Oh wow! I like what I see. Perfect color choice for this project!
I agree; love the countertops.
Even better was that I was able to save $500 with that panel that is on the back of the cabinets for the counter overhang. This was a painted wood panel left over from a kitchen project 4 years ago. It has been sitting in my garage for 4 years and my carpenter keeps teasing me that we need to use it or throw it away because it was huge and getting banged around. I brought home a drawer front from this kitchen project, pulled it out of the corner of the garage and opened it up and Yeah!!! it is the perfect coloring for this kitchen. Dragged it over to project and we got it installed. It was a miracle that it did not have crushed corners or big scratches on it.
The countertop guys are coming back on Thursday to finish. They have not cut the holes for the kitchen faucet yet.
I do not have a convenient place for a switch for the garbage disposal, so I purchased one of those air switch things for the garbage disposal. I don’t have any experience with placing these. Do any of you have a countertop button for garbage disposal? Where is it placed?
I’m thinking of putting it about 6 inches to the right of the faucet right behind sink
I have my air switch on the back left corner 1" from my sink. I wanted it as close to the sink as possible so it wouldnt be noticed. putting it behind the sink would mean having to reach over the sink to turn it on - not convenient.
Stand in front of the where the sink will be and visualize how you would want to be able to reach for it. It requires some downward pressure to turn the disposal on- thats why reaching OVER the sink might be an awkward motion to have to make
I guess this means they don’t make batch feed garbage disposals anymore? That’s what we have. No switch on the wall…the “cover” to the disposal hole activates the switch.
Love everything about the countertops - color, material, waterfall. Gorgeous!
It has to be plugged into an outlet in the cabinet under the sink . thats why locating it close the sink is best- the air switch can then be plugged in right next to the disposal.
I have no idea what an air switch is…is it like the Clapper? Clap on! Clap off!
noooooooooooo… 
this is what it looks like from the top
https://www.google.com/search?q=airswitch+photos&tbm=isch&imgil=84b-iRBYwq3e-M%253A%253B06wRkL6gM2ZO-M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.jaclo.com%25252Fproducts%25252Fdetail%25253Fpid%2525253D1082%25252526cid%2525253D171&source=iu&pf=m&fir=84b-iRBYwq3e-M%253A%252C06wRkL6gM2ZO-M%252C_&biw=1396&bih=847&usg=___ZPcU_GmEMwDWvESDR4wm-uJF7U%3D&ved=0CDgQyjdqFQoTCIijmN3HtccCFQGXiAod90oECA&ei=-a3UVcjCJYGuogT3lZFA#imgrc=84b-iRBYwq3e-M%3A&usg=___ZPcU_GmEMwDWvESDR4wm-uJF7U%3D
So just a big button to push.
only about 1.5 inches across
Batch Feed Garbage Disposals - I learned my lesson on these type of garbage disposals. First, they are not common here at all and have to be special ordered. The North Park Spanish bungalow buyer insisted on a batch feed garbage disposal. It arrived and was huge - at least 50% more diameter than regular garbage disposal. It requires changing up the standard p trap plumbing for the sink drain area. I want to leave as much room for storage as possible under the sink.
Landscape designer called this morning and said “I’d like to bring the plans over on Friday afternoon”. I told him I would be just fine with him sending them via email and I would review them and call him on the phone. He can’t send them via email - I guess they are hand drawn. I said “why don’t you take some pictures with your phone and send them to me??” He doesn’t have the ability to send a picture from his phone. Wow - old school. I feel really bad about him having to drive all the way down to the project just to show me some paper drawings. Plus, I really don’t like having to wait a whole week until he happens to be coming down this direction.
Today my agent and I did some competitive analysis at that flip house that came on the market at Newell. Here are my super spy observations:
Really nice view over San Diego Harbor as you go up front steps and from front balcony at front door. But, the house is a little low so you don’t have a high view of the harbor. And, somewhat limited view - not sweeping side to side view.
Those hand rails with steel cable are really high - awkward height. Maybe 48" high? The top wood piece is screwed on with really poor workmanship - screws sticking out all over. We had a good discussion about cable wiring deck railing versus glass railing and I committed to go with glass railing.
The garage is under the house. There is an internal very skinny staircase that comes up to kitchen area. The garage door does make a nice statement - it’s the aluminum framing with frosted glass.
Kitchen cabinets are really cheap. I recognized them immediately as the ones we get from the ‘Chinese Mafia’. There is a bunch of Ready to Assemble kitchen cabinet stores in the industrial area with the Chinese cabinets. They are good wood quality, but limited sizes and shapes and very limited styles. They are funny because the door fronts have two sides, depending on which style you want. The problem with these cabinets is that it is really limited with functionality to design a kitchen.
Stove is crammed right next to a cabinet - no counterspace. This is technically against building code and design principles. You have to have at least 15-18" on each side of the stove to land hot pots.
No refrigerator, but even weirder… no microwave. And, no place to put a microwave except sitting on the limited counter space. What the hey?? $1.2 million and no microwave? Cheap appliances
The island is even stranger… they have bar chairs crammed up against the thing but there is no overhang. They used a standard 24" depth quartz countertop with the same waterfall style on the sides - like I have in the current project. But they didn’t spend the money to make it 36" deep with a 12" overhang for a bar. No way anyone can comfortably sit up at that strange island. The chairs look ridiculous against the back of the cabinets.
The countertop edges have amateur style sanding and polishing where the waterfall sides meet the top countertop. It is pretty obvious that whoever installed the countertops had not done a waterfall edge and/or did not have the correct fabrication polishing and sanding tools.
There is no back yard. There is about a 10 ft wide patio with a scary slope right behind the house (like it is about to crash down on house). This is where that ladder shows in the pictures, although I cannot imagine who would go up the ladder.
I cannot figure out why they didn’t spend a little bit of money and plumb the sink out to the island to take advantage of the views. The way it is now, someone stands at sink and looks at a high block retaining wall out the back.
Two bedrooms upstairs with ensuite baths. The master bedroom has nice views and has a deck upstairs. Third bedroom downstairs is very small and in back of house with a view of a retaining wall very close to the window.
OMG!!! the bathrooms are atrocious. I’m not sure you can see it in the pictures but they mixed the horrendous stripey tile with some cheap small white subway tile ‘as an accent’ in large niches. Even worse, the grout in the white subway tile is dark grey - yuck!! They didn’t even change the grout between the two different color tiles. Then they mixed all that with the same style marble kind of hexagon I use in my white bathrooms - but it appears they got 12 x 12 mosaic out of different lots or something. Two or three of the 12 x 12 layout on shower floors is a dark grey sticking out amongst the light grey ones. The marble shower floors do not compliment the striped tile mixed with white subway tile. It is just a holy mess.
Laminate floors downstairs and cheap carpet on stairs and upstairs bedroom rooms.
There is a loft area at the top of the stairs - to the left.
They left orange peel texture on the walls and highlighted it with slightly shiny eggshell paint!!! Poor design choice.
Basically this is a 1970s house that got a makeover as cheaply as possible. I will eat my hat if it sells for $1.2 million. They are priced way too high. However, there were almost 40 realtor cards on the table, I don’t know if they have any bites.
For some reason there are ceiling fans in every room - I’m not sure why. They are not prevalent in this area and they tend to visually lower the ceiling height. My opinion is that they are not attractive to buyers - if they are necessary or desired by buyers, they can put in their own ceiling fans. But, maybe they are attractive and desireable - and I’m all wrong about it.
I also wanted to add that I don’t always tear apart other flips. I have previewed several that were beautiful with really good workmanship and design. My agent is a stickler for obvious workmanship errors and points out most of these types of things.
What is the usual wall texturing used in Southern California? In the midwest, sanding is often used. Newer homes might have orange peel.
The current style is perfectly smooth, no texture, with very sharp corners. It is an expensive look because the walls have to be perfectly straight and blemish-free. And every little mark shows. (Thank god for the magic erasers!)
From a psychological perspective, that house is going to be great for your marketing efforts !! People will see that house and will be profoundly depressed and then will see yours and will be overwhelmed with gratitude for the mirage of a slightly lower priced, infinitely better, property!