We are moving along with our big project. Yesterday we started tearing off the roof. Looking at the weather forecast I should have at least 10 days to try to get some kind of cover back up on that roof. We are under the gun to get things shored up quickly because I want the guys to have some time off around Christmas. Last thing we need is a major rainstorm coming through Christmas weekend and everyone has to scramble out there to cover things up.
This coming weekend is a field trip with the owner to select appliances so we can move forward with designing the kitchen. I need a kitchen design in order to start running plumbing and electrical. I am going to guess that it will take weeks for decisions on appliances because it already took her 3 weeks just to pick a shower valve I need to install in the downstairs bathroom. After all the run around she purchased the one I recommended to begin with.
One of the issues I have with both my current clients is that they don’t seem to come alive until after 8pm or on Sundays, because they work. So, late nights and Sundays are spent with a lot of texts, emails, questions and me shopping for stuff and sending them links to select from.
What??? I can imbed photos inside the replies/posts?? I had no idea. Wow, this is going to get much easier and maybe I can stop paying an annual ‘professional’ fee at the photo sharing site!!! Or… I’m allowed to post the link to the photos??
@coralbrook honestly, it looks like you are building a whole new house sort of on top of the current one. Is that how folks deal with these kinds of rebuilds in CA…just keep a little of what was there and do a BIG addition and remake of the current house?
In Southern California (not sure about Central or Northern California), we have to deal with the Coastal Commission. If an existing home in the ‘coastal zone’ modifies more than 50% of the existing exterior walls, the plans have to be submitted and approved through the Coastal Commission. That can literally take up to a year. So nearly every single remodel you see is a hilarious skeleton of existing exterior walls (some poorly built or termite ridden) meshed up for new plans. Every new opening for a window or door, or wall torn out in order to build a ‘balloon wall’ for staircase or something count in the 50% modified.
Homes that are calculated within 100 ft of the ocean have even stricter requirements. Something like you can only add up to 10% of existing square footage before you have to go through Coastal Commission.
In our case we have a new opening in front for the small addition, new opening for front door, 14 ft of east wall opening up for a staircase and the back wall torn off for back addition. We moved the back kitchen door 3 ft over and that new opening counts against our 50% but we don’t get any credit for closing up a doorway.
I cannot believe that I have not provided an update for a month. So sorry. I am drowning in details and too much work on both projects. Forgot to take a lot of pictures along the way and have been focused on trying to pass building inspections. I’m having huge huge issues trying to get special orders. Windows and doors went from 3 week lead time and it’s now 11 weeks and I am still trying to track them down! Then I went out of town for 2 weeks.
PROGRESS:
All of the framing, strapping, plumbing and electrical is done for the first floor.
Sub floor has been laid for 2nd floor
Stairs finished to 2nd floor and now we can see tremendous huge views. Views are north to all of Mission Bay, Northwest to La Jolla coastline and West to Ocean Beach pier. I had to get up there and carefully plan the windows for the west wall to capture the views perfectly. Ordered them and they will hold up completion of 2nd floor, but I am glad I waited and didn’t order windows off the paper plans
BUDGET:
We are up to $145,000 spent
Last week I did detailed calculations to come up with Estimate to Complete. We are going to run over original estimate by close to $20,000. But I know exactly where it was spent:
Reroute all original plumbing under the house in order to build new stem wall
Reroute external gas line that was running under area of back addition
Huge amount of rebuilding original house due to termite damage
Almost $2,500 spent trying to repair/replace original subfloor because it had to be torn apart
And then, just as we were trying to add 12" rim around the original house to raise ceilings to 9ft, we discovered that the house was sinking in a corner and we had to fix that and then try to level the rim around house
And, owners are asking for some upgrades along the way
I will try to be more diligent on reporting updates. Photos loaded
One of the key things that is causing me to work 7 days a week is that both clients (Ocean Beach and El Cajon) work during the week and they come alive at nights and weekends. Totally understandable.
The Ocean Beach owner must get some kind of Costco email with sales every week. On Saturdays she starts bombarding with texts and emails like this:
“There is a sale on Fiddle Leaf plants at Costco. Do you think I should buy these (includes 3 links) to build a hedge to block the neighbor house?” What the hey??? We are 4 months away from even being able to walk into the house. Who cares about Fiddle Leaf plants? Not to mention, they are indoor only. I reply that Fiddle Leaf are indoor plants and she wants to know where I recommend that she put them in the house.
I am spending almost 25% of my time trying to help her visualize where her furniture placement is going to be. Cannot get any decisions on where to place the lighting because she doesn’t really know what dining room table or where dining room table is going to go. I just put up wiring for the dining room light where I think it should be and I will deal with it later. We have to keep moving to get them moved into the house.
The majority of photos she is loading to our Houzz Ideabook are landscaping and patio ideas, or absurdly expensive 10,000 sq ft kitchens. I can guarantee that they are going to run out of money long before a plant ever gets installed outside. It’s one of those projects that is just going to have to be in the future.
Thanks for the update @coralbrook! Keep the photos coming. Covid did wreck the supply chains, and the sanctions did not help either. Everyone I know who is doing home improvement projects or lab construction is complaining that things move like molasses… any permits linger like forever. Hope for a smooth sailing for you this year.
Maybe it would help to write a brief reply about your timeline and supply chain issues and just cut and paste it over and over. Every time she delays making a decision by one week she will move back your completion date by two to four weeks.
I’m having trouble getting our builder to agree to order things well in advance of when he usually does. We’re paying cash on a cost+ project and can arrange for conditioned storage. Yes, there will be some added expense to move things from storage to the site, but I’d rather do that and know that what we need is on hand when it’s needed. I keep reading complaints on Houzz by people who have been waiting six to nine months for appliances and other things.
Your client needs to get real about this environment. Better to get the house done and then tweak some things in a year or two (or five.)
If we had the luxury of conditioned storage, or even unconditioned storage, I would definitely encourage getting anything way ahead of time. At this project we don’t even have enough room in garage because owners moved all their stuff in there. Right now we are rushing to get a roof on back addition so that we can start storing appliances, etc that are going to start showing up. But I draw the line at house plants coming 4 months early!!
Over at the El Cajon Adobe we are in the midst of a $25,000 mini split install throughout the house. I’m subcontracting that out but have to go over there every day to make decisions on how and where to run all the lines. In order to get wiring for the compressors all over the place, we had to pull out all the 240 wall heaters. Now we have a big patching and painting job.
But speaking of appliances…starting the kitchen design for a full kitchen remodel away from the brown oak kitchen. First time working in a somewhat “money is no object” environment. We are focused on selecting appliances first and you just have to see the range purchased from Italy.
Glad you don’t have to scavenge for appliances!