes usually means they contain many kinds of nutrition that is good for our health. In addition, lunch box itself has much more color and design valuation in Japan too. I love that kind of elaborated lunch box. Japanese people traditionally like paying attention to and enjoy small parts in daily life. This might be one of the example for that minds.

Canker sores

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I tend to get a canker sore in my mouse and it is pretty painful. A few days after I had a tough time to work or study hard, which means I got less sleep than usual and was under strong emotional stress, then I often get a canker sore on my tongue or other part of skin inside my mouse. I've heard it is due to my weak digestive organs because they are mutually closely related and a canker sore is one of symptoms of my weakened stomach according to an oriental medicine doctor I saw before. As you might know, it hurts me not only while eating something but also anytime because my teeth cannot help touching these canker sores when opening or closing my mouse. It terribly annoys me.

I got good patches to apply to a canker sore and ease my pain. It can physically prevent a canker sore from touching my teeth or food. At first, I was somewhat doughtful about that patch because other medicine for canker sores I tried before did not reduce my pain at all. However, this patch totally fits to me. I can almost forget I got a canker sore. It is a little bit expensive, but I believe it deserves. Nowadays I cannot stand the pain without this patch. Thus, I bought bunch of them online in Japan before I came here.

Law Prom

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Last night I joined Law Prom, a big party of my law school, with my Japanese classmates and friends. It was my first American style party and really impressive, but actually I enjoyed more the way to the party place and a visit to someone's house after the party.
We hired a big Hammer, which accommodated up to twenty people, for the drive to the hotel. It was my first experience in my life, and it was really fun. Every classmate brought some champagne or other liquor and most of the classmates got drunk before we got to the party place. During the drive, we talked a lot about things we have not talked at law school in totally relaxed situation. It was about a three hours drive, but we really missed the Hammer when we had to got it off.
We were surprised at an US style party, but it was really tough for us foreign students to enjoy it as native students did. I expected much more formal type party because the place was a famous hotel and we were required to wear formal outfit, but that was not the case. In the party room, dancing musics were played at pretty big volume and lots of students was dancing in the center of the room. Actually I was thinking about whether I should take my wife and our baby and I decided I did not, it was a right decision because it was not the place which family with a baby can enjoy. Also, I am not a person who enjoy dancing, so I just felt a little atmosphere of the US style casual party. Most classmates agreed with my idea.
After that, some of us visited one of the Japanese members' house to stay relaxed after such a "exciting" experience. We did not planned beforehand, but she was really kind to provide us some hot meals quickly. We shared very relaxed time there. It was so good time that we stayed there until after 2 am.

Reviewing today's Skype conversation

Slow improvement

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This two month, I have been trying especially to focusing on studying English, but honestly, I have not yet felt my dramatic improvement yet.

Actually, though there were some obstacles for me to stick only to leaning English, I think I still had enough time to do so. I went to travel Hawaii last month. I needed to study legal ethics for MPRE test a few days. I had to finish two big assignments at legal writing class, which I thought was most impressive class for me, by the way. That being said, I could not deny that I spent long time on studying English, especially speaking and writing. I continued this blog less than every two days on average, I had Skype chat class more than twenty times. I consciously had time to speak with my language exchange partners and class mates.

One of the reason why I am not sufficiently aware of my improvement in English is I did not focus on specific situation when specific topic and word are typically used. For example, all most all salespersons of souvenir at Hawaii can speak Japanese just because what they need to know is mere conversation to promote their items and negotiate prices. Also, my friend, who had done more than five years in Australia, told me that it was hard for him to have a daily conversation though he could communicate with his coworkers well in his business. So, I continue to give leaning English a best shot, though it has been hard time to motivate me. The only thing I can do is believing in the coming day when I will be able to speak English as fluently as native people do.

Update for recent issues

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Many things have been going on these days and I did not have time enough to update this blog. Yesterday was one of key days for me so I would like to write down recent issues.

Yesterday was due date for my tough assignment, presentation in class, but my turn did not come due to time limitation. In WTO rule class, students are required to give a presentation within 15 minutes for any topic as long as it is related to international trade. The professor of the class is so smart and kind, and I guess everyone likes him and his class, but this assignment is really challenging to me because I have never done any presentation in my life, even in Japanese! That's why I could not write this blog. However, the professor was almost one hour late for the class due to bad traffic last night, and some students had their presentations more than 15 minutes, so four students, including me, did not finish their own presentations. I really wanted to finish my turn because I did not want to get nervous any more, but I need to wait one more week.

Also, I had a small fight with my wife, which had really frustrated me, but remind me of a really important thing that I had forgotten totally in my life. After the fight, I think we came to know each other more deeply. I want to avoid writing the issue in detail here, but recognizing this issue again really makes my life, and our family's life, happier than before.

I have started arranging many things necessary to leave this country this August. It looks too early, but after graduation in early May, I would not have sufficient time and room in my feeling because I will have to concentrate on my bar exam study. I booked air tickets, thought through what I have to do before we come back to Japan and made schedules after getting there.

Commencement ceremony

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Today I got a pack of documents regarding the commencement ceremony in early May. I did not realize I have only a few weeks left in this semester, and at law school. Time fries!

Actually, I did not expected I experience graduation from school as old as thirty years, but I feel excited and can't wait. One of school office member announced us that the commencement day would be terribly crowded in the campus because my college is huge and students welcome their families or friends to the ceremony. I am also going to take my wife and daughter. I know the ceremony itself only contains some speech and calling up everyone's name, which would take more than thirty minutes, but I would like to enjoy the reception after that!

6 Mayıs 2012 Pazar

Cost for taking risk

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My workplace is a huge and not so young, rather a relatively old organization in its business. Thus, it is not willing to take risks to start new challenge to broaden and develop new market. It would not like to incur cost for that, too. However, current managements should think about future and does not save investment necessary to possible expansion.

After I got to Japan, I am going to challenge new market for our office, which market looks really tough because of its cultural difference and of lateness in the market of our company. Yet, the market is enough huge for us to expect possible expansion in near future. So I think management should consider more seriously to invest more money and human resource. In fact, however, current managements are inclined to focus on cutting cost because they are worrying about resent cost surge. The managements are senior people the same as in the most Japanese, especially old and famous, companies that are struggling with keeping profit in current slow economy.

However, I think they should rather take risk now than take negative attitude. It is good timing for us to get ready for next chance in near future so that we can dominant new market in advance.

What You Need to Know About DUI Law

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With the holiday season upon us, holiday parties will most certainly be on everyone’s calendar. While you are enjoying a night out with friends and family you must remember the importance of driving responsibly. Arrests for driving under the influence are extremely prevalent around the holidays. Police are on high alert for drivers who may be driving over the legal limit. If you find yourself arrested for a DUI here are some important factors to consider.

If it is your first offense, you can attempt to have the charges dismissed or reduced. If the State is not willing to dismiss or reduce the charges and you should then request court supervision. First time DUI offenders in Illinois are entitled to court supervision. Court supervision will allow you to avoid having your license revoked and having a conviction placed on your record. Court supervision comes with several conditions such as fines, an alcohol evaluation, Victim Impact Panel, and community service. When you complete the requirements of supervision the case will usually be dismissed after approximately twelve months.

If it is your second or more DUI, the situation is much more complicated. First, you are not eligible for court supervision. Also a revocation of your license is guaranteed upon a conviction. There is also the possibility of jail time although many courts will agree to extensive community service in lieu of jail time. Finally, if this is your third DUI it is considered a felony.

Aside from a conviction for driving under the influence, you also have to worry about a statutory summary suspension of your license. In Illinois, when you are pulled over for suspected DUI the officer will request that you submit to a chemical test, usually a breathalyzer. If you refuse to submit or if you submit and have over .08 BAC, your license will be suspended. If you have not more than one DUI in a five year period and your BAC is over .08 your license is suspended for six months. However, if you refuse to submit to the test your license will be suspended for one year.

It is important to understand that although the consequence of refusing to submit to a breath test is a longer statutory suspension, submitting and testing over the legal limit provides the prosecution with irrefutable evidence of your guilt. It is difficult to argue against test results that demonstrate your level of intoxication. Either suspension period automatically starts 45 days after your arrest.

When your license is suspended under statutory summary suspension you are entitled to hearing, despite the suspension automatically starting 45 days after the arrest. You are permitted to file a Petition for a Hearing within 90 days of your arrest. If you do not file the Petition within 90 days, your right to a hearing is considered waived. Once the Petition is filed the State is required to set the hearing within 30 days or the suspension will be dismissed.

At a statutory summary suspension hearing you can challenge the following:

Whether the officer had probable cause to pull you over
Whether a proper arrest was made
Whether you received the proper warnings for statutory summary suspension as required by Illinois law
Whether there was actual refusal or failure of the breath test

This is only a brief overview of what you will experience as a result of being arrested for driving under the influence. The best advice is to avoid being in this situation all together. When you go out for a drink this holiday season, have a designated driver or call a cab to ensure your safety and the safety of everyone else on the road.

By Maggie Pucher

Child Support Explained

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Child support is the responsibility and obligation of both parents to provide for a child’s physical, emotional and mental well-being. It is not simply a financial matter, as many people assume. In any instance where a child’s parents are no longer living together or married, the residential parent is entitled to support from the non-residential parent.

The main question most parents have when the topic of child support comes up is how the court determines the amount of child support which the support paying parent will be ordered to pay. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act provides a detailed outline as to the state minimums the court will use to determine child support obligations. The IMDMA guidelines require the support-paying parent to pay from their net income as follows: twenty percent (20%) for one child; twenty-eight percent (28%) for two children; thirty-two percent (32%) for three children; forty percent (40%) for four children; forty-five percent (45%) for five; and fifty percent (50%) for six or more children. The net income is determined as the income after taxes, social security, retirement contributions, health insurance and several other deductions permitted under state statute.

The court may order child support that deviates from the state required minimum if the court finds it is in the best interest of the child. The court can use several factors to determine the best interest of the child. First, the court will determine the financial needs of the child. Second, the court will consider the financial responsibilities and needs of both the residential and non-residential parent. The court may also consider the physical, emotional and educational needs of the child. Finally, the court will consider the standard of living the child would have enjoyed had the parents not divorced.

Once an order of child support is entered, the order may only be modified, whether increased, decreased or abated, if a court finds that a change in circumstances warrants a modification. Further, an order for child support will terminate upon the child turning eighteen years old or upon graduation from high school if the child turns eighteen and is still in high school. However, child support will usually not be ordered past a child’s nineteenth birthday. Several courts will make an order for contribution towards post high school education even though child support, as required under state statute, has terminated.

It is important for parents to keep in mind child support is an independent obligation and should be preserved despite other problems which may arise between parents, such as disagreements regarding visitation. It is important to note, however, that recent studies have shown non-residential parents are more likely to pay support in a timely fashion when their visitation with their child(ren) occurs without interference from the residential parent.

By Maggie Pucher