Flip This House #4

Parent Cafe
441

Regarding the wheelchair issues…my mother was in a wheelchair the last 16 years of her life. Being able to remain in the family house was a huge plus. Large doorways, wide hallways etc all made that possible.

Easy access shower was added to the house. Put the bracing in the walls for the grab bars (shower and toilet area) even if you don’t put the bars in. Leave a diagram of where the bracing is located (yes, I know you can find it without the diagram, but it’s a nice touch). Think about how to open the doors while pushing a wheelchair (if you have to change any doors). Up the front slope would work (especially here in CA where we rarely have bad weather). When doing the kitchen, leave access to the table on at least one side (impacts island placement). Light switches behind doorways are a real pain (many of the light switches in my parent’s house are behind the doors–it’s a really old house that has been through a few remodels).

442

Still working on feasibility of converting lower level to living space. Spent a lot of time on Friday trying to find someone, including headquarters in San Francisco, to PLEASE tell me if this property is in the Coastal Commission Zone. I have to go into the office somewhere and look at a map. Made about 6 phone calls. They confirmed that nothing is available to research on the Internet.

For heavens sake! Is this a National Secret or something???

443

I will be opening up walls surrounding the kitchen that are currently blocking the full impact of the views as you walk into the house. Everything possible will be done so that when a buyer walks in they will see through the whole house to the views.

444

Ugh. IMO this shortens the life of the second layer, especially if the first layer is not pristine. And it never looks as nice. To me it is worth the money to do a tear-off, plus it allows me to make sure there is at least 6’ of ice and water shield installed, although that is probably not an issue in SD.

445

^^LOL, nre. Roof rakes and ice dams are unheard of in SD. :slight_smile:

446

Ice and water shield??? What’s that??? We don’t even have those terms, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

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One thing I’ve noticed with my older relatives is that even if they kept very tidy, clean homes when they were younger, some of that gets let go as they age into the 70s and 80s. I would prefer kitchen cabinets go to the ceiling, or even have a soffit above the cabinet. Having to dust the tops of the cabinets is not going to happen.

Flooring is something that needs some serious thought. Slip resistant and durable.

448

“Having to dust the tops of the cabinets is not going to happen.”

So true! Who does that, anyway?! Two words: crown molding. :slight_smile: I have no idea how much dust there is on the top of my kitchen cabinets because I can’t see them behind the crown molding. :smiley: A cat thrown on the top once in a while takes care of some dust…

449

I would say that structural elements, e.g., doors, and things that are hard to replace, such as cabinets, should be designed and built with the future retirees’ needs in mind. Other, easily replaceable stuff, such as toilets and grab bars… not so much.

450

Because I cannot put a finger on what I think the future sales price will be exactly, I have to be really careful with the budget. Here are the things that I know can go into the budget at this time:

House already has original white oak flooring that is in excellent condition everywhere except the 1970 living room addition. I am going to put in new matching white oak floors to make sure the flooring is all solid surface and continuous (this is for visual appeal also)

Walk in shower with one fixed shower head and one rod style with removable shower head with hose. Bench TBD until I can figure out how much room I have available to make a nice shower.

Lots of niches for products in shower (I already do this on every shower design). If I cannot get a bench in I will always put in a shaving shelf. I may have said this before… I don’t like to put in a ‘shelf’, I like to make sure that it is tiled as a small diagonal corner bench in the shower because cleaning underneath the shelf is an absolute pain in the butt.

Chair Height Toilets with framing ready for grab bar on each side

Long grab bar / towel rod in shower - excellent idea. The bathrooms are tiny and I haven’t spent enough time inside the house to determine if there is any way to make the master bathroom larger

Special attention to textured/slip proof tile in bathrooms with easy clean up

Radiant floor heating in bathrooms. Have done this before and it is not that hard. I like to install an upgraded thermostat that provides a programmed timer. Not going to do towel warmers because it is something that can be installed in the future by the buyer. Radiant floor heating has to go in before the tile floor is installed.

Interior staircase with fire rated door at bottom to connect to garage/basement level. Right now you have to go outside and up some steep stairs to get into the upper level of house. Unfortunately this staircase is going to steal valuable square footage from storage closets and an existing large master closet, but I feel it is really important

Re landscape front of house and pour a sloped concrete walkway to front door level.

Things I need to think about…

Epoxy grout - It does not ‘sell’ a house and is triple the cost for grout materials. I have never had a buyer ask about this. Of course I would love it for my own house, but I need to see where we are in the budget.

Alarm system - not sure it is in the budget. Burglars would have to bring a freaking 20 ft ladder to access the back windows and patio doors of the house. Maybe an alarm system built into the doors and windows at the front of the house is all that is needed.

Techie stuff - not sure the aging population demands mobile apps to turn stuff on and off? I am going to ask my electrician if this has to be wired into the house or whether it can be installed by a buyer in the future if they want it. We are not planning to open up too many walls - rewiring of the house is not in the plans.

Need to spend more time in the house to determine if doors can be wider.

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I personally don’t think the accessibility issues are going to expand your potential market all that much and too much attention paid to them – like a shower without a lip (or whatever you call the little ledge that keeps water from going all over the place) can be a big turn off to families and middle-aged empty nesters. The steep slope on the site with the lower level garage (or family room conversion) might already limit interest of retirees with accessibility needs. So, personally, I wouldn’t make that a focus, if it were me.

452

Haha, you are soooo lucky. :smiley:

It’s a waterproof, self-sealing membrane covered in sticky adhesive that you put on the roof sheathing along the edges of your roof to prevent water from an ice dam that gets under the shingles from getting in the house.

I was at a cookout yesterday and had a discussion with a friend of mine about how they are fighting with their insurance company over whether ice dams did $30,000 (insurance company’s number) or $40,000 (their contractor’s estimate) of damage to their house last winter.

Even though you don’t need ice and water shield in SD, I would still hate to see two layers of shingles.

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I would not put the bench in the shower. We have one at my parents house, and it was useless for my Mom. They make plastic chairs/benches that are specific to the wheelchair needs, and the patient’s mobility. The built in bench was more in the way…so my dad added a shower. Small lip or no lip are easiest for transferring.

Interesting information about ice and water shield. I don’t particularly like the double roofs, but mostly because of fire…if the Santa Ana winds are blowing fire spreads quickly…and the original roof can be a lot of combustible material.

454

Original roof is asphalt shingle. I’ll ask my roofing contractor for his opinion on the matter.

455

You may also want to choose roofing materials that allow solar panels to be added in the future.
That may be a desirable feature for any future owners, given the location of the home.

456

Coralbrook: How much do you figure to redo a masterbath the way you’re talking? (Demo through done.)

I am fighting my grout that has stains that will not go away despite scrubbing with every grout cleaner I can find. I so, so wish that we had the acrylic grout. I’m thinking we will probably have to take all the tile out and re-do it. Sigh.
To top that off, my shower door glass has allowed some kind of mold to creep between the glass. Only extends an inch or two up the glass. Ugh. (It is definitely not on either side of the door, just between the layers of glass.)

457

Don’t have numbers for entire master bath renovation until I can get in there and get measurements and do a layout. The largest cost is usually the tile work and the shower glass panels. I have had buyers in the past that do not like the glass panels or shower doors for germ phobia reasons. They prefer shower curtains drawn across - I’m not quite sure about that logic.

So, sometimes I just leave the expanse wide open and let the buyers decide what to install for their shower enclosure. Saves me a lot of money and headache!

I just remembered the cost difference between regular and epoxy grout - about $100 for the shower. So, if you all feel that it is important and it would make a selling point on a brochure… I’ll do it.

458

Makes sense, coralbrook. That shower glass is pricey. I like the kind that is frameless, but I recently read that we can’t do that with a fiberglass shower pan, which is what we have.

459

If you explain that the grout in the shower will never require sealing… it should be a good selling point.

I like the idea of marketing this house as a “low maintenance home.”

460

So DH and I were driving around today in our old town where there is a huge amount of tear downs and rebuilds. We came across a new house with a sign outside that announced “The Pure House.” I came home to google it and idscovered that it’s allegedly an environmentally friendly house with such things as a Tesla charging station.

See the link for all it entails. http://thepurehouse.com/westport-project/

IMO, it’s over the top, but maybe it’s what 'today’s buyer" is looking for.

ETA: I just looked at the little video on the site. I actually think it’s a bunch of BS, but I’d be interested in what the experts have to say.