<p>The budget issues are rough. But it seems like you’ll get a fabulous return on this place.</p>
<p>I have a question about marketing. When do you plan to put the house on the market? As I mentioned upthread, I’m in the market for a house but everyone is telling me that inventory will be low until early Spring because “no one” puts a house on the market at this time of year “unless they have to.” </p>
<p>That doesn’t seem quite right to me – and your house isn’t going to be attracting families with lots of school aged kids, so the usual justifications for buying in the summer before school starts will likely not apply. But I just wonder if you’ve given thought to the ideal time to put the house on the marker and how that factors into your thinking on what you will do with this place. </p>
<p>Handrail looks great in pictures. The condition at the top of stairs looks precarious in the photos, however. Maybe it’s just the camera angle but the landing at the top of the stairs looks super shallow. Do you have a 3’ landing? If not, have you considered pushing the front door back a bit to provide a minimum landing at top of stairs? That would be important to me as a potential buyer, given how steep those stairs are. </p>
<p>I’m curious where the stairs to the roof deck are; can’t see them in the picture.</p>
<p>Yes, there is no landing at the top of the stairs and I agree that it is not a good situation. I have given some thought into recessing the front door, but it could conflict with the location of the large windows in the front. I’m going to look at it again, especially since there will be a threshold/trip hazard at the front door.</p>
<p>I’ll try to take a photo of the stairs to roof deck.</p>
<p>Questions about marketing are very tricky. My understanding is that in areas where there are very cold winters, things just don’t sell during those cold months. So, real estate agents in those areas would warn against putting your house up for market during the winter. That does not apply in our geographic region. There are two months that are very slow in our market, August and December.</p>
<p>Well, once again I will probably have a house up for sale in December! I don’t know how this happens to me, but it always does. It might have something to do with the fact that I am usually purchasing in the slow August month because I can finally get a deal. Here’s some history of me getting stuck with inventory for sale in December</p>
<p>2011 - beautiful home Mt Helix area in La Mesa - my absolute favorite project. Up for sale December 20th and then I left to visit family in Florida for Christmas. Fully expected nothing to happen until January. Flooded with offers - received two offers on Christmas Day!! It was craziness. At Grandpa’s house in Florida… he has dial up Internet, no scanner, no fax. After hours of downloading I had to take 42 pages of contracts and offers to the local shop to try to send out a Fax with accepted offer. The senior citizen running the little shop faxed one page at a time. After a full hour trying to send the fax he charged me $1/page. $42 to try to send a fax!!!</p>
<p>2012 - New construction master bed/bath addition to old house in North Park. On market December 6th. By Dec 24 we didn’t have any offers and I was panicking because it was slow. We took it off market Dec 24 and were not planning to put it back on market until January. By Dec 30 we had two full price offers, even though it was ‘off market’.</p>
<p>2013 - That dang La Mesa little bungalow money pit finally went on market 11/28 right after Thanksgiving. Went into escrow December 10th and I was still trying to rebuild the garage up until end of December!!</p>
<p>So, even though December is supposed to be horrible we have learned one thing. There might not be very many buyers in December… but the buyers who are out there are serious and will move fast because there is not much inventory available.</p>
<p>Yeah, that will be my situation. I wasn’t planning on selling my house until next year but then someone heard a rumor that I was thinking of selling my place and they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. So I sold it and my escrow closes mid-November. </p>
<p>I’m not in a rush to buy a new place but it would be nice to use the relatively slow period at work around the holidays to move and get settled in my new house. (I’ll have to put my stuff in storage for a bit and rent a furnished stop-gap place). But my realtor is telling me there won’t be anything new on market in Oct, Nov and Dec so I might as well plan to stay in my stop-gap place until late Spring. That’s not my first choice, so it makes me optimistic to hear your stories of December listings!</p>
<p>It’s a circular problem – there aren’t buyers in December in part because there aren’t sellers in December.</p>
<p>Every time I buy a property my agent immediately starts asking me when will it be ready for sale. Like I even have some kind of schedule that will actually come true??? Then she starts trying to analyze whether that will be a ‘good’ month for sales. She’ll say things like “Oh, you’ll come out in Spring, that will be perfect!!” “Oh darn, you will have to come out in December and there won’t be any buyers”. All I can say, is that it doesn’t seem to really make a difference.</p>
<p>Of the two houses I had that were very difficult to sell, one at a loss, they went to market in </p>
<p>9/22/2010 - didn’t get any offer until 12/10/2010 (December!!). This was a downtown San Diego condo that was trending down. My agent thought the 2/2 with an extra office would be a good property but I learned that only downtown condos with big views were really selling at that time in the market. Right now that condo has probably trended back up to about $50-$75k more than I sold it for</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d actually search hard for something in late November and December. If you fall in love with something you have very good negotiating power to get it for a lower price because there is a lack of buyers competing for that property.</p>
<p>We saw our house on January 3rd and put down an offer a week later. Worked out well for us!</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the budget woes. But I will say you seem nicely on top of the financial tracking. I’ve seen some e TV show renovation trainwrecks where that was not the case. Good luck! </p>
<p>New Photos Loaded</p>
<p>HANDRAIL JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE
I loaded some photos of the shoddy workmanship on the handrails that were installed on the staircase. Luckily I held back some payment so the guys are actually returning my phone calls. Of course they were going to come ‘fix everything’ today, but then called and said they would come tomorrow morning. I just don’t know how they are going to fix all the dents and the horrible paint issues on site. I’m betting they are going to have to take it all down and back to the shop to correct the paint, leaving us with a dangerous situation. </p>
<p>I can see that they did not clean the oil off the steel after welding and they didn’t prime before putting on the final black coat. The whole thing is a disaster and I’m trying hard to stand my ground to get it fixed properly. My roofer noticed it over the weekend and he’s really pissed because he felt the guys were not professional at all and trying to take advantage of me (read… a woman). Maybe I can get the roofer to give them a piece of his mind !!</p>
<p>FINALLY - A PLUMBER THAT IS NOT INSANE!
the good news is that the new plumber found on Craigslist is really good. He showed up in a truck that actually had ‘Big Dog Plumbing’ on the side of it and had all the right tools (first thing you should look for). He had meticulously analyzed the job and showed up with every single part. This is the first time that I have not had to run to Home Depot a million times for one missing plumbing part. He did some really cool things that I had not seen before - I took pictures with descriptions. He didn’t take his shirt off while working on the job and he didn’t haul in a bunch of beer!! </p>
<p>This plumber is certified in the gas flex lines and he was able to pull new gas lines from meter for 4 different things very easily with the flex line. </p>
<p>Here is what he and one helper accomplished in 7 hours:</p>
<p>New gas line from gas meter to kitchen stove
Gas Line stubbed out to deck area for buyer (in case they want BBQ or patio heaters in future)
Gas Line stubbed out to courtyard for buyer (same reason, see I’m thinking ahead for my buyers!)
Gas line to tankless water heater location
Tested all gas lines with a fancy tool (instead of soapy water and bubbles like we do)
New hot and cold 1/2" water lines to kitchen sink, hot running from water heater
Installed ice maker box in wall for refrigerator and cold water line to box
New ABS drain for sink tied into main sewer line
Drain vent through roof and cleanout
Big 3/4" input and output water lines to tankless water heater location</p>
<p>I was so impressed!!! He charged a lot for one day’s work because I never thought anyone could get that all done in one day. He brought about $300 worth of parts (including 50ft of the flex gas line which I know is expensive). </p>
<p>Total cost for all the plumbing labor was $850 (outside of the parts). Wow… I want to make $850/day! Not having to go to Home Depot four times in one day for emergency runs - priceless 
</p>
<p>But, in honesty it would’ve taken my team about 3 days to get all of that done, we would not have the fancy gas flex line (which is much better for earthquake safety) and there would have been a lot of headaches along the way. So, the cost to use my team would have been about $900.</p>
<p>Took a peek at the handrail issue. OMG, how can one possibly even think that he can get away with that crappy job?! You are a sain - he deserves to be whacked on the head with that solid copper pipe of your plumber’s! :)</p>
<p>Besides withholding payment, cb, you need to dangle over his head the threat of never using the handrail guy again. You’re a successful flipper who does six to eight houses a year (you’ll tell him) and you had hoped to be able to use him for several upcoming projects, but not if this is the quality of work he does . . . yada yada yada. But you know all this already. </p>
<p>You took out the milk box? What are you going to do with it?</p>
<p>I can’t believe the paint on that handrail. That’s outrageous.</p>
<p>The only way to correctly fix the paint on that handrail will be to remove it, strip it, clean it, and paint it properly.</p>
<p>The dents… yikes. Not sure if those are even fixable.</p>
<p>Handrail guy showed up this morning. Two guys took two hours sanding off all the paint. He put metal bondo in the dents and sanded it down. Then he ‘cleaned’ it (looked like he just wiped it with a wet rag). They primed with Rustoleum metal primer spray. Waited one hour ( I checked and it felt dry to touch) and then they did a coat of black flat Rustoleum metal spray. It is the best he could do at this point. At least the appearance is acceptable now. Not sure what will happen with that paint 5 years down the road, but I did the best I could do.</p>
<p>Milk Box -
I want to put the milk box back into the kitchen, but it had to come out because it was installed low in the wall, behind the kitchen cabinets and there was a metal door on outside of house. I’m open to suggestions, I have two or three ways we can go with the milk box:</p>
<p>1) Install it just above countertop to left of stove and open up a new hole into courtyard with other side of metal opening door. Have no idea what purpose this will serve, the little door is too small to pass things through to courtyard through this box.</p>
<p>2) Install it just above countertop to left of stove, but close off back of it. It would just be some kind of novelty, or maybe a place to store spices or something in the wall?</p>
<p>3) Install it somewhere else in the house as a novelty - maybe as the mailbox with it opening both sides? But the door is really too small to make it easy to get mail in or out???</p>
<p>Honestly, if it were me, I wouldn’t bother with installing the milk box. It was a cute novelty in its original position, but elsewhere in the house it will just be taking up valuable space in an extremely tight layout. It’s an interesting artifact, but, to me at least, it doesn’t have sufficient intrinsic aesthetic appeal to justify mounting it someplace else. Others will undoubtedly disagree!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Gabriel-Wall-Mount-Milk-Box-Door-Unused-/171452606009?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27eb5f2639”>http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Gabriel-Wall-Mount-Milk-Box-Door-Unused-/171452606009?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27eb5f2639</a></p>
<p>You can always sell it. Or can you install it in the courtyard somewhere? Just for the fun of it? If this house is going to appeal to the person who likes the charm of a vintage house, they would probably love the milk box.</p>
<p>I also like the idea of installing it to the left of the stove.</p>
<p>I like #2 option if it doesn’t screw up any design “lines.”</p>
<p>I’d check out how much it’s worth at a local antique shop, if it’s <$100 I’d save it and gift it to the new owners with picture of where it was located in the house and let them figure out what to do with it. If it’s >$100 I’d sell it or donate to the local historical society for a tax deduction.</p>
<p>How the Budget Always Gets Blown!! and using our SAP</p>
<p>The back wall of our luxurious new office is right on the neighbor property line. Actually the concrete retaining wall is part of the back wall. We just cannot get the old skinny wood siding torn off this side of the shed so it is going to have to stay and will be insulated and covered with drywall. Do I just leave it alone?? No!! I decide we have to do the right thing and get back there and put metal flashing along bottom of the wood touching the ground and put new fiber cement siding over the old wood to ensure that it stays moisture free and termite free. Is any buyer ever going to even see this?? No… budget buster and I’m just beyond stupid. Don’t even let me whine about the budget. </p>
<p>First thing that happens is we have to try to figure out how to get between these two sheds. We take out the crazy windows that were in the back of the shed (more trash) and identify our SAP!! Naval term for Smallest Available Person. One of the guys has to squeeze through the windows and get on the roof of the neighbor’s shed. There is tons and tons of old debris, old wood and dirt piled between these two sheds (see photo and description). He carefully picks everything up and puts it on neighbor’s roof in case it’s valuable treasure. Then he digs with a really small little garden shovel. We have to get all of the dirt down to the concrete retaining wall level. Over the years, dirt and pine needles have built up about 12" above the original level.</p>
<p>The poor guy worked all day, mostly with his hands and little shovel through the two little windows. Pictures show how clean and nice he finally got it. Two guys X 4 hours = 8 hours spent just trying to get ready to do something… put on siding which is of course probably another 8 man hours of installation, not to mention material cost of about $150!</p>
<p>Photos loaded of the flexible gas line, handrail fixed and painted and the trench behind office</p>