Thanks for the vote of confidence on the expensive backsplash (well, expensive in the flipping world!)
What??? not interested in the photo of the sump pump configuration??? me either… bring on the good stuff!
I forgot the original remodel cost estimate. You’re not too far above that. It looks like you’ll be able to sell to sell it for much more than you anticipated. This house is going to be a huge success for you!
What is an estimate for the carrying costs? (RE taxes, interest, etc.)
I actually did scrutinize the sump pump picture and was relieved to see that no one took a dump in the crawl space…
Haha, I find this stuff more interesting generally.
I can’t tell from the pics whether I like the glass backsplash or not. It looks nice I guess, but it seems very shiny and extremely reflective. I wonder if the reflections might drive me nuts.
Sounds like converting the garage is going to add $125-150K to the price. Well worth a $40K investment.
cb, what ever happened to getting Home Depot to replace the scratched patio door?
BTW I love the backsplash also. Very contemporary and very in keeping with the cabinets.
I also love the backsplash and am curious how it will look reflecting a nice sunset. Or the fireworks next summer!
Home Depot did order another panel from Anderson. I think Home Depot had to eat the cost because Anderson makes them inspect and sign off when it gets there. Atfirst they said Oct 10 and i wasn’t happy because we cannot finish final install, sealing and trim until we replace panel.
Now arrival is supposed to be Sept 29
So on the market on Sept 30!!!
Having a fence dilemma down on the parking patio. We set all the posts - luckily we had about 12" behind retaining wall that was still within our property line. Well, according to our educated guess depending on some layouts up at the street level 
I wanted to have a contemporary horizontal design with space between the wood slats (which are actually the 2 x 4s from the cage sanded down to the redwood). Unfortunately after 1 1/2 sections getting put up it became obvious that you could see too much visibility to ugliness next door. So, down they came and we have to put them up with about 3/8" gap to block the view to neighbors. This means we have to sand down about another 15-20 pieces of cage wood - dang!
Photos loaded so that you can see the issue
I think the gaps are fine. Screening the ugliness is enough to divert attention from it.
Unfortunately too late… we pulled it all down and put them up again with minimal gap.
We are building a gate at top of driveway and I will use the wide design with thin slats to give the contemporary look. We are also going to take out the lattice tops that are on the short fence to left of garage and change the top parts to the horizontal contemporary design
The redwood looks terrific. Could you have some hanging baskets suspended from the wider slats to help shield from the neighbors but still have the more contemporary look?
I agree that you seem to have made good use of that $100k.
cb, I agree with your decision about the redwood slats. One inch between them was too much. Closer looks much better.
Agree…closer together looks better.
I need to start buying my lottery tickets!
PROGRESS UPDATE
We are on our way to getting to the good stuff!
All framing, plumbing and electrical wiring is done upstairs and downstairs
Tons of insulation has been installed everywhere. Since we pulled a permit, there was a Title 24 energy report required. Unfortunately, the software that is used by these companies does not have the ability to do an adjustment for ‘existing’ windows. When I outlined all of the windows upstairs and sent them to the Title 24 company, the software just automatically calculated the windows as old single pane windows. I kept telling the guy that they were extreme sound proof dual pane/triple pane windows. He said he couldn’t do anything about it. So, the system defaulted to a bunch of insulation requirements.
For example, it came up with a requirement to insulate all the exterior walls downstairs with R15. They don’t even sell R15… its R13 or R19. What the hey?? The guy just said - oh well, put in R19. Then the report requires that insulate with R19 underneath the entire floor of the old portion of the house. Geez, no one does that in San Diego. So, the guys had to get up on very high ladders and insulate all the floor joists down there and then wire it all in so it doesn’t fall down. And we had to insulate the large wall between crawlspace and the family room. But, the interesting thing was that we did not have to insulate the ceiling of the family room because it is between two conditioned spaces.
Remember the discussion on how to insulate behind existing drywall? After it was all said and done we only had one wall - the south wall - that still had 5/8" drywall over it. Everything else had been torn apart to install shear walls, French doors and new windows. So, we cut the strip of drywall below the fire block line and then drilled out holes above the drop ceiling line. I had to go rent the entire blow in insulation machine ($50) and a bunch of bags of the blow in fiberglass insulation. It turned into a huge mess because when they tried to blow into a hole above, the stuff found every nook and cranny below to come blowing out. They cut up small pieces of drywall and just screwed it on all other holes and then did one stud bay at a time. The stuff was just all over the place
I also choose to insulate the downstairs bathroom walls and the bedroom wall to family room for ‘quiet’ purposes. I do that whenever possible because I want the bathroom to be as sound proof as possible. We also put some Quiet Zone stuff in the staircase wall to try to minimize sound.
So, on Monday morning we will have an insulation inspection, re-inspection of our re-routed kitchen drain venting and a bathtub inspection. I have no idea what they are going to do with the bathtub inspection. When we put in a shower pan, they make you plug the drain and then put about 4" of water in shower pan to see if it holds for several hours. We are not sure if we have to fill the bathtub or not because the drain set is already installed - so you are testing whether the bathtub drain mechanism holds or not. We all know those things are not the most water tight and who cares if the bathtub drain holds the entire bathtub for hours or days? It’s not like it is leaking or something… it’s running down the drain. And the bathtub covers up whether the drain below has a small leak - it is really hard to tell. My guy used a mirror scope to check the drain piping under the bathtub.
I called my contractor friend and he said they don’t inspect bathtub drains, so that will probably just get checked off.
Our goals for the next couple of weeks:
Hang all drywall and pass inspection
Tape, mud, texture all walls upstairs (closets around staircase) and downstairs
Finish plumbing and fixtures in upstairs bathrooms
Get all of the kitchen cabinets back together and then cover with plastic
Finish hanging all lighting upstairs and cover with plastic
Prime all walls downstairs
Paint all walls downstairs
Finish painting entire exterior (starts this Thursday… I better get a color picked out!)
Build railing on retaining area behind house
We are trying to get everything possible done before flooring. My goal is to try to start sanding and refinishing upstairs floors on September 23. The same flooring crew is going to sand/refinish floors upstairs and then while waiting for coats to dry, they will be installing the laminate floors downstairs.
Once again, the front curb appeal will probably take a back seat while we race to finish the interior.
Anyone watching this house in SD has already SEEN the curb appeal improve just by removing that cage. My guess is there are folks looking and watching for the next step…and some are probably dying to see the inside work too!
Very exciting, cb!! Can’t wait for the professional photographs!!!
A lot of neighbors stop and talk, but I don’t seem to have the neighbors that always want to come through and look at the progress. Usually I try to be as low key as possible because we are moving walls or doing plumbing without a permit. But I’ve got a permit this time and would be happy to walk them through… you never know if they have a friend that wants to move into the neighborhood. But, no one is poking their nose in.
We do have the neighbor with terraced yard who spends a lot of time coming to front of house - or talking from her balcony - wanting to tell me everything that is wrong with the house and what I need to fix. Unfortunately, she focuses on yard stuff (for obvious reasons… she is really into landscaping) and wants to tell me all about how some small plant down at the bottom of the slope might be dying or whatever. I smile and nod, but honestly… I really do not care about that right now :). She’s very worried about the tree that we pruned up in front - it has roots that might buckle my driveway.
Now she is all over a ‘big fire hazard’ because she keeps pointing out that the dryer external lint trap vent is up too high for someone to clean it out. Unfortunately, it just cannot be moved. There are solid concrete stem walls between the garage and the dryer area. We would have to run a dryer exhaust hose across the entire ceiling of the garage - and I think that the run would be too high and too long for building code. Once again, not my biggest concern right now - that’s the type of thing that we can tinker with after marketing photos are taken.
And… I have no idea how anyone knows this… but one of the neighbors drove by and said “Oh, you are the one who is flipping the house”. I have never told anyone this, I just keep it to myself because I want the best relationship possible with the neighbors. So, now all of a sudden, the southern neighbor (I have no idea how she found out I am not going to move into the house after remodel) is very snippy and comes over to complain about noise - we have a legal right to make noise between 7am to 7pm, but we are very careful to only make noise 8am to 4pm.