I love the built-ins – such a great way to store things in an easily accessible way while keeping clutter out of view and maintaining an open feel to the space. Bathrooms, closet and painted areas are looking great.
It’s so fun to offer opinions about the “fluff” (colors, accessories, appliances, finish choices), but every time I look at your photos and realize how much nitty gritty you’re dealing with in terms of structural, mechanical, plumbing, engineering and other complexities, my admiration for your ability to handle the full scope of these projects grows – along with my admiration for your highly skilled and dedicated workers/craftsmen. So all I can say is, carry on, cb, and thanks for all the updates and photos.
That’s a bummer about having to relocate the plumbing. But everything looks beautiful. Do you have any idea how much longer you’ll be working on this one? I of course am eager to see what your final budget looks like, and how much profit you get.
I believe that my final budget will be somewhere around $115,000. But, permit costs were about $4,000 higher than I thought because of School District fee and some other things. And, the retaining wall is a budget nightmare. Unfortunately that means I have to cut costs somewhere - I will probably have to carpet the downstairs instead of a nice laminate. We will see
I really want to be complete by around September 15, but it will depend on how much hardscape has to be done for the driveway patio and front curb appeal. Now that we have the cage off, the rectangular deck stepping looks OK. My agent says to just keep it and not bother with a sloped ramp to front door. I think that my idea of nice looking ramp to front door has gone down the tubes.
During analysis of all the doors upstairs I discovered that every door upstairs is a nice wide 32" or 36", except the bathroom doors. So, at least that part is accessible. A buyer can easily change one of the bathroom doors to be wider, but I cannot afford it right now.
I agree. I would definitely not be concerned with accessibility issues with this place; the steep lot alone would deter most people focused on accessibility! There will be plenty of potential buyers dazzled by the views that you don’t need accessibility as a hook.
You might even come across a nutty couple like us - we bought our first house with no landscaping in the back, invested our own labor into turning the yard into livable space, and discovered that we love digging in the dirt. When the time came to buy our second house, we were looking for the same idea: a house requiring almost no work inside with an unfinished yard. The 0.85 acre lot turned out to be the ideal “playground” for our hobby.
Just spent the morning trying to design and cost out glass railing for upper deck. $2,000 for materials and who knows how much money to try to get scaffolding or safety equipment to replace the railing!
Tile on the floor ends up costing the same as a laminate floor because of the labor cost for installation of the tile. It would have to be really cheap tile. Also, tile floors are not common here… it would look cheap, even if it was not cheap.
I believe that laminate floors are going to cost about the same as carpet, but I’m worried about moisture and cold on the concrete slab floors down there so I would have to put down a layer of vapor barrier and pad under the laminate flooring.
I cannot remember which # house this was… but the Brier Rd house with the serious $50,000 foundation problems has been lingering on the market for over 4 months. I contacted the listing agent last week to followup on whether the Seller’s had decided to drop their price. He said ‘lots of activity, but Sellers were still holding out for their Net’.
I just saw it go Pending over the weekend. We will see if the Seller discloses the serious foundation problems or not. I would think the agent has a requirement to disclose it, even if the Seller pretends "No Knowledge’.
I just did laminated floor throughout over a slab. I think it costed just about the same as carpet. We had put down the vaper barrier and the pad, but they are not expensive from HD.
I think laminated floor has a better selling point.
Yes, I think laminate floor is better because it can take a lot of wear and tear and it’s perfect for a family room. Personally, I like carpet in a family room for hanging out on the floor, but laminate is a better resale.
I’m in the “I hate carpet” camp. I’d infinitely prefer tile over which I could use area rugs. I would have thought that a cool tile floor was a bonus in S Cal? No?
Tile is not used in that area…except in kitchens, bathrooms and on patios…at least that is what my SIL says. I would not want a family room with a tile floor…too cold. I would vote for carpet over tile…if the laminate is too costly.
