Yes, I know it is a ‘deck’ but it is hilarious. It only has guard rails on the north and south side. They have a piece of rope across the western side of it. My understanding is that they hardly go out there… but it is quite an invasion of privacy into the yard and directly into the living room. There might be a couple of trees that get planted there during our landscaping.
Cross breeze can do a lot for temp control, so window placement can make a big difference. And I’d plant some big trees.
We have french drains in the back, they work well for us. Only one rain gutter along one side of the house. Very useful for the rain barrel.
The white walls, wood ceiling in the living room looks very “Santa Barbara” to me. I like it, especially with the wood floors. Plenty of windows and light in the room.
Oh, I totally agree about the ceiling fans. I have never, ever ever seen a ceiling fan that I like.
ETA: It would be interesting to see the neighbor’s “flyer” regarding your house being for sale. Who is distributing something like that? Or is it a month old?
The other neighbor received the ‘flyer’ also. It appears that the listing agent sent out a ‘Sold’ flyer around the neighbor. Common practice to try to drum up business from other homeowners who might be ready to sell. I just cannot believe that they got that flyer out into the mail so quickly ! So, this is how most of the neighborhood is going to know that it sold and they will start snooping around to see what is going to happen. The young couple that live in the middle brown house above just walked right into the house and started looking around. Carpenter had to ask them to leave and go talk to owner (I was in the back talking to the demo crew).
I have asked all the guys not to let anyone into the house right now because it is slightly dangerous and a lot of yucky stuff showing from under the covers. Noone allowed into house.
can’t you put up a KEEP OUT sign?
We are moving right along. I finally loaded a picture of the drafted original floor plan and garage floor plan. These are the ‘current’ building and do not reflect any changes.
Today I went into the City and pulled Building Permit #2. This permit is for replacing windows and doors in the living room, dining room and bedroom wing (areas that will not be impacted by possible 2nd story or the massive main floor remodel). I pulled this permit separately because I need to get the historical review started. Luckily, Historical Review is back to 10 business days waiting time. My two prior permits were 30 days waiting for historical review.
I had to sit and wait to ‘submit’ the application. Then I had to wait for Zoning Review, Planning Department Review and then Construction Review. On top of that… cost for permit $750. Cost for plan preparation and copies $240, cost for Title 24 energy calculations from an engineer $175 (this is to prove to the City that I am improving the energy efficiency!!!). This is to replace 6 windows into existing openings with dual pane energy efficient glass, add one small window to back bedroom, move existing window in bathroom. So, the cost to pull a permit was approximately $145 per window. That is highway robbery!!! You can see why I would just not bother to do this on a regular project and I cannot imagine any homeowner going through this just to retrofit their existing windows.
We have demolished everything out of the hall bath and we pulled up the bathtub. My agent says we should keep the bathtub because it is in good condition and made out of the solid heavy stuff with a little bit of interesting detail. I’ve loaded some pictures of all the surprises and interesting things found.
Have already set the fence posts into the east boundary line along the property. We are ready to build our fence. But, of course I am very picky that every piece of wood needs to be stained with a first coat before getting installed into the fence. Well, that means I need to hurry up and select a fence color. We are going to paint the back of that orange wood garage on property line with same color. So… without realizing it I am now under the gun to select a color that will be prominent in the scheme of things. Which means I need to hurry up and figure out what the house exterior colors are going to be.
I’m still scratching my head how critical paint decisions always end up being such a rushed mess!!! How the heck could the fence installation in Week 1 end up driving such a critical decision???
so wait, currently the stairway from the garage leads up to a bedroom? Am I reading that floor plan correctly?
There are two stairways in the back of the house. The one to the left of the driveway (east side) goes into the back bedroom. It is the oddest thing. I don’t believe anyone has entered there for years, but the deck and the two staircases were part of a 1990 construction permit. The door has been swollen shut for a long time. We had to use a crowbar and remove one side of the casing to get the door to open. It was installed really bad… there were two large beach towels rolled up at bottom of door to cover the 1" air gap.
The stairway on the right of the driveway enters into the back of the laundry room behind the kitchen.
Both of the stairways are outside the house.
Just prime it for now, and put a finish color on later.
I prefer not to ‘paint’ fencing because I don’t want it to peel in 5 yrs. I want to apply stain. I don’t like it when I paint or stain fences and it doesn’t get into the sides of the slats. Guess I’m too picky, that’s what the guys say.
I do know that the main color of the house will be white because of the architecture but I can have a lot of fun with the wood trim color. I’m thinking that the roof flooring (which is very prominent because of the steep pitch of roof) would probably work with a rich dark brown fence.
Is the old picket fence yours or the neighbors? It looks like it’s hardly even standing up…
I’m guessing that dilapidated fence is neighbors because it is inside their property. I don’t dare touch it
"So, the cost to pull a permit was approximately $145 per window. "
MSFT is in the wrong business, LOL. Should be selling permits, not Windows. Jokes aside, that is really outrageous.
Totally agree…it’s outrageous…considering SOME replacement windows would cost less than that!
You would think there would be some sort of incentive to put in energy efficient windows.
There are tax credits, but you have to be the owner/occupant, not an investor.
Most replacement windows would cost between $120 and $200, so the cost of pulling the permit is outrageous and I don’t feel that the majority of homeowners would bother. For example, if I went into Home Depot as Suzy Homemaker and ordered a bunch of windows and then used their installation service, I really doubt that Home Depot or the 3rd party contracted installer is pulling a permit.
^ While that is probably true, I would think that Home Depot could get in trouble if they aren’t.