Plus if things go south and you can't sell for as much as you intended, then you may be over promising your contractors a bigger paycheck which could burn that bridge.

Unless they've been badly burned with a poorly constructed house in the past, they won't appreciate over-building.Save that stuff for custom construction.

It doesn't take much to burn that up.

They are likely literal thinkers/engineers/scientists. 

If it's retirement income, are they burning through an IRA or is their retirement from a stable company? 

Hire a structural engineer to specify a method to repair this structure.  

The flooding from Floyd was bad enough that the Army Corps of Engineers has done SIGNIFICANT work there.  

This is a big hill to climb for the education and it can get expensive learning from engineers, developers, attorneys and venture capital folks.When land can become more valuable quickly, the cost of changing it and the political aspects will be greater.

What did the engineer say that designed the new stair landing?  

I had called Doral but, well, they don't exist anymore, but they were the only ones to give me a sliver of hope.Going to PR isn't easy without having to burn vacation days and I would like to go down there just to sign whenever needed at closing.