Holy moly. And I don’t mean moly!
I didn’t like either of the baths they showed. The one with the black and white tile was hideous.
This is great news for your house. Think how much better your living room and fireplace will look!
I don’t really like any of their aesthetic choices re tile and cabinetry–and I think that sacrificing a hood over a gas cooktop to preserve an unobstructed view is a terrible choice, just move it!–but the views are pretty incredible.
I didn’t notice the lack of a hood over the range, but I agree. That’s pretty important in my book.
Trust Consolation to immediately notice that there wasn’t a proper vent hood over the range. My eyes were wandering off to the view and I didn’t notice 
My agent had a chance to go through the house when it was vacant while it was in escrow. She said the views from kitchen are outstanding, island is kind of cramping the kitchen, but the living room feels really small. She likes the nice office area upstairs and she said that the tile in bathroom is not so hideous in real person. Also, the back yard looks larger than it is because of nice mature landscaping.
Having our first building inspection on Wednesday! Yeah, a little bit of progress. We are calling for a meter inspection so that we can cancel the old meter and get SDGE to come out and move the wires across the yard to the new meter. City has to inspect and then they authorize SDGE to come out and change the meters. We are kind of hoping he won’t notice that the whole house isn’t wired up to meter yet but we have about 8 circuits set up.
The whole reason I am in a hurry to get inspector out to the house is because I am going to beg him to pre-inspect the plumbing in the hall bath so that we can close up a couple of walls, put some kind of door on and get a toilet installed.
Cb, my fingers are crossed for this project!
It would be like being on vacation all the time.
Railroad Ties
I have loaded some pictures of the railroad ties used in the dead end/cul de sac area of the street. They are used by the 3 neighbors who share the dead end area. I’m amazed that the lady on the left of the dead end street got away with carving out a gravel private drive to her gate/driveway/garage. The area is actually out on the City street property. But, I’m guessing that people were parking up at the lookout and blocking her access to get into her gate
Fireplace Surround Design
We got out an old piece of 1/4 drywall and I drew several designs on it that the guys cut out of the drywall. I put up 3 different designs around the firebox. One is a square (it looked too contemporary), one was a smaller arch that left a minimal reveal of the original brick and the other was a larger arch that showed more brick.
In my mind, the winner was the small arch that showed the least amount of brick (we have primed the brick so it will blend in). To be extra careful, we are building the framing for the surround out of steel studs and using cement board to cover the studs. It’s going to be real fun to try to get a nice plaster texture over the cement board! But, wanted to use Non Combustible materials down by the fire box. The top portion above the mantel will be framed with wood and drywall but it’s going to be tricky to frame out the curves.
Photos loaded. Steel structure still needs the curved steel pieces to create the arch
Nice! I like the lower arch too and it’s great that you can round off the brick opening with the cut bricks.
Small arch is the winner, IMO.
I like all of the fireplaces. I’d tend to go with whatever echoed the arch of the doorways and/or windows. (But didn’t you have to give up on the arched windows?)
Did you have the first inspection today??
Love the fireplace surround!
Since the original brick will be seen [correct?] I like the higher arch.
Other wise it looks like you tried to cover up the brick but couldn’t figure out how to do so with an arch.
ymmv
Inspection was interesting. He didn’t show up until 2:30 which is unusual. This means I have to stay glued in case he shows up. He goes to the meter and everything’s fine but I’m supposed to have paperwork from SDGE. He couldn’t pass the meter. Called the electrician and he says "Oh yeah, I’m sorry. I have the papers " I got really annoyed at him because he told me we were absolutely ready. I do not want to get a reputation of calling inspector without being ready.
He said to get the papers and he will swing by.
Meanwhile he was really sweet and went under the house and quickly checked plumbing for hall bath. He asked for one small change and said “make that change and you can set your toilet”. Yes!!! Success. It’s funny but we spent hours cleaning up (he never went inside) and capping off new sewer line and filling all vents and ABS to the roof (required for leak test) He didn’t even look. I think he trusts me now.
He did say when he showed up “You again? Aren’t you tired?I was sure you’d give up” And… “you have a lot of demo going on here, I sure hope you have a permit”
I’d take that as a challenge.
Of the three houses that he has come to inspect… two of them were in dangerous, unsafe and unhealthy living condition (Guizot Hoarder House and this house). I’m just hoping that he might realize that I am saving old houses and getting them back to liveable condition, up to code.
Front Walkway
I had my concrete guys come over who did the front walkway at the Liberace House. I wanted to get an estimate to do a whole new walkway from outside the gate to the front door. After much deliberation and ideas, I have decided to remove the old thick yellow stone that is set at the front door area and create a 36" wide curving path to front door with a slight ramp up to the door. Also going to widen the landing at front door so it doesn’t look so small in scale to the rest of the house. As a reminder, here is the photo of front walkway and landing
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/100771386@N05/25748104292/in/dateposted-public/
The pink concrete is in poor condition. We are going to pour 3 1/2" over it and plant on each side. This eliminates having to jack hammer the whole thing and get a special concrete dumpster low boy. But we are going to have to take out the portion that is outside the front gate coming down from the dead end street
So, as it would be on the Flip or Flop show… $3,000 extra for the walkway that I was not planning to spend. It’s going to get done next week because it is one of those things we can do without a permit
I think it will dramatically help the curb appeal. It’s going to be money well spent.