@VeryHappy, I agree - wasn’t too sure at first, but am now a convert.
@coralbrook , I sure wish you and your guys could travel!
I think we are getting very close on the final plans. The Title 24 energy guy contacted me early this morning with a lot of questions about existing windows, insulation, etc. He is going to be done tomorrow. I received a set of final floor plans last night and returned some errors and typos they made this morning. One thing that he and I have determined is that we are going to have to call the addition a ‘3rd floor’ for the City.
I was really confused about new liveable square foot addition because it is important to me. Here’s the breakdown
Existing 2nd Floor = 1,638 sq ft
Existing Garage = 358 sq ft
Existing Basement = 837 sq ft
New Garage 487 Sq ft
Addition to 2nd Floor = 552 Sq ft
New 3rd floor = 692 sq ft
Total new main floor deck = 444 sq ft
3rd floor deck 140 sq ft
3rd floor balcony 45 sq ft
So, as far as I can tell we will be going from a 1638 sq ft to a new total liveable square feet (does not include decks and balconies) of 2,882 sq ft! I hope that counts when we go to sell 
No word on when the appraiser is going to show up for the informal appraisal
Yippee–so glad things are progressing!
How onerous did the engineering requirements look? When are you going to have estimates on costs?
Good question. He has never provided the structural or foundation plans. I have no idea what final details are. I only know some things from discussions and site visits. From those discussions i know about these items
Close up a couple windows in basement and add two 4’ shear walls jutting inside basement under area where we are removing living room wall
Tear off stucco (I stopped stucco guy from finishing west wall outside living room) and put in two 32" shear walls where I want French doors and new window
Add a stem wall in crawlspace under area of new staircase
Balloon wall from basement to top floor for other side of staircase
Several posts and beams have to be added to existing garage area which are going to have to compromise good parking area in old garage
I’ll post pics of structural plan whenever I can get my hands on them. I think he’s holding out because he knows I might start work before he has signed the plans!
Interesting article in today’s Wall St Journal:
Interesting article. I cannot imagine spending $1million for a facelift. That seems absolutely crazy. Obviously I should be renovating my projects to the ultra modern cubist style!
I’m getting very close to walking into the City to submit my plans for permit approval. I have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday May 10. Engineer said that I should give them the weekend just in case they need to finalize something. I know that my Title 24 energy calculations are complete. They have to print them out and cut and paste them onto the large blueprints.
I have a serious issue trying to limit my natural gas BTU input needed from our existing gas meter. Somehow we have a smaller size gas meter (mentioned by SDGE lady when she came out to inspect the new electric panel). But the bigger issue is that someone let the prior owner (with permit and inspection) build a deck over the gas meter and you have to crawl under the deck off the back bedroom to get to the gas meter. It is going to be a huge ordeal to try to get SDGE to upgrade the gas meter to a larger size.
So, I have been analyzing all of the natural gas requirements. Between a new fancier cooktop, the addition of more bathrooms and addition of new small furnace for 3rd floor (going to have two heaters, two zones), I am getting worried about the additional requirements on the gas pressure. So, I had a long discussion with energy consultant guy that is doing the Title 24 requirements. He recommended that I install a special Power Vent 50 gallon water heater that only draws 40k btu and can handle the demand capacity of the new house with less BTU than a standard water heater. Even though it is only 50 gallons, it has the capability of supporting 3 simultaneous showers and/or 4 back to back showers… generating up to 90 gallons of hot water in an hour. I am also adding an on demand circulating pump on top of the water heater that provides instant hot water for fixtures that are drawing hot water far away from the heater.
Ran around and purchased that today and it will be included in the new permit. One more thing we can work on before permits get issued.
Good news!!!
The bank appraiser who is doing an informal ‘desk appraisal’ has come back with a huge future sale value for the property, if built to the plans. He is going to do a site visit next week and drive the comps that were used for his appraisal, just to make sure. But, he is very confident that we will get the price that my agent proposed to him. I am feeling much better right now about everything.
Not going to throw the price out here just yet, I don’t want to jinx it until he finishes his visit.
BUDGET UPDATE
13 weeks on project
Spent to Date $70,000
I’m trying to slow down on spending remodel money but we had several large expenditures:
Exterior Painting Complete
Stucco refinish complete
One more dumpster filled to clear out back yard. We are down to concrete rubble, clean wood and greenery which have to be recycled. I cannot recycle the ice plant and agave plants and they took up over 1/2 of the dumpster!!
Toilet, vanity and fixtures purchased for basement bathroom (they are not luxurious!!)
Basement powder room plumbing complete. Had to jackhammer out the concrete and lay new sewer lines just to be safe about everything
New gas lines installed to kitchen cooktop, furnace, water heater and we stubbed out a line for the deck off living room in case buyer wants a BBQ in the future. We have left a stub to run to the new small heater for 2nd floor but we do not know exactly where it will be located and we did not want to run any lines near where major construction will be going on.
New water heater purchased, not installed yet
Hall bath tile installation complete (well, almost). We will be grouting on Monday, painting on Tuesday and installing vanity and lighting on Wednesday.
I have chosen a very pale grey color for the bathroom walls and ceiling. I am debating whether to grout the white subway with the same pale grey grout that I am using for the floor. I see this design a lot lately… darker grout around white subway tiles. I’m not sure I like it so I am going to do a small experiment somewhere discreet before I make the total commitment to the grout.
All sounds good. I don’t like contrasting grout with subway tiles … Way too busy, especially with the pretty floors with bold pattern.
I vote for white grout with the white subway tile. Otherwise it’s going to look like a busy maze.
Sounds like it’s coming together!
I think the pale grey will look nice. I wouldn’t call it contrasting if it is light in color.
For the broom closet, could you face it out instead of into the laundry room?
I still haven’t figured out where broom closet is going to be installed. I’ll probably put it in the landing area at top of garage stairs. There’s going to be an L shaped set of cabinets in that area. Plenty of room for broom closet.
There are a lot of innovative ways to store brooms/cleaning supplies other than a traditional closet.
Sounds like other actions are finally moving forward!
Unfortunately, I have no idea how much budget is going to be left after construction to put in all the cabinet functionality that I would like to have, including a tricked out cleaning cabinet/closet.
OK cb, what’s the story here? http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-160016044-1325_Santa_Barbara_St_San_Diego_CA_92107 Price dropped from $2,000,000 to $1,500,000 in two months. This can’t be just because of the astonishingly strange photography? I would have at least asked the family on the next block down to turn off their garage lights for the photos! And perhaps not used three almost identical pictures of the same corner window view.
Lots of potential in that house, but just about everything needs to be redone. The kitchen! The bathrooms! Even the rusted railing outside! It’s also disappointing that the outdoor patio space doesn’t have any sort of view – it’s been blocked off by that fence.
Ok…dumb one here…what is the black thing above the sink in the kitchen?