<p>Oy. Things I never thought one would need to worry about. Oy. </p>
<p>Could you staple tarps to the framing to make temporary walls for the bathroom?</p>
<p>Yikes. Have you considered a chemical toilet (like you have on small boats?)</p>
<p>When H and I were remodeling our first “house”–read shack–one of my major problems was relieving myself. H could always go into the woods and discretely stand behind a tree. It was fall, and there wasn’t enough cover for a female. :)</p>
<p>Maybe we should put a warning over in that other thread discussing building a house. Although they will probably have room for a portable toilet on their lot:)</p>
<p>PROGRESS UPDATE</p>
<p>This week there is more visible progress </p>
<p>Office now has framed walls and the little bathroom is framed inside the walls. The original floor was not level, it was off by almost 1 1/2" from one side to the other. First we poured regular cement to get it up to about 3/4" off. Then I bought some very expensive self leveling cement - 14 bags at $25 each and I had a flooring guy who specializes in laying the stuff there for 6 hours laying the self leveling cement. Now we are only off by about 1/8" which is tolerable for laying down some flooring.</p>
<p>We had to get the self leveling done inside the room before we could build the bathroom walls on the floor. Bathroom walls are all done and we are ready for plumber on Monday.</p>
<p>I want to give a tremendous thank you to my local Home Depot. I had a large window order that was delivered by manufacturer Jeld Wen to some local ‘delivery company’. Because there are 16 windows I had to pay for them to be delivered to the project - they just won’t fit in my truck and it makes me nervous trying to transport windows with glass. Unfortunately these delivery companies just sit on the stuff for a couple of days and then schedule it for delivery. This weekend the magic siding and window fairy is going to land and finish up the outside of the office and laundry area. I needed the two windows for the back office really bad or we would get off schedule by a whole week.</p>
<p>The guy who works in windows volunteered to drive up to the warehouse and pull the two windows I needed, pick them up in a Home Depot truck and deliver them to project - for free!!! They have just been so awesome to me lately. Those windows arrived Thursday afternoon and the guy was just so nice about it. I cannot believe they let an employee leave the store with one of their little trucks to personally deliver windows to me.</p>
<p>Electrician finished a lot of work to get exterior outlets and exterior lighting all ready. But unfortunately I now have some wires sticking out of the front of the house which is a dead giveaway that new wiring might be going on. We are going to have to hurry up and stick the lights up outside.</p>
<p>We are very close to getting a toilet installed. Self leveling complete and all of the ABS drain lines have been connected through the courtyard. We were able to get the giant mounds of dirt and a lot of safety hazards cleared up in the courtyard area because we filled in the giant trench running through there (after thoroughly testing the drain lines for leaks). This had to be done so that we could fill the giant gaping trench that was on the north side of the house. Needed to fill that so it would be safe for everyone to work out there this weekend putting on the new siding. We couldn’t fill it until drain lines tested for leaks. It’s always a chicken and egg thing.</p>
<p>DRYWALL DISASTER
Once again I was frantic about the fact that we were just not moving forward inside the house. We need to get drywall up, taped, mudded and textured. Especially in the front entry area. So, I called up some guys on Craigslist and thought I had found the right guy. Two guys showed up and they just were not moving fast at all. Even though I told them that they should not drywall the little entry area between old front door and new front door, I show up one afternoon and they have wasted time and material installing drywall where it is going to get torn out. Uggh! </p>
<p>Everything looked like a mess. My electrician took one look at it when he arrived one morning and told me “these are not the right guys” and gently hinted that I needed to get rid of them. $700 after 2 days and they had barely finished patching up one room. But at least they did a good job drywalling the new niche in living room and the opening. I decided to put small arches back into the living room and kitchen openings. I was too chicken to ‘fire’ them, so after the two days I told them that we didn’t need them next week and I would call them later when we were going to start up again. </p>
<p>We have a mammoth undertaking this weekend. Going to pull off the stucco and siding from the office building, put on galvanized flashing ($40 extra for galvanized, not really required). waterproof black paper and put up my favorite thing on earth - cement fiber siding. I opted for smooth siding versus wood grain style siding. Then we are going to install the two big sliders for the office. We might actually have a room by the end of the weekend!!!</p>
<p>Sounds like great progress! </p>
<p>I’ve never really “gotten” wood-grain siding. Real wood siding doesn’t have a raised grain, and after wood is painted or stained you can’t really see the grain any more. The raised grain just provides a place for dirt to accumulate and mold to grow. And from 10 feet away you can’t see the raised grain anymore, so it’s not like people walking by are going to be admiring it.</p>
<p>Is this just a sales gimmick? What am I missing? </p>
<p>I agree. For some reason HD only sells the wide planks with the fake raised grain. I dont like it. Found the smooth planks at Dixieline for same price so I’m very happy with them. We will save time and money because they dont have to be primed. Of course they cost more but they should last forever.</p>
<p>I have to give Home Depot a big thumbs up too. We had a very strong storm a few month ago (lost the entire fence, almost half the roof, an ac unit, a fire pit and several patio cushions). We have a very picky HOA that requires very specific stains on fences. Our local HD gave everyone in our subdivision 10% off the cost of stain because so many of us had to to replace fences. Last week I ordered the replacement fire pit and cushions on line for in store pick up, for some reason the default store location changed and I didn’t notice it until the order was placed. I called to ask them to change the shipping location to my local HD 15 minutes away and after some time on hold I was told that they had contacted to store that my order was being shipped to, 45 minutes away, and the guys at that store would just deliver it to my home when it arrives. I’m very happy with the service I’ve been getting from HD lately!</p>
<p>^^^Probably because Lowe’s is making inroads!</p>
<p>HD’s service used to be horrible. I remember about 20 years ago, DH and I went in to talk to them about a new counter on the vanity in the hall bathroom. The fellow couldn’t find his sample book and started throwing things around and cursing enough to make a sailor blush. It was really, really weird. </p>
<p>cb, I can’t wait to see pictures of the bathroom in the office, the floor, and the sliding doors! Sounds like you’re going to have a real room, finally!!</p>
<p>The window in the picture you posted yesterday may be dirty, but the view looks great! Is that facing NE across Mission Bay with the Hyatt Regency in the picture?</p>
<p>What makes that that insulation any better acoustically than any other fiberglass insulation? </p>
<p>I have no idea what makes that insulation have any better sound control. Maybe because its got a plastic wrap? Didnt have time to research it. It sure is easier for the guys to install because they dont have to touch the fiberglass stuff too much.</p>
<p>Yes, looking over Mission Bay and tall Hyatt. I am so excited today because the office windows are opened up and the views are just gorgeous. I tried to take cell phone pictures but it just looks like a small sliver of blue way out there. When you are standing in the room you don’t see anything but water, jetty, waves. Your eye is drawn to it and doesn’t notice thehouses or roofs in the foreground. There is one neighbor huge tree blocking part of the view, but it is what it is!</p>
<p>Even more exciting is the fact that a small house on half lot with same front stairs problem and one car garage on street justclosed escrow for $900k!!!</p>
<p>Today is a better day in my little world. </p>
<p>Oh, my! CB, did you get to peek inside the other house? Or is it on Zillow? This is exciting!!</p>
<p>I am just hoping and praying that an appraiser will view this house as a comparative sale. </p>
<p>If you look on Zillow.com you can see all of the listing photos. Kind of a strange house. It has 200sf more than my project and it has a gorgeous old rock fireplace. But, it is a strange lot that has a house on the back half of the lot, so very small lot in the front. The location is slightly more favorable because it is on the ‘better side’ of Newport Ave in the neighborhood. However, it is about 2 streets lower so the view is not as good as my property. I’d call it a wash between the location and the views.</p>
<p>4667 Niagara, 92107</p>
<p>3500 sq ft lot! Oh my. That’s slightly more than square footage of our house. 
</p>
<p>Yes, you are all going to choke when you see what sold for $900k?!! Its ridiculous. Things are really hot right now for anything with a view in this neighborhood. </p>
<p>I’m getting really excited about our view. Everything has been covered with trash, window boarded up or windows so dirty you cant see through them. Our first new window went in today and I can’t help but just stand at it and stare. Surrounded by construction debris, dust and lumber. But I can finally see what I knew was behind all that trash!!!</p>
<p>View is not perfect. There are large trees down the hillside and a couple of houses built high and nasty telephone poles and wires. Also, if a specific house down on a corner below builds a large 2nd story, a part of view to Mission Bay will be blocked. Its all a gamble. My carpenter keeps joking that hes going to drive some copper nails into the big tree trunk because he read somewhere that copper nails will slowly kill a tree.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that the other house does not have a single picture of the interior on Zillow! </p>
<p>It is difficult for a person from my neck of the woods to wrap their head around such tiny lots and such dependence on outdoor living spaces. :)</p>
<p>ETA: okay, scratch the first sentence. Somehow I missed the pictures the first time. I really don’t like the kitchen–a pendant over the range? Seriously? and no exhaust fan?–and the other rooms are less than inspiring, but that is probably the effect of the furniture.</p>
<p>Consolation, I agree, that kitchen is awful! It is stuck in the seventies and is not too functional. I still can’t get over the fact that the house has a 3500 sq ft lot!</p>
<p>It is 8:30 here in my neck of the woods, and the weather is unusually nice. Still about 60 degrees. I would not mind living outdoors if I lived in San Diego :)</p>