Getting Sideways in Clairemont

Getting Sideways in Clairemont

Its a big remodeling week at the Clairemont project, we are getting sideways today with a new Modern Horizontal Fence made of Clear Redwood. It will be around 42″ finished height, we didn’t want to block the house from the street but rather grab this nice area close to the house and fence it in for kids to safely play. Most of the landscape will be Xeriscape but this front area will get sod on irrigation.

Clairemont real estate agent

We completed all the backyard hardscape also, my design is a big patio right off the living room pre-plumbed with a gas line for outdoor fire pit, square stepping pads and a smaller rectangle patio off the master bedroom. No sod back here, all Xeriscape. There will be another Horizontal wood fence to add some protection from the canyon critters but only 36″ high so as not to take away from the expansive views.

Green Button Homes

The interior paint is now cpmplete. We went with Behr Dolphin Fin Grey for the walls and Sherwin Williams Snowbound for the trims. My new painter kicked ass and completed the whole inside in 2 days with a 5 man crew. The kitchen cabinet install is underway, we opted for White Shaker, Quartz countertops and an island with waterfall slab. It’s looking really sophisticated yet “Beachy”, cant wait to see the wire brushed light colored matte finish flooring we picked out go in this weekend.

Clairemont home buyer

Stay tuned to see the Flooring, Tile Jobs and Exterior paint! Call for a cash offer, Sell your house with No real estate agent.

Santee Wrap-Up

Santee Wrap-Up

This Santee project comes to a bittersweet end. The Santee real estate market is as hot as the weather here. It was 8 long weeks of renovation, we were hit with multiple rain delays, material mis-orders, and unexpected mishaps but we finally brought her over the finish line and it’s now active on the market and for sale, ready for a new family. The list price is $549,000 and its listed for sale at MLS#170009540. The previous owners of this santee real estate sold this house direct to us As-Is and paid No Realtor Commissions or Closing Costs. We make it easy to Sell a San Diego House!

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This project got a new roof, stucco, windows, doors, complete paint, new kitchen, baths, flooring and landscaping. Santee Real estate median price is $545,000.

Santee realtor

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The kitchen came out really nice. We used the Grey Shaker cabinets again but this time with Oil Rubbed Bronze hardware. The Quartz countertops and zero-radius sink gave it a contemporary feel. My favorite is the reclaimed wood look kitchen floor tile.

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The high ceilings in the living room provide for a real refreshing feeling and the light cascades in from all angles with abundant windows bringing in the view to surrounding mountains.

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I continued the Grey Shaker cabinets in Santee into the bathroom as well. If you guys are painting your home in brown tones you are really behind the curve. Grey is the New Beige in Home Design and real estate right now and is really On Trend.

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The Sputnik Has Landed

The Sputnik Has Landed

 

 Ok I admit it, this is the fun part. Well, its actually all fun but once you get past walls and floors you get to put the small details that really bring your design together. I am proud to say that I haven’t bought any of the fixtures, plumbing or electrical, for our Mid-Century Modern renovation from the big box stores.

With the exception of the tub and 2 Kohler toilets everything I researched and bought online. You can find great deals and usually get free shipping as well. At the end of the project I’ll do a list of where all the fixtures came from and how much they cost for future reference. You can see the brushed aluminum mid century hourglass shaped wall sconces in the kitchen, the 12″ white globe and of course the Sputnik pendant light.

The kitchen cabinets are Abstrakt from Ikea, once the side panels and doors arrive these plain white boxes will transform into a futuristic flat panel high-gloss dark grey masterpiece. My new kitchen lay out is fabulous, it worked out to 24′ of linear counter top space plus a 7′ bar top and a stand up food pantry to boot. The sink wall itself is a 13′ straight shot of open counter.

 

 

 

 

 

  

Furthermore, the bedrooms received modern style brushed aluminum frosted glass closet doors. Not only do these tie into the frosted glass and aluminum outside but they are just plain cool. Accent lights inside the closet would have been keen but maybe we’ll do that on the next project. These doors were special order from Home Depot.

I also got all the tile finished and set the Godmorgan high gloss grey floating vanities. On top I went with Kohler Vox square vessel sinks. I’ll do the Pure White Caesarstone counters that will contrast those dark cabinets well at the same time the kitchen counters get done.

One of the main features on my design to get the Mid-Century Modern look was this Amarr full view frosted glass and aluminum garage door. Cant you picture it softly lit up at night from inside the garage when you are having guests over? My electrician told me that it make the house look like a Ferrari should be parked in the garage.

A very cool item for sure that I got a great hook up on from my neighbor who owns a garage door company. I also put a key pad outside so when you go bike riding or jogging you don’t have to bring your keys with you. You’ll notice that when we did the new stucco I added a 1″ wide horizontal aluminum channel that now ties in on the front of the garage.

The San Diego real estate market is hot right now. There’s virtually a shortage of good homes and all time low interest rates. You cant find a Mid Century Modern renovation anywhere like this for sale, so its safe to say I’m in a good position. Many home buyers will of course like the house but not even get the whole concept.

The smaller, educated group who follow design trends and know how hot MCM is right now will certainly be willing to pay a premium for something like this already completely done. Stay tuned as we move into landscaping and more modern touches outside.

Black Subway & Clear Fir

Black Subway & Clear Fir

All I have to say is go with your first instincts. I really wanted to do the backsplash in black ceramic 3″ x 6″ subway tile to match the absolute black granite countertops but white would have been a safer bet for resale. I came real close to chickening out and doing white, but am glad I took the chance and got to try something new in the kitchen.  I’m really happy with how it came out and I got the look I was going for. I’m planning on switching out the plugs, switches and cover plates to black as well. For me, the white grout and the square profile on the granite slabs really makes it.  Once I get the under cabinet lights in there going to be quite the neat reflection going on. I used the Domsjo Farmhouse apron sink from Ikea again, and as you regular blog followers know we’ve put them in all of our historic renovations. You cant beat the price at $299.

We shopped around this week for hardwood floor refinishers and ended up going with Geary Floors here in San Diego. They are charging $2.50/ s.f. for a pretty nice job. I found slightly less expensive prices but knew these guys do good work and its pretty important to me that we get a good job upstairs so I didn’t want to take any chances. You can see the 100-year-old Douglas Fir floors upstairs came out way better than I expected. I decided to not add any stain color and go “clear” with the refinishing job. The distressed look matches well with the house and adds a lot of character. This wood is the old 5″ wide long leaf style with standing grain. We are staining the stairs however to try and get them close to matching my hand scraped and distressed engineered wood floors downstairs. I’m officially now over budget, not bad considering the scope of work and the appliances are already paid for and standing by for delivery. Most of whats left now is outside which we plan on attacking this week. Stay tuned as we button her up and really add the missing small touches…

Countertop Envy

Countertop Envy

Another sweet milestone..On Saturday with the help of a friend we picked up and installed the granite and marble slab countertops in the kitchen and both baths. You can see in the pic I still need to install the backsplashes, but we got all the tops in and the bar top server on the kitchen pass-through. I went with Absolute Black for the kitchen to contrast the white cabinets. As a general design rule in rehabbing you always go dark, light, dark or the opposite in the kitchen meaning: dark floors, light cabinets then back to dark counters. The opposite would be light floors, dark wood cabinets then light colored counters. I think the black and white with grey walls looks real crisp and modern while still period sensitive, you can’t go wrong with this combo. Any future homeowner could switch out the wall colors and anything would still look good. Another flip tip to keep in mind is that you must have good lighting in the kitchen if you want to do black counters, but in this case we have under cabinet lights pre wired and with recessed lighting, abundant natural light and the pendants I’ll be hanging over the bar it won’t be an issue. Black counters can make a room look small as well but since I’ve opened everything up it works for me. I chose White Carrera Marble for the bathrooms, it looks a little more feminine and with the grey veining through it, ties in perfectly with our wall color. This is the first time I’ve used the white marble and I’m loving the way it looks. I cant wait to see it with the white sinks and chrome hardware.

I’ve received a lot of reader mail over the years asking about how I get my granite for so cheap. We started doing this method back in California, the granite industry has been revolutionized for people in the know. Yea, you can still pay $40/s.f. to the big dogs in town or mid $30’s to the big box stores for granite slab but this method gets er’ done for under $12.00 per square foot. These 8′ x 24″ slabs are pre-fabricated in China where labor is cheap and then shipped to the states. The material still comes from all around the world but it’s sent to China to get cut down, polished and bull nosed. For an 8 foot section I am paying $160.00. That’s $10/ square foot, then add a couple more bucks for materials and it still ends up pretty inexpensive.

Ask around for “pre fabricated” or “pre bullnosed” granite slabs. They always come from China. When we first moved to San Antonio you couldn’t get them here so we’d drive to Houston to pick then up. Here in San Antonio the company who carries them is called Builders Mark . They have about 30 colors in stock to pick from as well as bar tops, peninsulas, backsplashes and islands. You still have to put them in yourself, maybe I’ll do a “how to” video for the DIY’ers out there one day. They sell to the public but also give contractor discounts. Real stone slab counters boost the resale value of your rehab, along with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops are top of the wish list for homebuyers in today’s market.