<p>@coralbrook, I’m getting the feeling you’re not going to landscape the front with the zig zag stairs. Yes? Or is that still going to happen? </p>
<p>It sure would make it easier for the next renovation, 30 years from now!!</p>
<p>I had my mentor, retired general contractor, come over at the beginning to advise on the structural wall changes. I always have him come give advice on opening up the house and he discusses the type of straps needed for the headers, where the roof load is, etc. We looked at the front and he told me that if I started messing with expanding the front stairs it might compromise the large foundation wall in the front. The stairway would get too close to the existing foundation - we’d be digging dirt out and it could get below the stem wall in the front. Would require quite a lot of work for new retaining walls. He said just leave it. I’m trying to live with that decision every day that someone almost falls while carrying stuff</p>
<p>SDGE finally came to haul away the moldy old refrigerator. I warned them not to open the doors 
I inquired on whether they were going to try to clean it up and sell it or something??? It turns out they recycle the refrigerator to get the Freon out of them and use the Freon for new refrigerator production. Very interesting… I wouldn’t even want the Freon out of that horrid thing. Anyway, they had a fit about trying to get that refrigerator out of the house and down those stairs. He broke the lip of the rock on several of the stairs into jagged pieces. We now have to try to file down the large stones in several places for safety.</p>
<p>Every day we look at those stairs and shudder about how we are going to get new appliances up those stairs.</p>
<p>A couple of new photos have been loaded to Flickr</p>
<p>Too bad about the stairs in the front yard.</p>
<p>cb, It appears the garage is attached to the house. Is there anyway to get directly from the house to the garage, or do you need to walk outside?</p>
<p>I’m asking because I’m thinking it might be useful to install some sort of elevator/dumbwaiter between the two portions of the house so things don’t always have to be carried up the stairs. I suspect that’s not an option, however.</p>
<p>The garage is basically built into the hillside. There is no exit from the garage except the front garage door. You have to exit garage and go up stairs to get to the house. </p>
<p>It appears that there may have been access to this house from the steep alley at some point. But, neighbors have compromised the alley by piling excavated dirt onto the top of that steep dirt area. Unfortunately they have piled it up in a way that causes all rain storm drainage to flow directly into my little house. That is going to be a large cost because I need to get some guys out there to regrade the top of the alley to correct the drainage issue. Although it hasn’t rained and I have no direct evidence, I can tell that a massive amount of rain, especially coming down the paved alley - which is sloped downward towards the steep dirt area , is going to just crash into the little shed and flow under the deck area that I have planned. </p>
<p>I know which neighbor has piled at least 8’ of dirt at the top of the alley, but I just don’t want to say anything. I have met them and they are nice and helping by allowing me to put gutters on the back of the shed that encroach over their fence. He told me a very interesting thing… he says that my property has ‘encroachment’ rights over the dirt alley. I cannot imagine that this is true, but it is worth a call to the City</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What does that mean?</p>
<p>So cb, there is only one entrance into the house? Or perhaps more correctly, only one entrance from the street into the house? (Since there is the courtyard, but once can’t get to the courtyard without going through the house, right?)</p>
<p>coralbrook, thank you again and again for taking the time to post and update flicker. I love this and I wouldn’t remodle or do what you do in a million years. But I love watching it in action!</p>
<p>I thought I bookmarked the new photo link but I can’t find it. Can anyone either post it again or happen to know what page it’s on?</p>
<p>Encroachment rights mean that I can use the property for ingress and egress and landscape or put a deck there. I wouldn’t dare erect a structure on that land. However, trying to get some type of parking or access from that dirt steep slope is a huge cost, not in my budget. But if I can figure out exactly what it means, or whether the City will ‘sell’ that piece of land, that would be a huge bonus for a buyer.</p>
<p>There will be four entrances/exits to the home. Front door which is accessed from the steep stairs. French door out to new deck, but not really any way for someone to use the deck to access from the street or alley. French door out to courtyard from living room and glass door from the new hallway out to courtyard.</p>
<p>If you go up those steep stairs in front, there are stairs at the top that go to the right. There is a nice patio on top of the garage with views to westerly ocean. From that patio you can go to the back of the little yard and access the courtyard through pathway at back of the house. So, you can enter the courtyard from the back of the house.</p>
<p>NEW FLICKR PHOTO GROUP (after trash cleared from house)</p>
<p><a href=“Flickr: The CC Flip Project #3 Pool”>https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/groups/2750844@N22/</a></p>
<p>Roof and Chimney</p>
<p>This week I had my roofer go up onto the roof to get an estimate of the work required. He had an absolute fit because it is going to be a nightmare tearing all those old layers of roof off and getting everything down to a dumpster on the street. He told me I had to hire two laborers just to carry the heavy stuff down to street. I am imagining some type of chute system we could make that goes way down into the dumpster ??? And doesn’t kill some innocent person trying to walk along the sidewalk. </p>
<p>But, one of the things I asked him to look at was the chimney for fireplace. It had been covered up with metal flashing so I assumed the worst… unlined chimney, deteriorating brick mortar, unusable fireplace. He took off the metal flashing and found… you are just not going to believe this… prior owners had stuffed foam mattress padding into top of chimney. Evidently they ‘insulated’ it and closed it off with the metal flashing to avoid cold drafts.</p>
<p>See photo loaded - look close at the stuff piled on roof - orange mattress foam.</p>
<p>But the good news is that the chimney is fully lined and the flue is pretty clean. He took a photo for me. Which means we have a fully useable fireplace for the buyer!</p>
<p>Bad news is that it is going to cost way above my estimate for new roof because he has to lay plywood structure across the entire roof. We are going to have to have all this roof stuff delivered with one of those conveyor belts because it will be a nightmare to get on top of that roof</p>
<p>Cb, I took a look at the new pix - your flip work is so solid! You really do not cut corners.</p>
<p>Thanks CB. Huge progress already!</p>
<p>Ah – patio on top of the garage! – That’s a new thing you haven’t mentioned before! That sounds terrific. When the house is ready to be shown, you should stage that area with palm trees, chaises lounges, and pina coladas!</p>
<p>There will be four distinct outdoor areas with this small home. Existing concrete patio with wall that is above the garage. Small side yard that will have a stone path (already exists under all the debris) where Buyer can grow citrus trees, vegetable garden or landscape. Back ‘dining’ courtyard with lighting and either a water feature or fire feature. French doors from living room open to this dining courtyard. And a big new deck on north side of house with French door from dining room. This deck will capture the sweeping views. Hopefully the different outdoor environments will make up for other shortcomings ! Well, if I don’t run out of money soon </p>
<p>Right now I have a lot of tree and bush stumps I have to get rid of and I don’t have any volunteers on the crew that want to try to dig out these stumps.</p>
<p>If you go to Google Earth with the address (if you remember it) you can see the aerial view of the concrete patio on top of the little garage. You can also see all of the bushes and trees that we have had to clear to get any access to the north side of the house. The aerial view shows the little courtyard with the red concrete pavers - Google must have taken that satellite photo a couple of years before the courtyard became massively overgrown and full of trash. We couldn’t even get into the courtyard before clearing weeds, vines and trash away. We never really knew it was there - we just thought it was a very small space behind house.</p>
<p>Can you try some of that stump treatment? My dad uses it to make stumps easier to remove, you drill holes into the stump, pour in the treatment and leave it for as long as possible. I’m thinking it might make the stumps easier to remove, even if you can’t leave them alone for months.</p>
<p>Can’t you get close enough to the house from the alley that it would be easier carrying stuff in and out from there, rather than down the front steps?</p>
<p>Looking forward to photos of the outdoor areas when done 
</p>
<p>Happy to hear about the roof deck on the garage! The more outdoor space – especially with views – the better! I agree with the comments upthread that staging all of this outdoor space will be key. </p>
<p>Would there be a way to allow direct access to the over-the-garage roof deck from the house?</p>