Wow on the El Cajon house!
That house is incredible. Future roommates will also need to be wealthy to rent there.
Wait until all the students have to attend from home because they just aren’t behaving themselves (assume this is SDSU). It will end up as a party house. 
Very nice house, but that kitchen is a lotta brown!
It’s worth $1.3 million – wow! When my son was a grad school, we bought a house for him to live in. It cost $95,000. (We held it until he got his degree and then sold it at a small profit.)
I met with the husband/wife owners of the El Cajon Adobe house while they were out from Texas for the Inspections during Escrow. Luckily the Seller was very nice and let me do a full walkthrough with the new owners. She basically pointed at everything and wanted it redone, except the little powder room by front door which has that adorable mexican sink. That is staying intact
I kept asking her… Are you sure you don’t want to start this project after your son moves out? Why do you want to remodel all this stuff while they are living here?? And then I said 'You realize that we have to get in here and and start demolishing and gutting things at 8am to 4pm??? How are we supposed to work around the tenants?" Husband answered “They are living here for free!!! They can jolly well get their butts up and out by 8am” I’ll believe it when I see it
Right now we are going in three phases:
Phase 1 - Gut and renovate the studio apartment above the garage. Honestly it’s fine for those kids, they are going to be using it as ‘work space’. But, oh well, new everything. $18k
Phase 2 - Pull up carpet and flooring out of main house living areas, new flooring and paint interior, paint out the dark pine ceilings, fix some windows. Paint out a lot of oak cabinets and hand rails. New baseboards, new lighting, new door hardware.
Gut and renovate laundry room bath $22k
Phase 3 - Gut and renovate master bathroom, master bedroom, new kitchen, new flooring kitchen / family room $36k
I guess these kids are moving from room to room while this goes on
cb, can they move into the studio above the garage while you work on the rest of the house?
That house has alot of parquet flooring and flooring laid on the diagonal (two things I can’t stand)!
That house must have good views of the forest fire right now - except probably obscured by smoke.
How are you logistically going to do two jobs at once? Hire additional crew?
Wow! Seems like a lot of house and view for the price, but they are right that the flooring, kitchen and master bath have to go. Hope they are keeping the beams as they are, even if painting the ceilings. Love the adobe fireplaces but they probably don’t get much use there. What’s the little building on the patio? Pool bath?
El Cajon Adobe
Yes, the parquet floors are weird. Seller put in brand new carpeting in dining room, living room and family room. At first we were going to sand them down and refinish. But I think they don’t really match the house and are really a little too ‘busy’. So I think we are putting in new wide plank hardwood floors everywhere
I asked what the strange little room on deck was. They don’t know. Maybe a potting shed
I was very honest to the owners that I was in the middle of a big job in Ocean Beach and I’m going to have to squeeze in their work on the side. But I think it’s doable because the major part of the work right now is painting and flooring. Those subs are not working in OB yet. I’m the one that is going to have to run back and forth
For the ceilings, we are going to paint out the ceiling portion and leave the big beams natural. The big decision is whether to paint the inside of the wood windows or leave them natural. If we leave them natural (which we are leaning towards) there’s a lot of work to sand and refinish all that wood
On Monday we begin the demo of the big studio over garage. I’ll take more pics for the photo group
@coralbrook, are you going to load the pictures for both houses on the same link, or will you be starting a new one?
"Are you sure you don’t want to start this project after your son moves out? " - My thoughts exactly!!
Not sure what these parents are thinking. But I have a pretty good guess that the kiddo drives a fancy car too.
I think I will have two different photo groups for the projects. I’ll set up the Adobe house group next week
Wow—that’s a lovely house! Can’t believe it was bought for students—nothing like living in luxury while attending school. Yes, looks like it will be a great party house.
I just found out that Mom (big time trade lawyer) is coming into town next week and I will be meeting with her for design decisions. So I guess she stays in this house while in San Diego. Not sure if there’s even a bed set up in the master bedroom since they just closed escrow last Thursday
So how did a big time trade lawyer from Texas who can afford an expensive home for a college kid get your name? Are you now nationally renowned? Huzzah!
I could sell her our inflatable queen mattress - for a premium!
The magic is always my real estate agent that I have worked with over 10 yrs. she has been working with this buyer for about 4 months to find a house in San Diego. They were in escrow on a beautiful mid century modern in La Mesa but escrow fell through. I helped the buyer to estimate remodel costs on some other properties, remotely. We did not meet until the El Cajon property. My agent recommended me and I don’t think she looked any further. She probably saw some of my other projects and we clicked well at our walkthrough.
This is the 4th or 5th big remodel that she has referred. I probably owe her a referral fee!
Or… maybe the mom of college student follows your house flip threads 
Actually, she’s probably thrilled that you keep her clients happy and make her look good. A person as talented as you is a treasure—no question!