A drone that can take good photos is not cheap. $500-1000 is probably not what cb wants to spend right now for a low-end one.
Don’t want to spark drone controversy, but house seems to be within the 5-mile restricted (no drone flying) air space from SD airport. Something to further investigate before purchasing a drone-- and I realize it seems silly since you won’t go that high, and folks seem to regularly violate rule.
I have reached out to my agent to give me a recommendation for a drone video. She has done several drone videos as part of her marketing on a couple of properties. At least she can give me an idea of how much it will cost. I see that I can rent a drone for the day ($50) but I really do not know how to operate it
I can rent a boom truck for $200/day, but that will probably turn into a giant ordeal
Well, I guess I’m confused.
- You want/need to go up on the roof so you can determine how to arrange the additional story and roof deck that you'll be adding.
- Right now the roof is too peaked for you to go up there comfortably.
- Also, you're concerned about damaging the tiles on the roof if you walk around there.
But, if you’re going to be adding another story and/or a roof deck, won’t you have to re-do the roof in its entirety anyway? Why not just start to demo the roof, then get a tall ladder on the second story and have it poke through the roof hole? That way you’ll be relatively steady, on a ladder, but be able to see the views.
It seems a stick and 2 rubber bands is not enough high-tech for you? :-*
I would,hope CB plans to save any tiles she does remove from that new roof…for her even newer and higher roof.
But agree…seems like “damage” should be minimal.
Super long selfie stick.
A stick with taped camera might do the trick.
I want to try to save concrete tiles to replace onto new roof because its going to be similar size and shape. Also I think its going to be really tough to find matching because roof is about 15 yrs old. My roofing guy is stopping by this weekend to give advice.
Surveyor $550 coming today because I cannot figure out property boundaries
Money on a survey is well spent!
Surveyor showed up within one hour after I called around and found the most reasonable guy. It took him one hour to shoot the property, show me all the maps and put stakes in the ground. I want to make $550 an hour!!! We are all in the wrong business 
Unfortunately the SE corner of the property is right where that little fence at the neighbor’s house stops. I’m guessing the path and the rickety fence with house numbers on it have been encroaching out into the City right of way for a very long time. But he told me something interesting… his map shows that the City paper street has been officially ‘abandoned’ and that I have right of way out to the middle of that paper street. Not sure I’m going to build anything expensive there, but it warrants a trip down to City Hall to figure it out. Either way, I don’t think anyone cares if we landscape down the slope a little bit with some citrus trees.
Yay to citrus trees!!
I have loaded some pictures of interesting things we did today. Of course we discovered more hilarious ‘fixes’ while pulling things apart.
I need to get the remodel portion of the existing house onto the plans so we opened up walls today to see where we are going to knock out walls and need engineering for beams and support. The guys tore out the plaster between dining room and living, then they tore out the little walls in entry way that were completely blocking the view as you enter the house. OMG!!! if those walls are torn out we will have gorgeous views across dining/living area as you walk into the house from front door AND it creates a wonderful great room concept.
Then we tore out walls from kitchen to dining room and I think I can keep the kitchen in the same area, with the walls opened up to the dining room. I have already chosen where I think the kitchen sink should be… beautiful sunset views over ocean from the sink.
AND, the guys invented ways to get up on the roof and take some photos. Unfortunately, my million dollar purchase has a great view of the neighbor’s Direct TV satellite dish, skylights and roof. It really is just like a monstrosity right in your face. But, we can definitely see over the roof to full panoramic view, it’s just kind of disappointing how much the roof is kind of ‘right there’.
I submitted an online permit for rewiring the house just so I am somewhat legal for all the work we have started. I cannot really submit the re-plumbing permit yet because I honestly don’t know where all the bathrooms and everything are going to be. The current kitchen/laundry/back stairs/back bedroom/back bathroom are getting reconfigured.
Speaking of the bizarre home repairs… At least there is only one water heater! Our realtor showed us photos of the house he bought… there was a battery of water heaters in the garage… When one croaked, the owners never bothered to remove it - they would just place the new one next to it!
Cb, it os wonderful that you can make a great room with a view! And maybe you can place some citrus trees in pots on your future deck and block the ugly Directv mess - so the deck users would have an illusion that they sit in an orchard on a hillside?
I love the idea of orchard in a hillside, that they can even harvest!
That is one blank wall! My first thought was to get Wyland to paint a whale mural. http://www.wylandfoundation.org/images/whaling-walls/ww64.jpg The people who live there will never see it so why would they mind!
My second thought was for a solid roof deck rail that angles outward to help lead the eye out instead of down, and also block some of the ugly. Or maybe a frosted glass railing. It might not really go with the French country style, but that hasn’t stopped anyone else in San Diego!
Do you want to tell us how they did it, or is it better if we don’t know?
And, were they standing when those photos were taken or were they crouching down? That might make a difference in terms of how much of that structure versus the view is visible.
If I remember correctly, he was standing. But, we don’t have absolute accuracy that he was standing exactly where the new floor would be. And, he was standing on the Western edge of the roof, so I don’t know what it looks like if someone is standing further back into the house - probably worse
We have taken out the ceiling of the kitchen so that we can get a good look into the attic. Right now there is no access into that steep pitched attic area of the house. One of the key things we noted is that the height to the top ridge of the steep roof is almost 8 ft above the ceiling. This means that, even if we bring the house up to about 28’ high, we are not adding a lot of total height to the house. So, it’s not going to make that much of a difference to the homes behind us. I’m feeling better about that now.
It’s better if we don’t talk about how the surfer monkeys got up onto the top of the house. They seem to just leap up there and crawl around without any fear. I was inventing contraptions with duct tape and telescoping poles and they just laughed at me.
Remember the switch plates that I took photos of? I was convinced that they were the original 1937 solid metal switch plates and we needed to meticulously save them. The guys were just laughing at me. I was torn because I prefer modern wide switches and keeping the plates would require rewiring the switch with the old style lever switch.
I take one off and turn it over. General Electric 1974 made in Japan is stamped right on the back of the plate!!! They are solid metal but I don’t feel bad about tossing them now and moving to the modern switches.
That is funny about the switch plates! Well…at least they tried to maintain the integrity when they put those up in the 70’s!