Ones of the biggest was that we had to completely replace all the old electric, luckily we were able to save in other areas of our budget to offset most of the costs but not all of them.

Our utility has been cutting power every time there is a red flag fire danger her now because of that, and they are also rapidly replacing old poles and requiring new lines to be buried etc. to avoid getting sued like PG&E did.

I want to replace it with a small 2 bedroom 800 sq ft house.

I would probably find another engineer.

Many lenders are using an internal construction loans to replace Homestyle, ChoiceReno, and 203k out of simplicity.

Replacing countertops, though, is a capital improvement and usually has to be capitalized and depreciated over time.

Now there was no mention of the engineered plans requirement for the 12+ requirement to my recollection, so I do call foul there. 

Our engineering team finishes in roughly 2-3 weeks with no major modifications required to our initial architectural plan.

I work remotely as a software engineer, I currently make $105k / year.

And clients won’t miss the current system.I think you're engine is fueled on 98% assumption and 2% fact in this regard.