<p>The railing photos up close show the initial poor quality paint job, but the “afters” do look much better. I really admire how you do the right thing for the project and you may be surprised that your efforts to protect the shed wall pay off in someone noticing how much care has gone into the remodel. I hope so!</p>
<p>The only person that is going to notice the back wall of the shed is a Home Inspector. This would be after a buyer goes into contract and they are pretty much locked in. The home inspector would have to crawl on top of the office roof and peer over the roof to even see the back wall because both sides are walled in by neighbor fences. And even then, he will probably write up some scary notification that there is potential moisture problems back there. I just cannot win!</p>
<p>Other than the front stairs (which are scary) this house is fantastic. I love what you’re doing with it, CB. You have good taste and good practices. I bet your buyers are very happy people.</p>
<p>What’s your timetable? When do you think you might get it on the market? </p>
<p>My original schedule was 12 weeks because this is a total gut job remodel. That would put us ready for photos about December 1st, out to market a couple of days later (another December, Oh Boy!)</p>
<p>Last week I realized that we were really far behind and we probably are not going to make it. I still have not even figured out what we are going to do with the hallway, main bath and closets. There is a big gaping hole on the right side of this house. We tore everything out and opened up the hallway. But, struggling with plans for that area and I keep getting distracted.</p>
<p>So, I have hired some extra help to try to get moving forward. I hired the plumber who got everything in kitchen ready in one day and he’s coming back next week to finish everything in laundry room and office bathroom. That put’s us under extreme pressure to finish up the office area by the end of the week. The office area still needs the following to even get ready to run some copper lines and electrical:</p>
<p>Roof built between two buildings (we only have the roof built and covered over office)
Subfloor in laundry area
Stucco wall opened up between kitchen and laundry
East wall siding installed (going to be really difficult to screw in siding between the sheds)
Drylok painted onto concrete wall inside office
Self leveling cement poured and leveled inside office (this is the long lead time, needs to dry before we can walk on it again)
Walls built for bathroom
Dropped ceiling built for bathroom
Insulation in ceilings</p>
<p>All of this has to be done because the water lines and electrical need to come through laundry hallway ceiling. They cannot go through the concrete foundations below the house. Then those lines have to run through ceiling to bathroom area and drop down through walls. We cannot pull water or electrical up from bottom because of the concrete foundations and concrete retaining walls. Insulation has to get into the ceilings first because it will be very difficult to stuff it in around the wires and pipes. </p>
<p>I have hired a specialist drywall team that is coming in this week to cover up the enclosed front porch and living room area. I will see if they do a good job - have never used them before and they are a little expensive. But, I need to get areas done in this house to at least feel better about moving forward.</p>
<p>I’ll know more after I see if we can make our goals this week.</p>
<p>I looked long and hard at that top step right at the front door. I agree that I need to create a landing at the top of the stairs. It is very dangerous right at the doorway. So today we are going to have to build a structure that pulls the front door inside the house another 2 feet for a total of about 30" on landing. Doorway will be right at the start of the front window, we cannot recess it any more than the 2 feet. I am panicking because I cannot remember if I ordered tempered glass or not. I bet I did not. Technically I need tempered glass windows when a window is close to a doorway. I had just better have really good door stops on that front door. Oh well, another mistake! </p>
<p>And of course this is now an emergency because the drywallers are showing up on Thursday morning to get started in that area 
</p>
<p>It looks like your SAP did an excellent job.</p>
<p>None of my old houses have landings at the the top of the steps before entering the house. They just didn’t build them that way back then.</p>
<p>Is it a code issue now? The people who lived there survived for 60+ years without a landing.</p>
<p>It is a code issue now, but this house does not have to conform to code. It will be called out by a Home Inspector but I don’t truly have to do it. But, it is easy to do now (well, relatively easy) since we have the walls opened up in the entry area and we will be replacing all the siding on the outside anyways. The only issue will be that I paid the flooring guy to epoxy furring strips down on the entry floor and put 3/4" plywood subfloor to level out the old porch area. We will have to cut it out and scrape it clean for landing area. We will have to remove about 18-24" of his work. </p>
<p>It’s called going backwards - I’m an expert at it!</p>
<p>No landing would be a serious issue for me. I was picturing coming home with grocery bags, climbing the steps, then having to get out the key while juggling the bags. Or back from a trip with a suitcase. There has to be some space to set things down before opening the door. Good idea to add two feet!</p>
<p>Can we have the link to the pictures again? I havent’ been able to see the new ones and I am so interested!!!</p>
<p><a href=“Flickr: The CC Flip Project #3 Pool”>https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/groups/2750844@N22/</a></p>
<p>Two feet doesn’t seem big enough for a landing, it seems like it is barely big enough to stand in, let alone have room to put stuff down. And there’s a landing before the final group of steps up to the door. It seems more like a nice-to-have rather than a must-have to me, but it’s hard to say without standing there.</p>
<p>It won’t be two feet; it will be 30 inches. </p>
<p>I’d forgotten there was a landing down a few steps…that rather mitigates it for me. But the full landing is better. </p>
<p>Front door is already recessed. I loaded a photo where the new front door is framed inside the old front door. It looks rather strange right now. Also, we have insulated the front porch area with special insulation that has a thin plastic cover. It’s supposed to have thermal properties AND sound control. Hope it works! We were very busy buttoning up some small details in the living room because we are getting drywall installed tomorrow.</p>
<p>Over 60 sheets of drywall, 20 boxes and bags of drywall mud and drywall shims are being delivered by truck tomorrow morning. This is a bunch of heavy stuff that needs to get hauled up the stairs, so I found a Pettibone Forklift thing at the local equipment rental place. I have to pick it up in my truck and we should be able to use it to lift everything above the garage and unload. We’ll see if that works. It was only $40 to rent the forklift and it should be worth it.</p>
<p>Also, tomorrow we have to pour $350 worth of self leveling cement into the new office floor to try to get it level and smooth for flooring. We need to do this before we can start building the interior walls for the new bathroom. Lots of money pouring out the door right now. I hired a guy that has skills with the self leveling for the floor.</p>
<p>Forklift sounds like a good idea. It will be easier on the workers, and also on the new handrail.</p>
<p>Dang forklift thing didnt work. It was a hand lift thing. As soon as we tried to put 2 pcs of drywall on it and cranked it up it got wobbly and one piece fell off and almost killed the guy down below. Big safety problem!!</p>
<p>So the guys just shook their heads at my stupid idea and started carrying up stairs one by one. There were about 10 pcs of 5/8 drywall that is very heavy. It took 3 guys about 1 1/2 hrs. I was panicking because I didn’t want it all sitting in the street like a red flag</p>
<p>Oh well . . . </p>
<p>How terrifying that a piece of drywall fell off and just narrowly missed a worker. What a sobering moment. </p>
<p>I’m glad you created a landing by the front door. As a potential buyer, I’m super sensitive to potential safety issues, and the lack of a landing may well have been a disqualifying issue for me. I think you’ve just expanded your base of potential buyers by addressing that issue. </p>
<p>The more we hear stories about the difficulties you’re having with negotiating those stairs the more my heart goes out to the prior resident with his trash bags. They must have felt like an insurmountable burden to him.</p>
<p>Poop and Pee - So Glamorous</p>
<p>I was hesitating to share these stories but I promised to tell the truth about what happens on these jobs. We have been without a toilet for almost 2 weeks now and luckily I live within 5 minutes. There is no way to have a porta potty at this location. I’m back and forth almost all day. I have told the guys to please feel free to go down to the Jack in the Box anytime they need to use the restroom. I never see them leave - I just do not want to know what they are doing.</p>
<p>Last week I went down to the little garage and tried to put in the code to get it open. It wouldn’t open. Finally about 3 minutes later I was able to get the door open to find one of the guys (not my lead) in there. I was worried that he had gotten locked in there and proceeded to show him where the button was to open from inside. A little later I saw him throw a plastic bag into the big trash can located on the sidewalk. Guess what the poor guy was doing inside the garage. That trash can just reeked horribly for 3 days in the sun until the City picked up trash. It was disgusting.</p>
<p>Yesterday we dug a trench through the courtyard to lay the main sewer drain. As we refilled the trench with dirt we water it down to pack the dirt strong. As I was holding the hose I looked into the house and saw a huge puddle in a closet. I started screaming to turn water off because I thought we had some kind of strange leak. My lead comes over and tells me “don’t worry, it’s apple juice”. What??? Then he shows me a big Coke bottle that the drywallers were using that was full of ‘apple juice’. Evidently it had gotten knocked over and there was a puddle of pee on my wood floors in the closet. OMG!!! I just couldn’t believe it. I asked my lead to please tell drywallers to clean it up immediately. Sometimes it helps to be the boss, I was not going to clean it up!!! Could you imagine if I hadn’t seen it and it seeped into wood floors and was stinking forever???</p>
<p>We are rushing to finish the laying the self leveling cement on office floor so we can stick in a temporary toilet. But, there are no walls up, just open framing. I have no idea what we are going to do to create any semblance of privacy in there. Never a dull moment.</p>
<p>Obviously there are not any photos loaded of these great events!</p>