Our Whole foods here has lovely planters made of concrete blocks - the ones with holes in them. You can build a little wall, fill with dirt and plant some cacti. It will look lovely and add some definition to the area
here’s a suggestion- do what the city inspector wants until you get a final, then change the parking place to a patio.
The driveway will be fenced off, and as others have said, no one in their right mind, including anyone interested in buying it, is going to want or even think about trying to park a car down there now that the garage is gone. There is no reason to!!
Anyone who wants to park an extra car can park it on the street.
If somebody badly needs to park in this driveway on a regular basis they can change the grade on top so that this driveway will become two terraces connected with the stairs. You can just point to this possibility.
I think there is already enough space at the top of the driveway to park a car without it being on the sloped part.
If I were to buy this house I would build a retaining wall in the middle of this driveway, flatten the top part and plant some bushes behind it to have a nice private patio. Maybe it make sense not to build this patio now as a permanent solution as buyers may have their own ideas. Just put some cheap tiles and moveable planters at the bottom.
Believe it or not, my guys are parking down there every day. At least once a day they back my truck down there (I refuse to do it… I hand them the keys) and unload materials. Then my carpenter parks down there a lot so he can have his tools handy. And, we back the truck down to load for dump runs. The key is to back down into the spot. But I really don’t see anyone doing that on a daily basis when they live here. There is one other neighbor that has a steep driveway and I don’t see anyone parking down the driveway.
I’m leaning towards the stone tile or etched concrete pour and some moveable tall planters and potted plants. We have already agreed on a fence that blocks the view into ugly neighbor’s house. Maybe I will build some moveable fence portions that mimic the fence design, on wheels.
“Believe it or not, my guys are parking down there every day.”
Well ,sure! its a construction site! but that wont be the case when you are done.
Can a similar fence be used to hide the meter box out front?
We have a 12ft setback requirement from street and house is sitting right on setback. By code we cannot build any fence higher than 3ft. That whole cage thing was ‘not to code’.
Ah! Well good that the cage is gone. I still think a wrought iron decorative thing around the meters would look nice…with something black to compliment it on the other side…like large black pots with nice plantings.
The landscape designer is going to do a whole curb appeal schematic - emphasizing bang for the buck. He usually does expensive stuff and this better not be an expensive makeover! I kept repeating - no budget, no budget, do what you can for the least amount of money 
When I pointed out the meter mess he said ‘no problem’, we can hide that. He says he really likes to do architectural stuff, not just plants.
Our shower glass enclosure was installed for the master bath. When I saw the invoice I choked. Evidently, I agreed to have the glass made with a factory coating called Endura Shield. It is supposed to make water repel and bead off so you don’t have a lot of soap scum and hard water build up. Hard water is a big issue here in San Diego - ruins all the fixtures with calcium build up - but someone moving from out of town wouldn’t know that.
Hopefully I can get that little detail into the marketing somehow ! Normally that is not something that a flipper would spend money on (because you don’t see it - not really getting any wow points with Endura Shield)
How much was it for the coating? Is it the same stuff Home Depot sells for $30?
Is it possible to install a whole-house water softener there? My mother’s house has one, because the water from the well is very hard and stains everything blue without it.
A water softener would not add value. People in Southern California are used to our hard water. I like it (despite having to squeegee down the shower after every use). Everything feels squeaky clean.
Oh, I wasn’t suggesting that CB install one. I was just wondering.
There was a large water softener system in the crawlspace under house but it was leaking and broken. So, we had to dismantle it and take it off to the dump. People don’t look for them when buying houses
Ran around and purchased my quartz for countertops today. My usual place was out of stock for the coloring that I chose and I need extra large island pieces (pre fab). So, I went to a couple of other places and when I mentioned that I usually buy at ‘X’ place but they were out of stock, I suddenly was given a screaming deal. I got all of the quartz, including the extra large piece needed to fabricate the waterfall for $650 after tax. Add in the $750 for labor for cutting, fabrication and install and I will have gorgeous countertops for $1,400. Not bad!
Terrific…looking forward to seeing those counters!
Can’t wait to see the color of your selection, cb!