Yes, I guess CA & certain high COL areas do have enough buyers for such homes. We definitely have quite a few homes that move in the 7 figure area around HI. I’m not in the market–too rich for my blood and I hate cleaning and wouldn’t want to maintain a home that large and wouldn’t want all the staff that would be needed for such a big place.
In CA, in order to open the street for sewer connection, you definitely need a permit, a special license(in addition to a contractor’s license) and a bond to be posted at the city. You just cannot dig anywhere you wanted without a license. Plus, in order to dig anywhere near the street, your contractor needs to coordinate with USA (Underground Service Alert) so you will know where all the utility lines are.
It is ALWAYS cheaper to do pipe bursting than dig out the trench.
We don’t need to go under the street. Just need to trench about 4’ in the front yard. On our own property. Do it all the time. We’ll go as far as we can and hope there’s something in good condition to connect to. The City makes it very clear that homeowner is responsible for sewer lines on their property, including under the street to the main line. Same thing that happened on previous Nebo project.
That home is very nice. Note Zillow value of $3 mil plus. Values in immediate area are just all over the place. That’s why it is so hard to figure out what the sales price is going to be.
I finally am going to get my contractor friend that has a lot of experience building decks to get over to the house and give me some ideas for structural plans to extend the deck.
Yes, redoing sewer drain lines was in the budget because we could see the condition of the cast iron pipes when we did our inspection.
I’m eager to hear about plans for the deck. It will be an interesting construction, I’m sure!
Was not able to get my contractor friend over to do a structural review for the deck. Still waiting. But, we have decided to build the deck last because I want to pull a permit for the deck and I need to have most everything else done if City inspectors are going to start snooping around.
PROGRESS UPDATE:
All of the moldy plaster has been removed from walls and ceiling in Hall Bathroom. We are going to install a solar tube and a high quality fan in that bathroom because there is no exterior window to help vent the room. Inspected the studs and everything behind walls and all good.
Header and structural changes all complete for opening up the kitchen. We were so lucky to find a Special Order return in a bin at Home Depot for a really beefy two way steel strap that works for a 4 x 8 post. We decided to have a really strong post since we are holding up the main beam going across the house. Usually I would have had to drive to a specialty store about 30 minutes away or order from Pro Desk at Home Depot… but it was just lying there !! $56 steel piece but worth it.
Just when I thought we were done with going to the dump… a giant new pile is growing in the garage from taking out all the bathroom plaster!
Roofer came and did a detailed inspection and gave me the bad news that there are 4 layers of shingles on the house and we will have to do a big tear off. I don’t mind the tear off… the issue is trying to get a dumpster out front to haul it all away. Four layers of roofing is not exactly going to fit in my pickup truck 
Electrician came to start work and made decision that the original portion of the house has to be re-wired because everything needs to be grounded properly. Uggh… not in the budget but it’s not a total surprise. Now we have little holes in all the walls where he had to start pulling wire. Believe it or not he got 90% complete in one day of work. Next week he will need to install new receptacles and switches and then we are done with an entire rewire. He says it is really easy to work under the house because the crawlspace is full standing height.
He discovered that somebody just cut some wires in an outlet and shoved them into wall behind where one of those lovely mirrors was installed. This caused three outlets downstream to be inoperable (which had been called out by the prior Home Inspection). Thank goodness we took all those mirrors off and found the old receptacle buried in wall - which someone had tried to putty and caulk over.
Photos loaded
cb, so far the problems that have been found seem to be problems that are easily fixed. Everything sounds like it is humming along!
If you are not planning to get a permit for reroofing, why bother to get a permit to do the deck?
Is a permit required for reroofing in CA? I’ve had houses reroofed in MA and in TX and never needed a permit.
We had a permit for our re-roofing in CT. I’m guessing each domicile has its own rules.
Four layers of shingles? Why wasn’t that disclosed in the home inspection? I thought there was ONE layer.
Yes, in ca if you repair more that 10% of the roof you need a permit.
Otoh what cb is doing all require permit. My point is if no permit is applied why bother to get a permit just for the deck?
She is planning to greatly expand the footprint for the deck.
Note the gold decals on the refrigerator - - as if the gold chandeliers, light fixtures, furniture and more weren’t enough - the refrigerator had to receive the bedazzling treatment too!
The $3M home on the same street (someone posted a link earlier) had a balcony/deck. I immediately noticed the railings/bars interrupting the $3M view. Flip #4’s new deck with glass walls will be beautiful!
In the City here you only need roofing permit if you are replacing plywood sub structure. Don’t need it for new shingles. Found this out from Hoarder House permitting. On that project we needed permit because we were putting on brand new plywood base.
The reason i want a permit for deck is because it is very dangerous and will take a lot of engineering. I want buyers to be assuredthat it was built to code with engineering and soil review
This may involve planning department or even variances at the city council meeting, depends how much is the planned addition. Especially, if it is enclosed deck. I had a patio cover that is built without a permit, when I apply for a permit just to reenforce/rebuild it to make it legal, I had to give up and torn it down because they sent me to the planning and a variance is required in addition to a plot survey. Costs 1000’s and there is no assurance of passing. It the cb’s current deck is built without a permit, then I’d rather not to touch the permitting process.
Reroof is scheduled for next weekend. We are going to have to do stealth dumpster. My roofer is going to order delivery Friday afternoon and pickup first thing Monday afternoon. Not sure when materials can get delivered because dumpster will be in the way for delivery truck
Where did anyone say the deck was going to be enclosed? Where did it say this deck was even going to be covered? Where did it say the previous deck was built sans permit? Stop making things up.
Where I am (CT) building ordinances and permitting requirements are town by town. Do you live in the same town where CB is flipping this house? If not, your experiences just might not be applicable…