Would you want to include a description in your marketing that there is 4 feet of height allowance remaining if future owner desires to have a rooftop view deck constructed? Or is that just pointing out (negatively) that there is not one currently?
I was laughing at the thought of the steam shower combined with the humidity sensor switch.
With your existing two decks and balcony with fabulous sweeping views, it’s unlikely most buyers will note the absence of a roof deck. Mostly around here they seem to be on houses that can’t otherwise capture views. It doesn’t sound like a roof deck would allow views of the San Diego Bay or downtown skyline, which could be a selling point. Too bad there’s no such thing as a roof periscope window!
Agree with the difficulties of those spiral stairs. That open house in La Jolla that we went to last week - they built their dumbwaiter solely to carry stuff up to the roof deck. What a pain - go to the kitchen, load the dumbwaiter, walk way around the house to the spiral stairs, go up to the deck, unload the dumbwaiter. Realize you forgot the ice. Go back downstairs, walk around the house to the kitchen, load the ice, walk back around, go back up to the deck. Realize you forgot the napkins… that would probably be how I would end up!
Yes, I agree that a rooftop deck with exterior spiral stairs (which most are around here) just doesn’t seem very user friendly functional to me. Plus I’m a wimp about cold wind. Probably use it 3 times. It would be windy and cold, too much hassle to cart things up and down. I would eventually give in to the easy path and spend most of the time on living room deck behind the glass panels with easy access to the kitchen
Steam shower is another thing that I don’t think would be worth the cost and construction hassle
Today I quizzed my HVAC guy about where my AC pre plumbing is??? Our agreement was that they would pre plumb condensation lines and hoses so a buyer could install AC if they want it in the future. So I paid to run 220 electric to outside for condensor.
They realized they forgot to run everything and we are all closed up and new stucco where it was supposed to go. Oops…
But since we have been here all summer there has only been one day where it was hot in the house. All you have to do with this house is open a couple of the western windows and eastern windows and an ocean breeze torrents through the house!! So another instant decision to abort opening everything up for AC lines. I will just have to cap off the wires outside. Just as well, don’t think my panel can handle two 220 lines for AC. I don’t think it was in the building plans anyway.
Well…are they A C guys going to charge you less?
Yes, I made sure to mention that I expect a discount on our quote.
Oh goodie. Money back.
Pretty sure that the $400 savings in AC plumbing was offset about Day 10 on the project back in February with an overrun on demolition 
Busy day again today. Continued putting on the roof trusses and I can see what our vaulting looks like in the family room and master bedroom. Finished hanging all the drywall on the main floor. Had to hang new drywall and patch the back bedroom where we enlarged the closet to get ready for floor patching in there
HVAC guys came and finished up ducting, registers, air returns and hooking up the new furnaces. Tomorrow they are going to test the furnaces and set the thermostats on the walls.
I loaded some more photos. I think I will change out the heat registers on teh high wall in th e living room to something more antique and decorative.
Looking good! I agree that more decorative/antique heat registers would be a nice touch in the LR.
Rain Coming!
I thought I was getting lucky for once when the City started clearing up the cul de sac area and removing all the stuff. They say that they are going to be totally cleared out in the next 3 weeks. This is excellent so that it is not a mess as buyers are trying to come for showings.
But, my roofing guy called me on Friday and warned me that rain is expected on Monday. And, the building inspector mentioned it to me on Friday when he came for our drywall inspection. Our top floor is wide open. And, the sides of the addition are not waterproofed yet with house wrap. AND, our existing house roof is torn apart in areas where we took off all the tile and took out old vents and set new vents.
Today the roofer showed up out of nowhere, bless his heart. He is very loyal to my projects. He worked hard all day to get the existing roof portion watertight with the metal valleys and torch roofing in some places. He has laid down double paper. But, I had to run out and stock up on big rolls of thick plastic. We are watching the system off Mexico carefully and we may be spending Monday morning wrapping the roof and the entire house in plastic.
I loaded some pictures of our progress, including new garage door.
Monday everything is being cleared out from the kitchen and the living room and I’m tearing off the paper that has been covering the floor for months. I will finally get to see the combination of coloring in the room. Flooring guy starts on Tuesday and he is going to be patching everywhere that walls were torn out, tying into the original entry tile and laying a new floor in the kitchen. We have to lay the floor in the kitchen as soon as possible to start setting kitchen cabinets.
Wow, it’s really looking good!
It looks terrific. I really like the dark window trim!
cb, your workers and suppliers are very loyal to you. It says something about how you treat them.
Loving the pictures! You are making this house SHINE!
Looks great!
My neighbors had the back wing of their house demoed and they’re building a larger addition there. I think it’s rained just about every day. I don’t know how the workers do it, especially pouring concrete. It’s crazy out there. Another interesting thing is that the main workers always wear hideously bright t-shirts. I think it’s for safety.
I have that same garage door, in ‘clay’. Love the garage door windows.
Love the dark window trim on interior and exterior! Good luck with the weather, cb.
You got a lot done in one day! The living room looks very nice with the dark slim trim. Current chances of rain Monday afternoon into Tuesday are 20-30% - in spots. So fingers crossed.
Yes, I have 2 workers, including my carpenter, who wear ugly flourescent t shirts. I think in our case it has to do with the fact that they are probably on sale for $1 at the t shirt shop and they pick them up for work shirts that are going to get ruined:)
Meanwhile we are missing a skill saw and my carpenter is really mad. We don’t think we were robbed because there are many other expensive tools here. Someone used it and misplaced it (believe me we have a big mess going on here) or stuck it in their truck by accident. He has been interrogating everyone. Its been over a week so we are just going to have to buy another one to keep going.
BUDGET UPDATE
I think the last budget update was about Aug 28th. Unfortunately I have been avoiding logging any receipts since then . I guess it was for psychological reasons. All I know is that my purse was about to burst from dozens of receipts crammed into the pockets so I had no choice but get organized today.
Last estimate to complete was $350,000. For several reasons I am now estimating $375,000 to complete. Some of the key reasons are that I had to buy one more window and another door (OK… that was only $300), stucco cost is going over by at least $7k, drywall costs are high because of a lot of materials (I am not good at estimating nbr of sheets and mud needed).
But I think one of the key issues is that we are not extreme experts in what we are doing right now. We have had to spend a lot of extra time in labor costs going over plans, going over every detail and honestly, redoing some things to make sure we are doing things exactly right. For example, the guys spent 1 1/2 days raising the roof trusses this week and adding a lot of blocks and strapping. Then the roofer comes over on Saturday and says they are not set right and are going to cause problems with the roof plywood nailing and drywall nailing. I called my carpenter on his day off and he came right over and had a long review with the roofer. Bottom line… we have to tear out the blocks and pry off the straps and reset about 50% of the trusses. Another step backward!!
At this point it looks like cost to add 1800 sq ft is going to run $144/sq ft which is still very reasonable. The problem is that we are only gaining 1200 sq ft of ‘liveable’ space that goes onto the records. But there was 450 sq ft of garage and 185 sq ft of decks added. Obviously it costs money to build these so they are included in my sq ft construction costs. Honestly the decks are going to be a high cost per sq ft to finish because of the water proofing on the decks, the expensive glass handrails and the shiplap ceilings on the decks.