<p>The ţop of the garage is level with the first floor of the house. So access doesn’t appear to be an issue.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, to access the garage roof deck you have to exit the front door, go down one set of steep stairs and then up another set of lower stairs. Reviewed this with my agent and it just doesn’t make sense to pop open another wall from master bedroom (front bedroom) on the side to access the yard/roof deck. That would limit the wall space in the bedroom because closet along one wall, French door in another wall and then big window in front wall.</p>
<p>Besides, who wants guests tromping through the master bedroom to get to the patio? </p>
<p>We could have used the alley to try to get some of this stuff to the back of the property, but the neighbors have thrown a mountain of dirt at the top of the alley. Until I can pay someone to try to level all that dirt out and re-direct the drainage away from the house, it’s kind of hazardous to come down that hill. But, I can see that re-grading the alley (which obviously is not in my budget) is becoming a high priority for several reasons.</p>
<p>Finally found someone to make new metal handrails for the exterior stair case. I was getting worried that I wouldn’t find anyone that could just make a plain handrail. All these iron guys wanted to create some elaborate piece of art - not really appropriate for the style of this house. </p>
<p>The guy I finally hired was insisting that he wanted to tear out the handrails right away, take them to his shop, and use them as templates for new rails (especially the curved piece).</p>
<p>Uhhhh, No!!! That would have created a very dangerous situation going up and down those stairs with heavy loads, no handrail!!! He couldn’t get it through his head that the handrail cannot go away until he arrives with something new and solid to put into place.</p>
<p>Sometimes people take things away so you are stuck and then they either take their sweet time getting the job done or try to raise the price…so it’s good that you didn’t let him take it down.</p>
<p>
Bummer.</p>
<p>From the satellite photos is looks like you can walk from the red tile patio around the master bedroom to get to the garage deck. It looks like there is some sort of paved pathway already, although the photos are pretty grainy.</p>
<p>Our kids would never understand how you couldn’t look at an invisi-peeps flip on satellite photos in the old days. /thread cross over</p>
<p>I think it would nice to have a patio off the master bedroom. It would make the master seem a lot larger because you could have a seating area on the patio that would feel like an extension of the bedroom. This would be nice since there wont be room for seating in the bedroom. Plus it would be nice to have direct outdoor access to a view from the bedroom.</p>
<p>But that’s just me – I like a lot of outdoor access. (And having access from the bedroom would make that patio seem more like a private outdoor zone, which could be good or bad). </p>
<p>Why is regrading the alley so expensive? Around here it is fairly cheap…</p>
<p>You can access the garage roof patio by walking through the back courtyard and around back of house on the path. The master bedroom is the front bedroom. If we opened up a small door to the South patio we would have to build some steps out of the room because it is not exactly same level as patio on garage.</p>
<p>We are focusing on fixing the shed this week and it is a spiraling money pit. Have spent several days laying new footings under the shed and tying those footings to the main house. After removing a bunch of nailed on plywood we can see that there were strange windows in this shed. Windows in east wall that are now at ground level because the back neighbors built retaining walls and brought in dirt to level their back yard. These windows have been covered up. Unfortunately we cannot put new siding or anything on the back East wall because there is only 18" between this shed and the neighbor’s back shed. No way to remove wall and replace. We are going to have to clean it up and insulate really well. Luckily the siding on that side is not damaged or termite ridden - although it is hard to believe because it is very close to the dirt.</p>
<p>North wall evidently had some strange little window that was covered up with press board - really smart… that stuff is like a sponge for moisture and damage. Have no idea why this shed had windows facing all the wrong directions 
</p>
<p>We are tearing off the roof and we have to do some reframing inside to raise the roof to the same level as main house to accommodate the pass through and the connection. Lots and lots of debris being hauled off in my pickup truck today to the dump. We will be cleaning it all up and reinforcing the framing to support a new roof structure that is going on this weekend.</p>
<p>Photos loaded of the findings in the shed - don’t forget to open the photos to read the descriptions of what you are looking at</p>
<p>Yes, I often think about how hard my job would be if I didn’t have the ability to analyze a property with an aerial view or street view from all of the incredible satellite imagery available online nowadays. Also, very hard to search properties daily without the Internet sales listings with photos!</p>
<p>cb, what windows will you be putting in the shed? – I mean, the office? I assume none of the existing ones are positioned well enough to bother replacing. Will you cover them and put new ones in different directions? I don’t really know what you’re planning to do in there.</p>
<p>Also, isn’t there some way to get the neighbor to stop dumping dirt on your property and, even, have him remove what he’s already put there?? It sounds like he’s jeopardized the utility of your property.</p>
<p>The neighbor must have built the retaining wall a long time ago alongside east edge of this property to ‘level’ his lot. I’m sure that it was done with City permits because he has a lot of buildings and a roof top deck in the back of his property. What’s happening right now is that he has a small swimming pool and Jacuzzi in the back yard and they are digging a giant hole for a ‘natural zone’ filter for swimming pool. It’s a new thing where people filter the water through a large lily pond type thing and it eliminates the need for chemicals, etc.</p>
<p>All of that dirt has been dumped into the top of the alley - which is technically City property. But it has caused dirt to raise about 4 ft on the north side of the shed, and it is piled so that the dirt mound is sloping towards the shed and my property. If there was ever a large rain storm, all of the water running down the paved alley would hit the mound of dirt and direct towards the shed and under my proposed deck.</p>
<p>Think of the shed as a rectangle. The NW corner of the shed has the views. I am putting a 48" window on left of corner and a 30" window on right of corner. The 48" window will actually be over the new deck to be built but have really nice views. The 30" window looks straight north across dirt alley to unpleasant failing fence of northerly neighbor, but it will provide extra light.</p>
<p>Hmmm, perhaps it is time to introduce yourself to the neighbor. Sort of a subtle reminder that the property has new owners who are on top of things. I’d ask him what his plan was for dirt removal. Sort of suggesting he has a plan, and you are anxious to see him put it in action. He may not do anything, but perhaps you can at least get shared cost. That’s a lot of dirt, and if there is enough rain it could cause a lot of damage. I doubt he had permission to dump it all on “city” property. </p>
<p>“If there was ever a large rain storm, all of the water running down the paved alley would hit the mound of dirt and direct towards the shed and under my proposed deck.”</p>
<p>Whoa. We care serious @&$%# about rain here in my neck of the woods! Drainage of any runoff onto your neighbor’s property is illegal in my city. Our county even has a drainage investigation unit! (or had it a few years ago). Agree that you need to politely introduce yourself and inquire about the future of the dirt while hunting at the runoff liability issues. ;)</p>
<p>A pond to filter pool water? Ewww!!! Hippies gone completely mad!</p>
<p>cb, it sounds kinda nasty to introduce yourself to the neighbor and, in the next breath, say “Get your dirt off that property; it’s hurting my house.” (I’m sure you can come up with better verbiage!) But, if you don’t do it, what’s your plan? Obviously the dirt needs to either be removed or regraded to some degree to deal with the drainage issue. And it doesn’t sound like it should be entirely your responsibility.</p>
<p>I have met the neighbor and toured the back of his property because I needed to talk to him about the work we are doing on the shed. At that point I was concerned because our shed roof overhang is hanging over his property about 6 inches - and has obviously encroached for 90 years. He was very agreeable for the work that needs to be done and has agreed to let us put gutters across back of our shed - and gutters on his shed. This will eliminate the majority of any water flowing down behind the east wall of the shed. </p>
<p>You can tell from the pictures (more loaded) that the bottom portion of the east wall of this shed is a ‘retaining wall’ under grade level. It’s very important to me that we contain the amount of water on that side of the shed to keep that retaining wall dry.</p>
<p>While visiting with him we went out to the back alley and I explained to him that the giant mound of dirt (I pretended that I did not know who put dirt there) has caused a serious drainage issue towards my property. He then told me that they had loaded the dirt and he ‘got permission’ from the neighbor on other side of the alley. He said the owners of my property never came outside so he hasn’t spoken to them since he lived there.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the dirt cannot be moved with a bobcat or other grading equipment because cannot get access with equipment. It will have to be regraded and cleaned up (lots of broken concrete out there also) by hand with shovels.</p>
<p>I honestly think that another ‘flipper’ or one of my competitors would not even notice the drainage problem and just go on their merry way - since this issue is technically on another property. But, I take drainage issues seriously. At a minimum I will at least disclose the issue to new buyers if I cannot take care of it myself. But I think I will need to take care of it because I believe the drainage is going to come under new deck and cause issues with footings. At that point it will be very difficult to correct the situation because the deck is built over an area that needs to have the drainage corrected.</p>
<p>cb, you can come and fix up my house anytime. :-* </p>
<p>I was just thinking the same thing! In fact, I’m updating my kitchen are really struggling and I find myself thinking, "I wish CB lived in my neighborhood!</p>
<p>Yeah, really!</p>