^^^I noticed that too.
cb, the kitchen is going to be very spacious.
I’m sorry if I missed it, but I don’t remember why the post is going to be running up the island. That surprised me.
We had to put the post in in order tear out the walls and open up the whole room to the view. I moved the post in to be in the middle of the expanse for structural reasons… and I wanted a full view to the living room windows as you walked in the door - didn’t want the post over towards the dining room area. I could have stopped the island there, but it would have been a small island and I had room to get another set of 18" drawers over on the other side of the post.
I am going to look at it one more time when we put the cabinets in… I’m hoping it will look OK with a large piece of solid quartz that is wrapping the post.
I just cannot get any luck! Tried really hard to get ‘Desk Review’ of my plans this afternoon. I was on a roll until “Oh… the structural review lady is out sick today, you are going to have to submit for back office review”. Dang…
But then I make it to the Planning Desk and she pulls up some map and gives me the good news “Looks like you are in the Fire Brush Management Zone”. And, because I have a wood deck on the plans I am now subject to some type of Special Landscape Review. It looks like I have to make my deck, which is 20’ above grade with steel posts, into some special fire retardant whatever. I can just imagine what that is going to cost ! And, the smaller deck lower to the ground also. We may be losing the smaller deck closer to the ground if the cost gets too prohibitive.
So, I have to go back again tomorrow morning and submit plans into the black hole of the back office to find out what I need to do with the decks.
My draftsman says that I may have to turn the decks into some kind of stucco/waterproof deck with that grippy type stuff. I have no idea how some poor stucco guy is going to hang upside down 20’ above the ground trying to stucco the underside of the deck ??
Back to @#$%#@^#$%& Sears!!! 4pm rolls around and no appliance delivery. My carpenter starts calling me while I’m trying to sit at the City Planning desk. Wants to know if he should wait or not. Meanwhile, my phone is going dead. I make one call to Sears Outlet store and tell them to please figure out what is going on and call carpenter directly. Turns out that it was someone else’s stuff on the truck today who had the same last name. Gee, they are sorry… it was not loaded onto the truck.
Finally got an automated call tonight stating delivery between 10 to 12 tomorrow. I really don’t care (except we have now unhinged the front door 2 times waiting for delivery and stayed until 7pm on a Friday night), but I feel sorry for anyone that is sitting in a house with no refrigerator or stove waiting 6 days for a botched delivery.
Marilyn… Stove fixed? I struck out, how did stove repair go?
OMG, cb! Sears… what a bunch of “what the French call “les incompetents”!”
I cannot believe the curveball you got - if it is not airplanes then it is brush fire. Deep breath. You shall overcome…
We’re batting zero also. The guy showed up on time, had to call in to find out how to fix it, started trying to take the top off and broke a screw, then said he had to move the stove to fix it and we’d need to sign a waiver that it would be our responsibility if he broke anything moving the stove. DH blew up. Service guy cancelled call since we wouldn’t sign waiver. He almost took off running. Home warranty company finally agreed to use another service company but said same waiver would be needed to move stove. We may be giving up at this point since DH called some non-warranty companies and cost would be several hundred $$. Burners work, it’s just that the rest of them may keep sparking for some time after lighting one. We do have eight new ?starters but the issue is getting them installed. I really don’t want to risk anything else breaking!
My idea is to totally redo the kitchen next year. We knew the kitchen was not in very good shape when we bought the house so why not just wait and do it right!
We bought two appliances from Sears…(not the outlet). The delivery was right on time…first time. And the dishwasher installer also was right on time…first time.
Sounds like you two hit a string of bad luck.
Now…having said that…we got our other appliance from a local appliance store…and I wish I had dealt with them for all three appliances. Great service, and the prices were the same (they seemed to have a lot of instant coupons).
I don’t think I would deal with the regular Sears for appliance purchases, deliveries or repairs. It can get very frustrating dealing with a large bureaucracy for customer service. For example, waiting a whole week for someone to show up to put in the new starters on a stove… not acceptable in my book. But the deals at the Outlet are worth the hassle and I usually am trying to stall as long as possible to get appliances delivered.
I have to purchase the appliances early in order to know my measurements to start designing and installing the kitchen. They have a policy that you have to take delivery within 5-10 days so they don’t sit on the inventory in their store. As I mentioned, warranty starts the day of delivery. If I can stall delivery as long as possible, the warranty holds longer. Plus, it gets very dangerous having new appliances sitting on the job for a couple of months while we finish construction. No matter how good I cover them, somehow the guys start putting stuff on any horizontal surface (top of stove) or they get covered in drywall dust or something.
But, if I was a homeowner and desperate for that new refrigerator I would be on the phone every 5 minutes trying to figure out what happened.
Lowes has a great delivery policy - free, fast and they will take away your old appliance for free! Right now I am stuck with an old electric stove and an old dishwasher that I am trying to get rid of. Put the dishwasher up for Free on Craigslist. Got tons of calls, and some guy kept calling to say he was on his way. He never showed up to pick it up. Now I have to start all over again 
Yes, I now have Brush Management Zone issues PLUS the FAA flight path issues. Once again, I have to go through hoops to prove that a plane is not going to crash into the house. I really don’t understand it because we are not touching the size or height of the house at all. Only doing interior remodel, but the ‘expanded deck’ will probably cause a FAA certification issue. I haven’t said a word at the City, not mentioning it. So far, they haven’t started the whole FAA nonsense, but it could come out from the structural back office review.
There is a FAA Self Certification form I can sign and submit to get the permit issued. But the sticking point is the City requires a sentence on the plans that must be signed by a licensed Engineer. Engineer won’t sign the sentence unless I pay $400 for a site visit.
Looks like that neighborhood has been identified for some reason. Probably because almost no one clears (or is allowed to clear) the brush off of the hill:
[Official Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map - zone 18](http://www.sandiego.gov/fire/pdf/maps/grid18.pdf)
Maybe you could just get a goat:
[Applcation for Use of Goats for Brush Management Permit](http://www.sandiego.gov/fire/pdf/goatspermit.pdf)
I wonder if all of that landscaping next door conforms to all of the brush management rules, or if they might be in for a rude surprise someday.
Any additions to living space will trigger a review of the entire property. It doesn’t matter if it is exterior or interior. They might also review the integrity of the addition in relation to the old structure. That is why additions takes more efforts and time than cosmetic renovation.
The only issue I’m really facing right now is the deck expansion over the Brush Management slope. The interior renovations have been ‘stamped’. But I still have to go through zoning review which is where I have to convince them there is an off street parking space (but it is clearly designated on plans).
I did know that we were in some type of zone that requires periodic brush cleanup - the prior owner warned me. But, he thought maybe they do a satellite ‘fly over’ and then send a notice to property owners if their brush needs to be cleared. However, not sure I mentioned this… but the renters who were kicked out when the first escrow was closing stopped by to return a garage remote they found in their car. I welcomed them inside for a walk through and they loved the wall openings to maximize the view and the new kitchen layout. They shared with me that the neighbor with terraces ‘called the Fire Department’ to report the owner about brush management. Not sure if that is true or not, but they shared many instances when the neighbor was over trying to tell them what to do with the slope and front yard landscape. They said prior owner had to spend about $3,000 to clear the hillside. Thank goodness, it is all done now.
For this specific case the ‘integrity of the addition’ is a non issue because the structure was already built and permitted in 1972. The square footage already exists with foundation, footprint, walls, etc. It’s just not ‘conditioned’ for livable space.
If you don’t expand the size of the deck…will these issues go away?
I have to chime in on fire management zones and goats. When we evacuated our house due to the 2003 Cedar Fire, our first stop was at our friends’ home about three doors down from CB’s flip! It was our safety zone.
After the fires, our HOA had goats for two seasons doing brush management. My daughter did her 8th grade science fair project on native species of plants that the goats eat, and at one point she tromped through the hillside brush to interview the goat wrangler
I have never heard of goats managing dry brush. That’s very interesting I bet if I hired a goat for a month eating stuff on the slope someone would call the City and I’d get in trouble for having farm animals or something!
Today the tile guy made a huge error… he didn’t exactly measure the length of the 12 x 24 tile and his vertical rows came up about 1/2"short of the ceiling. He calls me right as I’m sitting at the City Zoning desk telling me he has an emergency - tile not reaching ceiling, could we just fill it in with drywall? Or do I want him to take it all down?? I had this vision that the whole wall of tile was laid up and I would lose 30sqft of tile if we pulled it off. I quickly said “We’ll solve the problem tomorrow morning”. Later, I find out from my carpenter that he went to the carpenter and said “Boss said we could put another layer of drywall on the ceiling to cover up the gap”. Luckily he said, “There is no way that she said to put another layer of drywall on the ceiling, lower the ceiling height 1/2” and re-set all the lighting and fans in that ceiling". Then my carpenter tells me that they only had 2 rows up at the point that he called me, but I didn’t have the time to process everything and ask the right questions.
Pheww… thank goodness he knows me like the back of his hand or I would walk in tomorrow morning with a lowered ceiling and a big mess. We are just going to have to find some product that can grout in a 1/2" gap. I have a slight feeling it is more than a 1/2" and it is going to look horrible, but I will worry about that tomorrow
Ouch. Not good.
Ready for today’s Sears Outlet Delivery hilarity???
Truck shows up in the promised window and they open up the back and ask me to inspect the refrigerator. Where’s the oven/microwave combo? “Oh, they couldn’t find it this morning… don’t worry they might be able to get it on a truck for you tomorrow” I almost lost my temper… how could they possibly be so inept?? On the phone immediately, Delivery Manager on break. They call me back about 20 minutes later and Delivery Manager is still on break, but at least they returned the call. Oh yes, they found it back there. They have no idea why it didn’t make it on the truck.
We will see if the last piece finally shows up unharmed tomorrow.
Another Day Sitting at the City Building Department
I didn’t make it to the City building until about 1:30pm today. I decided I would take my chances for an Over the Counter review of Zoning. I was at that dang Zoning review for 1 1/2 hours. It was a big dilemma for them. They just couldn’t believe that someone had permitted that driveway (I don’t blame them for that thought). So, they wanted proof from the 1972 permit that the downstairs area was permitted as a ‘garage’. I hand them copies of their own City permit records, which were very sparse, no drawings. They want the County Building Record. Of course, when I did the original submittal, the desk clerk took the County Building Record and stuck it in the Historical Review folder.
At first they were going to make me go down to the County again and get more copies of the County’s building record (which is really the Tax Assessor’s drawings of the building with line items of building history for property tax valuation). I pretty much looked like a truck had driven over me at this point, so she went to get her supervisor. Her supervisor was very nice and ran upstairs and fished out the copy of the Building Record from the historical folder - have no idea how they can find anything in that place full of blueprints all over. County Building record clearly states “gar + storage area” at 800sf. So, she has to agree that there was some chance that the driveway and garage were permitted in 1972.
We both agree that no one should be using that driveway, it is dangerous. She wants to completely eliminate the driveway and pretend there never was a garage there and hurry up and approve liveable space. She wants to remove the curb completely. But that involves a Public Right of Way Permit, contracting with City approved sidewalk and curb contractor and a lot of freaking money! I am not happy with this plan.
So, in the end she writes all kind of stuff about the ‘one car garage below’ being replaced with the one parking spot, and plans are approved!! That was my biggest hurdle.
Yes, expansion of deck and new lower deck are the only issues right now. I have signoff on everything at this point, except the deck in brush management zone. Going back tomorrow for that. Meanwhile I have just a couple of corrections they want in the structural plans for the deck - that review is complete. Make the corrections and return.
You truly have a higher than average threshold for incompetence. I would never be able to exercise such patience and tolerance as you do with some of the stupid things you encounter like the tile guy and the Sears delivery glitches. You deserve to make every possible penny on this flip!