My biggest issue right now is that I had two very experienced framers lined up to work on the project. Just found out yesterday they took a big job out in Palm Springs with a per diem allowance and everything. They are not available until July!! Need to scramble to find some really good framers that can read complicated blueprint plans 
Meanwhile, that awful flip at 3230 Newell 92106 just came back out with reduced price $995k. Even in this ridiculously hot market it shows that noone is going to buy something with the worst kitchen design ever!!!
Just loaded a couple of photos to Flickr group.
Demolished deck outside dining room and we are repairing and re building the portion of the existing deck that will be outside the living room.
Finished painting hall bathroom and installing lighting.
Putting final coat of stain on the side fence and the neighbor garage wall
The rest of this week will be a rush to finish rebuilding original portion of deck before inspections start and getting vanity and linen closet installed in hall bathroom
At least youâve got work to do while you wait for the city.
Today we are putting in 5 large mature trees!! We are putting two large palms in the side yard outside the dining room window to âsoftenâ the view to the neighborâs wall. Then Iâm putting another tree between front gate and living room to give privacy between the lookout area at the end of Del Monte and the house. Right now, if someone walks out to the end of the bluff they can look straight into the living room windows. Then two more trees getting planted to soften the giant garage wall in the front yard.
These dang trees are very expensive, especially the 15â tall palm trees. But, it is very important that the dining room window view (as you walk into the house) is softened up a bit and that the eye travels to the left where the big ocean view is. Right now you walk into the house and look straight ahead at the neighborâs house
Do you have time to take before, and then after pictures of the trees?
Yes, I will take some photos this morning from the house to show the âviewsâ I am trying to soften up. Hopefully I will remember to take photos at the end of the day to show the same views
Another Engineering Design company snafuâŠ
Yesterday I spent over 4 hours pouring over the plans in extreme detail to try to understand all the building requirements. I was attempting to make a full list of all materials needed for the first stages of the project. I have a big 20% off Home Depot coupon that I want to try to use for a big order. It expires May 15 so I need to get my order completed with a future delivery date.
Lo and behold⊠It appears that the entire page for 2nd story framing is missing from the plans!!! It is just plain missing!!! I have basement framing plan, 1st floor framing plan and a roof framing plan. Nothing for 2nd story. It is not even listed on the index, so itâs not like he forgot to print it out. I have no idea whether this is OK and somehow the 2nd story framing is included in the âRoof Framingâ plan. I canât make heads or tails out of it.
Emergency email off to Engineer, no response back yet. I couldnât sleep because I am envisioning that my 8 days of review will go by and we will get one big comment⊠âNo 2nd Story Framing Planâ, please resubmit. And then we start all over again with another review cycle before we even get to the âcommentsâ.
Please tell me you are not laying these engineer is another DIME until you have complete plans.
The engineer has not even replied to my email. I have no idea whether we submitted (second submission after catching first big issue) an incomplete set of plans. I am really upset because I just lined up all of the subcontractors on certain dates to get started and now I probably have to call them back again and start all over with re-scheduling - if I even knew what @#%#^$@^ date Iâm ever going to get out of City review.
I just finished loading a lot of photos to the Flickr Group.
I love love love the new trees!!! They were very expensive but are mature trees that are really big and tall. Took all day to get 4 trees in and they have to come back tomorrow and get the final tree planted. The landscape guy could not find the exact tree I am looking for to be planted by front gate.
Two super tall palms planted just perfectly so that the fronds are wide at the dining room window and the kitchen windows. They are doing exactly what I hoped⊠your eye sees trees and the neighborâs tall house is in the background. They also emphasize how wide the yard is on the other side of the house also. You used to walk into front door and it was like a giant wall was right outside the dining room window - like the neighborâs house was right on top of you. Now, the wall appears like âOh⊠thatâs the house next door behind the treeâ
Lots of other stuff going on (including a design boo boo with the hall bath vanity light). Iâve written descriptions on the photos, so you will want to open them up and read through everything. Start at the bath vanity light photo and work back up through the photos
I have moved on from the potential buyers. I now have a giant $6,000 material order sitting in the Home Depot Pro Desk system and I need to go through it with a fine tooth comb tonight to finalize by tomorrow. Those materials are only for building the deck addition and all of the foundation and structural stuff in the basement. That doesnât include starting to build anything on the main floor or above.
The trees look nice. Hopefully the neighbor wonât complain.
Whatâs the story with the red block wall along the sidewalk? Is that going to stay as-is?
Are you referring to the strange red blocks on western side of yard along neighborâs fence? I was going to take them out but, unfortunately they are retaining about a foot of dirt. So I havenât figured out what to do with them. Might just paint them to blend into background. Theyâre going to be under the new deck extension.
The palm looks really nice outside the dining room.
The one in this pic: https://www.â â â â â â â â â â /photos/100771386@N05/26599651765/in/photostream/
It looks like it is falling apart in the pic, and I canât figure out why the height varies so much.
That wall is coming down. The wall is a retaining wall. The bottom is still in good condition so we are going to keep it for retaining but I have big plans to expand that area with a step down through that retaining wall and build a small deck with propane fire pit thing. I have to be careful that it is not more than 3â high where posts are set due to permit issues. Hard to explain my idea for design. We havenât got to that project yet:) probably will run out of landscape budget before then
But in the background you can see a huge agave plant that has a very tall flower stem. Its about to bloom crazy. Too bad it wonât hold out until about October!
The picture linked above with the retaining wall - what is the tall, skinny pole or trunk? Is it staying?
I donât suppose the âPalm from Front Doorâ could have been centered in the window?
We couldnât get the palm centered any more to the left because the fronds would have been brushing against deck glass panels and hanging over deck. Also, I think the fronds are blowing in wind and its giving illusion that trunk isnât centered.
The big pole behind red brick wall is the flower stem coming up out of a large agave that is on the slope. With the rains that stem is now at least 10â tall and its starting to flower. Its going to be gorgeous in about 2 weeks. But by the time we go to sell its going to have to get cut down