@MichiganGeorgia, I was referring only to San Diego.
Many people put potted plants on a deck, and having a hose bib available to water them is a lot easier than hauling watering cans from the kitchen.
A hose bib is VERY important to me, actually had a huge fight about this when we were building our current house. The builder only wanted to put in two hose bibs one in the back yard near the patio and one in the front of the house on the opposite side. I wanted one in the front by the drive way too. It would have cost and extra $75 but the builder didn’t want to change the plans (this was before the foundation was even poured) he convinced H that my request was “excessive”
It’s one of those things I will never get over, I should have fought harder. A few year ago we turned our one car garage into a glass studio and added a sink and water for cold working and added a hose bib by the drive way. I can tell you it cost a lot more than $75! I also had it installed waist high, I was tired of stooping over.
Are graywater systems now possible in California? Easy to do?
Graywater systems are very expensive to install and get permitted. They work well for irrigation of public parks or golf courses, Not entirely feasible for small single family homes yet.
PROGRESS UPDATE
Well, you find the funniest things when you start opening up walls. We have found a bunch of old vents (covered with low grade asbestos concrete - not the stuff that is really nuclear) going up through walls that were installed for the original heating system.
But, the funniest thing is when we tore off the tile behind bathtub in hall bathroom - there an old window that used to go to the exterior! And, there is an old exterior window opening that was behind the wood paneling torn off in Bedroom 2.
We have opened up all the walls in the kitchen area to open up the views. Going to be installing a couple of headers and getting the area down to only one post that will be part of a big kitchen island
GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!
DO NOT EVER install wallpaper in a bathroom, especially the vinyl kind. This house just looked fine. Yesterday they started tearing off wallpaper in the bathroom and it was a freaking black mold bacteria culture!! The vinyl wallpaper had gathered moisture behind it over many many years. The back of the paper had black mold and the walls were covered in mold!!! We made the decision that we were not even going to try to remediate the walls. Every single square inch of plaster is being torn off the ceilings and walls, we will put in new green board drywall in that bathroom.
Luckily, nothing penetrated through the original thick plaster… studs and wood in the walls are fine
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How are you going to remove the glue that was holding up the mirrors and paneling, with completely destroying the plaster?
Good question. We are currently using some wallpaper removal goo to try to get the wallpaper paste off some walls. But, we may have to re skim a coat of drywall texture onto the walls that have all the glue from the paneling. This will end up being one of the more onerous chores at this project. We usually don’t deal with wall paper removal much. The big globs of Liquid Nails that were holding up the paneling are difficult. If you scrape them off they usually take some of the wall with them.
So those “new” windows that you found now face onto the addition of the new living room? If so, I guess you won’t be opening them up.
This is sure moving so much faster than #3.
Yes, it took over 2 weeks just to get the car out of the garage, trash and personal property out of #3, not to mention the effort for the Estate Sale!!
And 3-4 man days to try to clear the overgrowth away from the house so we could even find the gas meter and electric meter.
The window in the hall bathroom and window in Bedroom 2 technically face out to the 1970 master bedroom addition. They need to be reframed (one of the window frames is flush with the drywall that was installed behind the wood paneling) so that we can patch them up with drywall.
Today we are going to be putting in all of the headers to finalize the Open Concept in the Kitchen and Living room area. Also pulling out all of the landscaping in the front yard because we are going to need to dig a trench out to the City sewer line to replace all of the old cast iron pipes. We can see that the kitchen drain was completely clogged and beyond it’s life and there is evidence in lower garage that the old cast iron pipes are on their last leg.
Ouch. I hope all that was included in your budget.
can’t you do pipe bursting tech for the sewer line?
I’ve found with wallpaper that steam is best for removing all the crap that gets left behind. It’s slow because you can only do a small patch at a time, but it does the best job at letting you get the glue off. I never had much luck with the chemicals.
I’m liking this house a couple doors down. Full size basketball court in the back! http://www.zillow.com/homes/2716-Nipoma-St-Point-Loma-Heights-San-Diego-CA-92106_rb/ 
Did you consider adding a second floor? It looks like a few houses in that neighborhood have expanded vertically.
I would think that pipe bursting would cost more than having her workers do it themselves.
Wow, @notrichenough, that’s an impressive home, but I’d imagine the pool of folks who can afford such an expensive home is more limited than the home that CB is remodeling.
@Himom, I don’t think there is a shortage of people in CA who can afford a house house like that. But I’m not sure CB has the capital to do a project like that.
If the sewer line gets replaced out to the main line on the street, how do you keep the city from getting involved?