Finally, finally, finally the Engineer and Draftsman came out to the project for a site visit. I kept asking them to come out but ‘floor plan wasn’t finalized yet’, whatever that means. I handed them the floor plan 5 weeks ago with two caveats at our meeting; Staircase going up needs to be finalized and roof framing has not been diagrammed/needs to get diagrammed.
So they come out and go Holy Moly!! look at that complex roof structure in the middle of the house. This is a nightmare. Yes… I tried to tell you that 5 weeks ago… very hard to diagram. After 3 hours going through the basement and reviewing all the ‘load points’, these are the changes I had to give in on…
We are going to have to put some more shear walls up on the right and left of living entry - cannot open it up entirely. In addition I have to put a shear wall down in basement under living room area which will chop it up a bit
He’s really having heartburn about my desire to vault the kitchen ceiling. Non negotiable for me, but we measured and the upper part of staircase is cutting over the kitchen so I have to drop the ceiling lower than I had hoped with all kinds of crazy beams and stuff
We will have to have a dropped beam across wall opening between kitchen and dining room, but that’s OK because I am going to continue cove ceiling down a bit
But the biggest thing I had to give up to simplify cutting into existing roof structure is my 3 sided bump out in the front of the 2nd story. We have to go back to a straight wall. I will put in 3 windows that match the 3 windows by the front entry. It just was a nightmare to tie it in down below because it is above the kitchen area and a lot of crazy diagonal structure inside existing attic
I pleaded for speed… who knows how long it is going to take to get these plans finalized onto paper. When I asked the draftsman if he had completed the topography/slope plan he said he had not even started yet. I gave him all the measurements 5 weeks ago
Believe me… they know that every day is costing me $270. So far I have wasted $12,150 waiting for them. I had discussed with them in our original meeting that I needed to get done in 3 weeks, so they are already 2 weeks behind schedule and still counting.
^ that wont do her any good NOW.
That stipulation , or some sort of “if not completed by… then…”
penalty clause should have been in the original agreement with the draftsman. .
He’s in the drivers seat at this point…
The problem is, everyone is so busy that she is at their mercy. I just had a visit from a good friend who is an architect from San Francisco who does lots of work in San Diego. He is just overwhelmed.
P.S. coralbrook, he has a $4 app on his big iPad w/cellular called Notability. He takes drawings from drop box and can scribble away anywhere.
I am going to mention that app to these guys. They brought all the drawings on paper and we were down on the floor making notes onto the plans.
I am at their mercy. Everyone says ‘take the plans to someone else’. Well, whoever I take those plans to are going to start over, need a site visit and I will go into line behind all of their other clients. There was a clear verbal discussion at our original meeting that time was money… but they definitely would not have agreed to any deadlines. I can tell that the issue is not the engineer, but it’s the draftsman that isn’t getting things into the system/plans as quickly as everyone would like.
I have paid $2,500 to start the project. I owe $3,000 when plans are complete and ready for submittal to City and $2,500 for engineering when complete. So, they don’t get paid the majority until they get done. Taking forever and way expensive !
At this point I am going to take the plans that are ready into the City for a preliminary review with Planning and Zoning. I want to make absolutely sure that this project is not going to get caught in some kind of ‘neighbor notification’ or Coastal Commission mess.
Why Things Take so Long
AND
Why Things Cost so Much!!
We are working on the exterior prep to get painting done. Painting needs to get done so that we can restucco the house. We cannot re stucco the house until we get building inspection for the windows and openings that got cancelled during our window installation
So, stucco guy has been meticulously tying in all the flashing, paper and chicken wire in the big openings. The prior owner paid someone to do a horrid 1970s stucco finish over original finish. This finish is peeling off and has disintegrated around the bottom of the house. So, he has been going around the whole house and putting on a new coat of cement. Of course, there are areas where the original concrete stem walls weren’t poured smoothly. This means we have to get out with a small jackhammer and break off the excess pour that is sticking out in order to get a nice perfect finish. I’m pretty sure this is not something my competitors do
Today I have to make decision on exterior accent color and stucco color/finish. We painted some samples up yesterday - photo is not really good
It is hard to tell but I like the darker, greener, color that is closest to the camera in the photo. The one over the door looks a little too blue for me. It is going to look very French country Mediterranean when you are done!
That is my favorite color also. Its a beautiful color. But we have a really serious problem with the roofing. The roofing was either painted with a red or it aged in sun to a red tone. Exposed areas are a different color than edges that have been out of the sun.
My roofer has found the original or matching concrete tile. It is the original grey brown. This means that the new roof installed on 2nd story will not match old roof in any way.
Do we try to age new roof with red paint? Or do we have to paint old roof back to the grey brown (which is the color I want). Because of this huge dilemma I have decided we just cannot paint eaves and rafters yet.
The safe bet would be to paint them same dark color as window trim. This does not fight with current reddish roof, which is a very prominent color as you approach house. But if we have to paint old roof back to grey brown, the bluish grey is a gorgeous complimentary color.
So, holding off at the last minute on finishing painting. This means all the prep time and materials to mask everything off is wasted. It has to get torn off now because we cannot leave masking tape on things in hot sun for a month. It will ruin the metal flashing. They spent hours masking off the metal flashing to spray. At least we have the primer on which negates the old red trim
Looking back at the photos, the roof is a little reddish, but not very red at all. I don’t think anyone will be looking at the roof tiles or noticing that the second floor roof tiles are slightly different. Most people won’t even be able to see those second floor roof tiles.
You could paint those exposed rafters dark brown so they just look like wood and they will match anything.
I asked the painter to paint a couple of the rafters with the dark window color. One hour after the painters tore down all the masking my agent stopped by and we both agreed that the dark color looked best. It recedes /fades from the eye and actually highlights the shaped rafters against the new white stucco. The greenish blue is a gorgeous color and might get used in some other aspect around the house but looked kind of stupid peeking out from under the roof. . So, in the end the painter could have kept going with the dark paint.
Another dollar spent second guessing everything.
And we spent a full hour looking at the roof issue because I found some of the newer concrete tiles under the house as extras. They have not been exposed to the wind and rain. We think the reddish tone is oxidation and exposure to sun and not necessarily paint. I think I spend half my time on these old houses trying to find things to match/retain something old on the house.
Roof was installed 18 yrs ago, 1998. Roofers did a good job and replaced understructure, new plywood sheathing and black paper. Roof change was permitted. House was originally cedar shake.
I think it is a Boral lightweight concrete tile which is rated for ‘lifetime’ of house but, in reality probably 50 yrs. Its not cheap and would be a total shame to tear it off.
We have decided to call the biggest oldest roofing company to come give estimates to try to match new roof to old toot. Just to see what they say based on their experience.
We had a similar problem trying to match tile on our roof. It took a lot of phone calls, but we were able to find the tiles (and bought some extras). Good luck!
