Sorry for the friend turmoil. Best wishes for an easier January.
Glad to hear from you even with the problems. It did sound from the start like this job would be a problem. Don’t worry about us; just relax and watch the ocean.
Or drop by tomorrow; we have leftover eggnog from our Chanukah party…
@coralbrook wishing you a great 2020.
So…is it correct to assume that the Solana Beach Condo project got put a little on hold while this other project was being done? Last we heard, you were in permitting purgatory with an owner who was being a bit unrealistic about deadlines.
Solana Beach Townhouse Project
I don’t even know where to start with this one. I originally walked through this project with the homeowner about October 6th. At that time I told her that if we started Oct 12th AND she had a permit by November 1st there was a chance that she could move her furniture in and live in a bedroom and one bathroom by Dec 28th. She had sold her house and had a rent back from new owners until Dec 28th.
October came and went. She never even owned the place until October 16th. I had to scramble and get everything together to make a presentation at the HOA meeting to try and get approval. We started clearing out the house before we even got full HOA approval. Then I had to open everything up in order to determine if we could even move bathrooms, etc to the new locations she wanted. The HOA specifically stated in their approval that we could not make any holes in ceiling or floor joists. This makes it very very hard to move plumbing. So, I had to change her plans and she was not happy, she did not understand why pipes could not run diagonal through her house.
On Oct 28th I finally got the draftsman to finalize the plans and then I left on vacation. I told her those plans had to get into the City ASAP and we needed a permit by beginning of November. It never happened. When I came back 2 weeks later the draftsman still hadn’t even prepared the plans for the City. Then the City informs draftsman that everything has to go to the Coastal Commission before submission.
the City of Solana Beach outsources their plan reviews and that entity gets 10 business days for review. And we had to go back twice because the draftsman forgot stupid things like a smoke detector. When the owner originally went in to fill out the permit application with her signature she just made up a number for project cost. Unfortunately that number triggered a full recycle requirement from the City and we had already hauled everything to the dump!! So, I had to create a long detailed bid from the contractor that showed actual cost and we had to get the permit changed to under $100k so that we could eliminate the recycling requirement. There really wasn’t anything we could recycle anyway because it was all painted wood cabinets and broken ceramic tile. We saved all the wood taken out from the raised floor and used it for reframing new areas.
As December came and went I told the owner very directly that there was no chance she could move in until late February. There is over 1 1/2 weeks of drywall installation, mudding and sanding and then another 1 1/2 weeks of priming and painting the whole place before we could even start installing anything. In my original schedule those 3 weeks were supposed to be in late November, early December when I was going to squeeze in my friend’s kitchen because my crew could not be working in there during drywall and painting.
Lots of phone calls directly into the third party review company and we finally got a permit Thursday evening Dec 19th. I basically had to pull my crew out of there for the first 2 weeks in December because we were done and just at a standstill. We were ready for the plumbing, electrical and framing inspection before anything else could proceed.
We had a huge problem with electrical load calculations. She kept pointing at a listing in the MLS where another unit in the complex had an electric tankless water heater. I bought one, we installed it and then (after installation) the electrician discovers it needed three 40amp breakers and there was no way we had room in the 125amp panel. So, I had to learn how to do load calculations, teach myself everything and explain at least 4 different times in 4 different ways to the homeowner why she could not have a tankless water heater. The only tankless that would have fit into the panel was a 1 person small point of use tankless. In the end, we had to pull out the tankless (yeah!!! Home Depot let me return it!!) and buy a small 40 gallon short regular tank water heater. And I forced the electrician to pull out the old one and install the new one for free because he should have caught the electrical issue earlier.
The compromise we had to make was going back to a tank water heater that only needs one 30amp circuit and removing two of the 240v wall heaters and changing them to more energy efficient 120v wall heaters in the bedrooms.
Owner had to move out Dec 28th into a VRBO. She is livid about the cost and hates the VRBO and emails or texts me at least twice a day wanting to know how we can speed things up. I keep explaining to her that drywall installation will take at least 1 1/2 weeks because we have to wait for the mud to dry, sand, mud again and do final sanding. The drywall guys are going to have to haul 104 sheets of drywall into the house for the job and are charging a big premium.
Then we have to prime the entire house and paint. That is going to take at least another 1 1/2 weeks. There’s just no way to make those 2 things go any faster.
And, meantime, we started having heavy rains about 2 weeks ago and have discovered that at least 4 windows in the house leak a lot. So, now we have to add a $20,000 new window replacement job to the list of things that have to get done and I’ve called in 3 companies and they are all saying 8 weeks for delivery and installation. Reason the cost is so high is because they have to carry huge windows up the 5 flights of stairs through the complex and install scaffolding on a neighbor’s patio to install. I told her there was no way my crew could do it.
We have gone over budget about $15k because we had to replumb and rewire the entire house. We did not realize this until that raised floor got pulled up and we discovered all the plumbing and wiring in the floor for everything that was traveling across the house. It took 3 weeks to replumb everything down below.
Right now I have a very upset, unrealistic client that does not understand anything. And to top it off, she cannot make a decision about anything and still wants more things wired into the house at the last minute. The City of Solana Beach is closed for a week for the holidays and we managed to still squeeze in passing 5 major inspections since the permit was approved 5 business days ago. We passed framing, plumbing, electrical, floor nailing and insulation in 4 days. That is a major victory.
On Thursday we will have all the showers waterproofed and the hot mop company has to carry a big bucket of tar up from the street, 7 flights of stairs to hot mop the new showers. And did I mention that we have to pour 2" thick concrete back into the floors downstairs where we had to rip it up to run new plumbing!!
Drywall starts next Monday
Oy! Double Oy!
God love you. As much as I love all things house related, I couldn’t do your job to save my life. I would have told off the client long, long ago and quit ; )
@coralbrook - wow, just wow! I don’t know how you are able to keep your cool dealing with a client like this.
Holy jeepers. Did she expect that the HOA would be jumping with joy at her remodel plans or that the city would issue her a permit as soon as she walks in the door and then will run after her to issue her a couple of extra permits just in case?! Passing all of those inspections in 4 days is a MIRACLE. Been there. 
Hang in there, CB. Happy new year to you. May it bring some good, less stressful clients.
Gee, @coralbrook, sorry your recent clients have been so challenging. Hope 2020 will bring more appreciative folks your way!
I think the biggest issue I’m dealing with is that the owner is a junior newbie real estate agent working for a very busy agent. This agent told her she would ‘help’ her. The boss agent is the one who ‘flipped’ the end unit back at the last La Jolla project. The one that took over a year to get done and STILL for sale 2 years later with multiple price drops. I would not call that a successful flip in my book.
This agent keeps telling the owner ‘you should use my painter, you need to buy these X appliances’ (after we have gone out and purchased the appliances). So I have to drop everything and start calling her painter or her appliance store and schedule all types of meetings to get nowhere fast. Meanwhile she cannot even make up her mind about things that should be ordered by now.
Any lessons to be learned? You kind of knew early on that she was being unrealistic about the move-in date.
You can liken the drywall having to take as long as it takes to a woman having a baby. It takes one woman nine months, but you can’t have nine women do it for one month each. Just. Doesn’t. Work.
UPDATE ON CC REMODEL FROM 2018
I’m off topic here, but the CC Remodel thread is closed. I wanted to report some happy news about the CC Remodel. That remodel was finished in April 2018.
When we started the project, the house was valued at about $850,000 to $900,000. The owners wanted to do the following in order to update their family home and add value. Here’s a recap of what we did:
Added about 200 sq ft bump out of kitchen / dining area into the back yard.
Enclose bonus room upstairs to make an extra bedroom
Legalize an enclosed office and bathroom that a prior owner had built over the garage
Add a powder room under the staircase
And then, of course, all new everything except the bedrooms and bathrooms.
So, we legally added about 350 square feet to the floor plan and added an additional bedroom and 1 1/2 baths. We estimated that the basic value per square foot added was adding about $150,000.
Fast forward one year and they decided they were going to sell the family home in San Diego area and move to Austin to be near their daughter and newly arriving grandchild. She was a little bummed because the house was now everything she had dreamed of.
Here’s the good news!!! The house is in a neighborhood where everything else was remodeled to early 2000s (think earth tones, cherry dark cabinets, travertine, beiges), because of a huge fire in the area. So their home was one of the few that had been recently updated. The kitchen had very high end appliances.
Their house sold last early fall in 5 days in a bidding war for $1,277,000 about 18 months after the completion. Great return for the investment of about $185,000.
Wow!!
Too bad you didn’t get a piece of that, coralbrook!
And they can use the receipts from CB’s remodel to adjust their cost basis!
Awesome news!! Austin is a nice place.
What a fun update! Thanks for sharing. Hopefully you have a way to capture recommendations from happy customers like that.
Found the sales listing: “Gorgeous remodel”. Other adjectives included in description: fabulous, stunning, stylish.
That was truth in advertising. ?
When we last left that project, everyone was begging for photos with the furniture, which wasn’t really back in the house yet. Since Marilyn found the sales listing she got to see it with some furniture in. I don’t think they took a very good photo of the powder room, no good photos of the really cool sliding window that opened from kitchen to the backyard and I really have to say that the house was prettier in real life. As compared to a lot of my flips and staging where the photos are really Wow compared to the reality?
Hello Y’ALL from Austin! I’m happy the CB has reported on the success of her remodel. We thought that we would stay in the house longer, and I was sad to leave it after the renovations turned out so well. After the remodel, the house had an indoor/outdoor feel, and I kept telling everyone that it felt like living in a resort. The listing photos are still up, and I agree that the folding window above the sink should have been included! That was one of my favorite new features.
We ended up receiving 5 written offers, two for the full list price, and three for $30-60K above list! I tried various ways of typing out the address to cloak it, but Google is getting smarter. If you want to see the listing, you can PM me. Or CB could add the pics to her Flickr account if she wishes (haha – I’m sure she doesn’t have much else to do!)
We had a great experience working with CB and her crew. She was conscientious, knowledgeable and had a ton of great ideas, and she was working on our house during a very difficult time for her personally. I am grateful for having found her on this site, and I wish we could have enjoyed it longer. Since we had lived in the house for 28 years, it was really hard to let go.
We are renting in Austin for the time being while scouting our neighborhoods and looking for a new house to buy. Is there another remodel in our future? We’ll see!