I thInk I’d look for like a large vertical piece of art work/painting for the other side of the fp.
BB, the fp and built ins in that house are stunning but nothing like the fp in this house.
Yes, that is a different fireplace, so the design would have to be different. It is just an idea for something other than open shelves.
It has definitely cooled down. We can tell by the lack of snakes sunning themselves on the patio!
@BunsenBurner That is a stunning house!! I’m sure it had a high price tag. But I look at that wine storage area and it’s like ?Who in the world has that many bottles of wine??? Yes, if my singular passion was collecting wine, maybe. But I’d rather get some real storage into that space 
You know… wrapping paper, linens, paper goods, boxes of stuff that just seem to accumulate
PERMIT UPDATE
Well, 2 weeks later we had another visit to the Building Department. We returned with minor corrections for the window energy calculations (which I think is hilarious… we are swapping out the old single pane aluminum windows for Dual Pane Low E Argon windows… why aren’t we getting a big prize from the City??? instead of the lady worrying that one of the windows had slightly different size measurements on the calculation sheet versus the plan drawing.) and we needed to do a review of Engineering. These guys are just making sure we are not causing any construction runoff into the storm drains.
We are improving our efficiency scale. Two stamps on the plans in 1 1/2 hours!! We are proud of ourselves. Of course that doesn’t count the 1/2 hr each way to get downtown and the $15 to park just to get two stamps onto the plans.
We are still waiting for the Structural Review which is just in the black hole somewhere labeled ‘Due by Oct 30’ in the computer. I have no idea how people actually hire contractors and schedule work to get done. It’s a Catch 22. You have no idea when you can legally start, so you cannot give a contractor a solid start date. But, if you don’t start interviewing, hiring and scheduling contractors and subs you are never going to get anything done because they are booked months in advance right now. And… to make it even more frustrating, the City has a 90 day deadline to start work after permit approval.
We don’t have to worry about any of that, but how do other people deal with it? I have no idea. We have plenty of work to get done that does not involve permits.
I LOLed at that wine storage, too! Wine cellars are quite popular in new fancy construction here. Some have glass doors facing the kitchen/living room… the builders assume that $2.5M+ home buyers need that much storage and a nice display for their prized wine collection.
We have a basement storage with shelves for wine at the “new” place, but no shelves for any other junk. So we are putting IKEA Pax in there, although we pared down the amount of junk substantially.
Great work on getting the stamps. Hope the goblins that live in that black hole aka Structural will pop up soon!
I probably have more rolls of toilet paper, paper towels and wrapping paper that need a home somewhere than bottles of wine. Can I have a beautiful display case with glass doors for my 20 year old wrapping paper collection? I’m sure some of those rolls that I was pressured to buy for the elementary school fund raiser are collector items now.
Looks like those houses are in the $2.4-2.8 million range.
I have a friend who does. Those racks are stupidly expensive though, so he built his own, out of redwood. He had to put in a dust handling system and wear a mask and gloves while doing it, because apparently redwood dust is toxic. But hey, he saved a butt-load of money, which he probably spent on more wine.
I felt that house was a little too industrial for my taste.
Redwood dust is toxic? Good to know!
@dfin2013 - do you measure the outside air temperature in snakes? Yikes! 
Hubby and I have settled into or kitchenette lifestyle. We’ve been very good about not going out to eat, and I have been looking at everything differently in the grocery store…can it be microwaved, grilled, toasted or paninied? Already-washed produce is my new friend!
Since we both have jobs that let us work out of a home office, we are present at our construction site most of the time. I had to get out of here today during lots of jack hammering though, so took hubby out to lunch
The magic question is…how are you washing dishes??? I remember months of washing dishes in the bathtub while my H was building our new kitchen during his spare hours.
I can relate. My grill was a lifesaving device during our slow move from House1 to House2. We redid the kitchen countertops in the “new” place, that put kitchen out of commission for a while. Had to wash veggies and dishes in powder room sink until Mr. B installed the tricky plumbing and got the faucets in… then it was over the island hood’s turn. Yuck. Drywall dust everywhere, but we vented it outside! Then it was too damn hot to cook on the stove… Then I was out of commission for a couple of weeks, first taking the damn test then not being able to lift more than 5-10 pounds… Thank goodness for paper plates and grills!
I was really lucky when we did our remodel. I was able to wash the dishes in big sink in my laundry room. We also used paper plates/plastic utensils a lot.
When we gutted our only bathroom with a tub/shower last spring we had to go to our neighbors for over a month to use theirs. They didn’t gut the powder room until big bathroom was done so at least we had a toilet. We also stayed at same neighbors house 5 days two summers ago when we had our floors refinished.
We are hitting all kinds of little detail issues that are causing the infamous ‘domino effect’. Yesterday we tried to cut open the new window that is going to be in the upstairs shower above the garage. We had thought this shower was in the bumpout above garage in the front of the house. When we centered the window on the shower it became very obvious that the shower was only built in about 2/3 of the bump out and the window would look absolutely stupid in the front of the house. It was in the left area of the bump out.
So, it is critical that the window be centered on the bump out for the exterior of the house. We are now rebuilding the shower to take advantage of the full width of the bump out and make a larger shower. The window will still be slightly off center inside the shower but will be perfectly centered on the exterior.
Also, there are a couple of details that have to be fixed in the back patio area where the new addition is going. There is a plumbing cleanout from master bathroom sticking out of the wall that needs to be routed somewhere else. And drainage pipes and electrical that are going to be moved. Drainage pipes are the biggest problem because we cannot just dig up somewhere else for them to go because the area is covered with concrete walkways and patio
I’ve loaded a set of new photos. We are concrete sawing and jack hammering for days to get all of the concrete out of this house
“Well appointed statement wine rooms”
Give me a break.
But doG forbid anyone should see a book?
ETA: cross-posted
Why do you have to have an accessible cleanout for a bathroom? Is that a CA plumbing code issue?
None of the bathrooms in my house have a cleanout like that. If there’s a problem you run something down the drain or through the toilet.
@Consolation - that house comes with a library. The library is facing the lake and has views. 
Anyway, aren’t you supposed to have your books on Kindle? Can’t have e-wine yet, but I heard it is in the works.
@notrichenough - we have a couple of clean outs like that in the areas that were recently remodeled. Did not have them in our 18 yr old house and don’t have them here in the parts that have not been touched since 2002. Must be the code thing.
It looks new so I think it was installed recently when owners did a master bath remodel. It’s located in an air vent pipe from toilet area( I think, my guess). It’s newer code that sewer air vents need to have a clean out in case something comes down the open pipe on roof and clogs the pipe. Air vents normally don’t have clean outs. However, the more clean outs you can install the easier it is to clear drains when you have a problem. We had a ton of clean outs in our Del Monte build
Permit Update
Well, on Monday evening the City Structural Engineer completed their review of the plans. This is the only review we are waiting on. Engineer sent a list of issues/corrections. Absolutely no problems with the plans and structural for the new addition in the back of the house, but the Engineer barfed all over the unpermitted ‘attic conversion’. When we submitted the plans, the Submittal person advised that we label the 2 rooms upstairs ‘As Built’. This didn’t sit well with the Structural Engineer who wanted it all labeled ‘new’. Not sure how we can label everything ‘new’ since it has existed for over 25 years.
Either way, the City is requiring load calculations and details for the structural elements built in garage by prior owner for the attic conversion above. We are scrambling to get our structural engineer and draftsman to turn around the corrections. Planning to get back into the City next Tuesday morning.
And, since there are no issues with the addition in the back we are full steam ahead forming up the addition area to get ready for foundation inspection. Lots of little things in the way, electrical conduit, landscape drains, landscape sprinklers. We have to cap these off and move them around and replumb the landscape drain to be set underneath the new slab floor of the family room. And, we just noticed there is a lot of water pipes and drain pipes running through the original footing. So, we are going to have to cut those out today with a concrete saw in order to pull them away from the original footing that is going to connect to the new slab pour.