So impressed with the progress! I love the retaining wall idea and think it will make a big difference.
We’ve bought a couple of houses that came with home warranties and they later proved worthless. I wouldn’t offer one upfront but would consider it in negotiations if the buyer was insistent.
I agree with VeryHappy that the brand of cooktop is more important than knob placement. It’s worth spending a little extra on to impress buyers.
I looked at that Dacor and thought that the burners looked kind of small and the knobs were taking up a large portion of the cooktop. But I can go into the store and check it out. With 10% off from my coupons, it is a good deal.
that added window in the living room was genius! it looks great now that the mirrors arent there.
question: you are buying and returning a lot it sounds. What’s your process for keeping track of receipts?
DACOR knobs are a comfortable size and are lower than the grids, so a large pot wont knock into one. Dacor is a private SCal company, did you know that? First company to use true convection design in its ovens. I wouldn’t use any other brand.
I spend a lot of time driving around in circles returning things. For example, I will buy dozens of tile pieces all over the place, but i try hard to limit it to Home Depot or Lowes because they have easy returns. I cant get samples at the tile stores because nothing is even in stock. Then tgey have a 25% restocking fee, even for stuff like Thinset which they keep in stock.
For Lowes or HD, I make sure and purchase with same two credit cards. I just give those to cashier and everything gets returned back to cc. For IKEA i have to keep all receipts in my purse for returns.
I have a habit of immediately putting something that needs return back into my truck so it doesnt get lost or damaged in our construction mess. Back seat
I always have an embarrassing issue that I am dragging tons of parts back into the stores in shopping carts. Inevitably half of them belong to a different store. I dont keep track of that very well:)
Just for the heck of it, I searched Dacor cooktop on our local craigslist. There are two that look identical to mine, one at $60 and the other, $100. It just goes to show 1) how old mine is, though I love it and think of it as “current” (hah!); and that bb’s point about cooktops lasting a long time is correct.
Please note that I am not suggesting you use an old craigslist cooktop for this flip, cb. But if I had a house with a lower end cooktop and was trying to do a budget upgrade I would definitely consider something like this!
Wow – great idea. Check out this one!
http://newhaven.craigslist.org/app/5079255334.html
ETA: Not the right size for cb’s house but amazingly priced.
Finally got around to looking at the latest pictures.
So you can build a retaining wall creating a 6’ flat area off the back of the house, and no permits or reviews are needed, but you can’t extend a deck out to 10’ that is 20’ above the ground without running afoul of the brush management/invasive species/pruning/etc nightmare of regulations?
Well, I’m choosing to ignore the native vegetation thing because there just isn’t any vegetation at all on the upper slope area of the yard. I am not harming one plant except a jade plant thing that someone planted up there. Pretty sure that is not Southern California native.
Brush management requirements affect dead grass/weeds/brush that would catch on fire quickly and any wood decks. So, I’m hoping I’m safe with that requirement since, as a result of building the retaining wall, I have cleared all the dead weeds (gee, I hope they weren’t native weeds) off the area.
I’m just taking my chances. Also, after further research I’m pretty sure that this ‘tract’ that was developed in the 1950s graded the hillsides. As soon as there is a grading map and permit filed then the Native Vegetation Natural Canyon thing goes away. I’m assuming that’s how 1/3 of the houses to the left of my property have swimming pools, terraced yards, etc.
Spent a lot of time today ordering all of the windows and doors for downstairs.
I decided against the folding accordion vanishing doors because the cost was just too high. But I splurged a little on Anderson and got a nice set of center opening patio doors. Similar to this one, with brush nickel hardware
http://www.andersenwindows.com/photos/home-living-renovation-400-series-patio-door-051/
very nice!! :)>-
I pulled a bunch of ugly weeds from the sand in front of my beach house and later learned they were some kind of endangered native plant indigenous only to that small stretch of coast. Oops.
Nice choice on the patio doors, cb!
Love that Anderson Frenchwood door. We have one in our breakfast room…and it’s just terrific. Mine isn’t white, but it’s the same door, but just a single. After 20 years, it’s still in great shape, and works well.
Love that Anderson door! @coralbrook, how much $$?
We have wooden sliding patio doors painted white–love them and use them a ton to keep our home well cross ventilated.
The door is 10ft wide and 8 ft tall (which is 1 ft taller than normal doors). Total cost (including special 15% discount) was about $2,100 I think.
That is a great price for that door.
The one I got is vinyl clad white on exterior and pine paint grade on interior. Plain white handles (because they only offered white or some kind of brown). I believe that features can go up much higher from that.
Mine is vinyl clad on the outside and stain grade wood on the inside…and like I said…has worn very well for 20 years.