Flip This House #3

Parent Cafe
921

<p>Code Compliance Officer has determined that there is ‘no proof’ that someone didn’t add the toilet and shower into that room after 1936 before I purchased the house. Since there are no original plans available, the burden of proof is on the homeowner. All anyone can dig up is a visit to the property in 1960 by the County Assessor to document the footprint of the buildings and what they saw for property tax valuation purposes. The records note ‘laundry area’ but only note 1 bathroom for taxation purposes.</p>

<p>Therefore the City has declared that the existing bathroom is not permitted. I guess ‘laundry area’ historically dates the giant concrete sink, but I have no proof in writing from anywhere that the weird shower base and toilet were there. I even gave them photos of the original cast iron drain lines in the trench but they do not accept that as proof.</p>

922

<p>Holy mother. </p>

923

<p>I just have to cross my fingers that they will allow a newly permitted bathroom in the building. According to current code I should be allowed to have a bathroom in an outbuilding within the setback. I’ll just have to hope I can get a 2nd bathroom in there because it is very hard to sell a house nowadays with only 1 bathroom. I have tried hard to find somewhere else I can ask for a 2nd permitted bathroom and there just is not any room anywhere else. The reason it is hard in this particular house is because the Living Room and Dining room are very large in comparison to the overall square footage. The side of the house where the two bedrooms are is too tight to add another bathroom.</p>

<p>I’ll load my new plans to our Flickr Group just in case anyone has any curiosity :slight_smile: The problem is that I have to convert them from pdf (which you can blow up and actually read) to jpg to put them into Flickr. They will probably be impossible to read.</p>

924

<p>While I can’t read most of the print, I can tell enough about them to follow along. In fact, I actually have a better vision of what you are doing from seeing the layout. Good luck to you and thanks for sharing this journey with us.</p>

925

<p>Pocket door for the bathroom is a good idea.</p>

<p>This may be a stupid idea, but would getting in touch with Walter provide an opportunity to get additional information about the second bathroom that you might not already have?</p>

926

<p>Here’s the history of the house after many hours of research:</p>

<p>Original subdivision map had a full lot in 1907
Lot split through Grant Deed in 1923
House built in 1936, although I have no idea how anyone knows this because the only records found are County Property Tax Assessor who notes ‘1937’ on his sheet
Somewhere around 1960 a gentleman bought this house
In 1966 the gentleman recorded a quitclaim putting house into his name and Hector Islava as joint tenants. So, sometime between 1960 and 1966 Hector Islava moved into the house</p>

<p>My trail stops there… until
Obviously original gentleman dies at some point or gives house to Hector - it’s very difficult to find the records before 1972 without searching through a lot of microfiche</p>

<p>2000 Hector Islava puts the house into trust with Walter as successor trustee
2007 Hector Islava dies and Walter takes over ownership</p>

<p>I can tell from the original cast iron plumbing that the bathroom existed before 1960. However, a newer toilet fixture probably replaced the original toilet at some point. So, if I called Walter he will say ‘yes, bathroom existed but I don’t know when it was built’ since he moved into the house sometime between 1966 and 2000. I suppose I could try and ask</p>

927

<p>I’d try and ask. And ask if he has any pictures (in those scrapbooks you returned to him) of any parties/events at the house. Who knows what may be in the background of some old picture? You need that bathroom…</p>

928

<p>@coralbrook, is there a starving HS/college student you can pay to search the microfiche for you?? Might be worth $10 an hour or something. </p>

929

<p>Searching the microfiche only gets me the ownership trail. There isn’t any information in the Grant Deeds about numbers of bedrooms or bathrooms. Unfortunately the City has ‘no records prior to 1955’ for building plans or building records. So, when they need to research something they just go to the County Property Tax Records. The tax records just show some landscape improvements that added value throughout history after 1960. First records that they have are 1960 but those records mysteriously don’t record anything about 2nd bathroom. </p>

<p>My guess is that the Assessor just walked around the outside of the Utility Room for measurement and never went inside. Or… the owners purposely locked the Utility Shed or something because they didn’t want to be ‘taxed’ for a 2nd bathroom. Or… the toilet and shower portion of the bathroom were added after 1936 (or possibly after 1960) so it was never permitted.</p>

<p>So, I’ve ruled out trying to go through the Recorder’s microfiche just to get the ownership history.</p>

930

<p>CB, I want to thank you again for continuing to update this thread. I’m so sorry that you’re encountering these challenges, but it’s really interesting to be able to learn about all the facets of this project, especially with all the detail you provide. I hope things get rolling again soon. The house will be a gem when you’re finished with it. I’m looking forward to hearing all about the bidding war.</p>

931

<p>Ah, the bidding war! that’s going to be a LOT of fun!!</p>

932

<p>One really small step forward</p>

<p>Last night the Code Compliance Officer sent me a copy of the ‘draft’ unofficial Notice. His supervisor has reviewed it but evidently it’s not really official until it goes into the mail. It states I have 45 days to submit plans to get a permit or I will be fined $2,500/day after that. I’m ahead of the game!!</p>

<p>BUT, there is a list of ‘violations’ in the letter and there are errors and all kinds of issues with his list. For example, it states that the roof has been removed and new sheathing. Haven’t even touched the roof. Basically there are about 4 true violations (electric panel and wiring, new plumbing, new roof structure and partitions in utility room and foundation for new addition). But then there are about 7 more things that I am proposing in the plans but I haven’t even started yet. He kind of mixed with stuff I told him I was GOING to do (remodel existing bathroom, put in French doors, change windows). These are things he saw in the plans I submitted for his review or remembers me telling him I was going to do when we did our walkthroughs. Even the things that we discussed he got wrong - put in the Notice that I was enlarging the window in the dining room (should have said kitchen).</p>

<p>I had an appointment at 10am this morning to review the newly corrected $$$ and printed $$$ plans with his requested corrections and get his ‘stamp’ on the plans so that I could finally submit for a permit. After he stamped all the plans I reviewed the Notice with him and asked if anyone was going to pay attention to the details of the Notice and compare them to the plan. I pointed out a couple of things that might cause an issue. He was kind of embarrassed and told me to just take the Notice with me so that I can get started. But, I think he will need to correct it for the records.</p>

<p>For example, if the inspector comes out and we haven’t done anything to the roof yet, he’s going to start looking around for the new sheathing. Or he might look for the expanded window in the dining room and then he’s going to start wondering whether the plans are correct.</p>

<p>OK, so I trudge downstairs and wait for my turn to submit permit. I think I waited for 1 1/2 hrs before it was my turn. The poor young lady that took all my stuff was overwhelmed with the issues in the Notice, issues that no one knew whether portions of the house were permitted, etc. Then she was pretty adamant that I had to have structural engineering plans. I explained that I had been told numerous times that I need to know ‘What’ I’m going to be allowed to build before I can start structural engineering. This required a phone call down to the Engineering Department. Some guy came up and took one look at it and said ‘single story - let her submit without structural engineering’. One small victory in the chain of bureaucracy!!</p>

<p>Then I find out that my package is not complete because I am supposed to have photos of the house on a CD for Historical Review. The instructions read that I had to take current photos and provide them with the application. So, I had printed them out. OMG!! they are marking the plans incomplete - I have to start all over again.</p>

<p>Finally the young lady had some sympathy for my mess (I showed her all the hoarding photos when we got started and tried to get her sympathy) and she said I could rush home and put the photos on CD and come back with the historical review package.</p>

<p>Rush home and come back with a CD and she lets me just bring it to her desk to complete the package. We are off and running and I have no idea how many weeks I will wait from this point forward.</p>

<p>Meanwhile… I get in line again and wait 45 minutes to try to submit a separate retaining wall permit to hold off the dirt mound in back. When the City front desk lady saw my plans (drawn by mason) she just shook her head and started to peel off all the documents I needed, structural engineering drawings, site plans, a new survey or property lines… my head just started to spin. An official guy took pity on me and took me to his desk to try to explain everything needed.</p>

<p>After 30 minutes of this I asked him to please pull up Google, explained the mountain of dirt and my serious avalanche issue. He said that I could get a really strong 6’ fence installed there and I don’t need a retaining wall. No permit required. He said I should just get out there and try to ‘grade’ the dirt by hand. If I use heavy equipment then someone will not like it. So, after hours of digging trenches, hauling concrete block and concrete, setting and tying rebar… I’m going to give up on solid concrete block retaining wall. Haul it all back to Home Depot for a refund and build the strongest fence we can design. City guy said that I could set the steel posts in the deepest, widest amount of concrete that I want, as long as the fence is only 6 feet above natural grade. Good luck finding natural grade back there :slight_smile: </p>

<p>But at least we have something tangible we can start working on - a new fence!!</p>

933

<p>Geez . . . . Hugs, hugs, and more hugs. Now go have a drink.</p>

<p>@Coralbrook, I hope you are rewarded with a whopping sale price that knocks the socks off of everyone in the neighborhood. Including the bad guy who turned you in.</p>

<p>Coralbrook, what is your training? How did you get started with all this? What made you knowledgeable about rebar, retaining walls, and concrete block?</p>

934

<p>I don’t have any training. Before I dove head first into an empty concrete pool I was a computer system project manager. I only have experience being a ‘professional paid nag’ as my husband kindly puts it. On my first couple of flips a general contractor friend would come over and help with engineering to move walls and stuff. He would draw pictures on the wall of what needed to be done. Anytime I hit anything remotely scary he comes over and helps explain what we need to do.</p>

<p>But, I am a sponge. Every single house that we do I write down all of the required calculations. For example, I learned very quickly that for every foot you open up you need a header one inch deeper. So, if we are going to create an opening 10ft long, we need to install a 4 x 10 header across the top. For every one of these configurations there is a set of strong metal ‘Simpson’ straps we have to use and I have the manual on which straps need to be used where.</p>

<p>But, the most important thing is that when something is important, I hire experienced guys. I hover around and they explain everything to me. Sometimes it goes into the sponge and other times it goes right out the other ear (trying to explain electrical circuit requirements to me).</p>

<p>My employee is extremely experienced and has a lot of patience with me. Luckily, he will be the first to say when he doesn’t know how to do something or it would be more efficient to hire someone else. You would not believe the scam guys out there claiming they know how to do drywall, electrical, you name it. So, for the retaining wall I hired a qualified mason (not ‘licensed contractor’, if there is such a thing for masonry). He had to talk me through all the engineering so I could go in and try to get a permit. A permit is required if you are building a retaining wall higher than 36".</p>

935

<p>Today was another day of digging dirt. Poor laborer guy had to dig out the trench by the Utility Room (notice how my official name for back room has changed to the safe term for permit inspectors!!)to even twice as wide. We have decided to put a really strong fence all the way out on the property line, which is another two feet into the mountain from where we were… Lots of measuring with parcel map to make sure we knew where the property line was. Going to anchor fence with concrete block, rebar and cement up about 3 block high. The fence steel round posts will be mounted 3ft apart, instead of 6 ft apart. These are going to be dropped down through the 3 concrete blocks with rebar and concrete. </p>

<p>Still haven’t decided what the fence material is going to be. This fence is not really seen anywhere from front of house or from inside the house so it might be metal corrugated roof sheets on outside of fence to make sure it can withstand the avalanche. </p>

<p>After we get this fence installed we will have to get out with a shovel and move dirt around to create a ‘dam’ to hold off water running into property from the mountain.</p>

936

<p>I have loaded photos of the latest exterior color swatches. There is a patch of clean white that has a touch of grey on the stucco and a muted pale grey on the siding. I think the muted pale grey might be a little too institutional. I’m going to try some other muted contrast colors on the siding tomorrow.</p>

937

<p>I’m not crazy about the dark gray. What about a color? </p>

938

<p>Aside from CC, I spend a fair amount of time on the Gardenweb Home Decorating Forum, mostly browsing but occasionally posting. There’s a lot of discussion over there about color and color trends. Grey is certainly a popular interior neutral these days, and for good reason. It’s also a great choice for many exteriors. I don’t think it would be my choice for your coastal southern California home, though. It just seems off to me. </p>

<p>Have you considered a rich cream or a taupe (I think you mentioned this option in a previous post)? Or even some version of white? In this setting, I think you want a warmth and a freshness. The grey just seems too cool and sad for your lovely (and soon to be lovelier) house. </p>

<p>My house is grey, by the way, so I am not a grey-hater!</p>

939

<p>The photo which has the white on the stucco and the pale gray under the house numbers is the color currently under consideration. I like the choice on the stucco bottom just below the lip under the wood siding - Behr Frost. The objective is to have the main body of the house in the ‘white’ … of course I couldn’t just chose white, I had to find some slight tinted version of white!! the guys on the project think I am crazy lady because that is the 5th ‘white’ I have painted onto the stucco. It all looks the same to them. </p>

<p>Then the new wide smooth siding (replacing the existing siding) will be a contrasting color. So I will be getting some samples of a warmer color for the wood siding. I’m going to try those tomorrow and I will post some more pictures. Since it will be weeks before I’m allowed to replace the siding, no hurry on the contrasting color. </p>

<p>I seem to be the owner of almost 30-40 small sample jars of paint at this point from all these houses. Each time I go to the next one, all the colors in the sample bin don’t seem to be what I am looking for and I have to start all over again with the paint swatches and buying more small sample cans.</p>

940

<p>Forgot to mention that famous stucco guy did all of our repairs and patches today so that we can start painting the body of the main house. I call him ‘famous’ because he was featured on Flipping San Diego and he has become extremely busy with work. I always enjoy seeing him because he gives me the poop on what the big boys are doing around town right now. He says they have 14 shows that will be filmed this season. Have no idea where these guys are even going to find 14 properties to purchase in this competitive market.</p>

<p>He also told me that one of my competitors had the same issue in a very high end area (Del Mar). Neighbor across the street tried to buy the house and then started calling the Coastal Commission, the police, City building department, anyone they could. They even would come over and complain about the way stucco guy had his scaffolding erected.</p>