In reality, I don't know how truthful this is or if they were blowing smoke.

I'm not the guy that does the work myself, drives a beat up truck, smokes and drinks too much with multiple dui's, bitches about everything and works for wages.

Not all, I recall one who burned a hole with a cigarette in my seat in my new LTD, smoking with the widow down and reading the paper, he turned the page and knocked it out of his mouth it went flying into the back seat.

I get the combination smoke/CO detectors in one unit; if battery-only powered, I get the units that have a 10 year battery and warranty these days.A level of 500 is more like 100 times normal; in a house where I have a CO detector with digital readout and peak level memory, it never got above 9 over many years of service.Sounds like some of that work was not done to code; the code enforcement inspector could be called in to do what they do.

I find nothing more hilarious than when somebody stands in front of a room of 100+ people at the local REIA and announces their smoking wholesale deal.

Between hidden framing issues, hidden electrical/plumbing issues, code compliance issues (smoke detectors, firewalls, etc), nice-to-haves (landscaping, etc), it's very easy to go 10% over a hard bid from a contractor.In the future, I'd recommend that if you budget is $160K, you try to negotiate a hard bid closer to $130K, and then -- as Rick suggested -- have a secret contingency budget of $30K.

I said "that's not water" and broke out a lighter...adding that I didn't smoke.  

For example you can not finance properties with health and safety issues for example no heat source, no flooring, broken windows, no stair railing, no smoke or CO2 detectors, pool with green water or empty, bars on windows that do not have safety latches and other things.Q.

All my units need to be clean, warm, and secure, with smoke detectors, working appliances, windows that open and close, and hot water.

I took a quick look through my CA residential code book and could not find any code requirements for a closet, only requirements for a bedroom are smoke detector and egress window.