Skinny legs, old yellow dress

Skinny legs, old yellow dress

by | May 14, 2011 | Foundations, Painted Lady, San Diego Real Estate Market, Victorian House

So we finally got started this week on the huge foundation repair in which we are completely leveling the house and adding a new perimeter concrete stem wall. Before this huge stem wall can be formed and poured, we had to level the house and dig the 24″ trench around the sides. The house was only 2″ off at the most so the leveling was easy and we got the entire house within 1/4″ with a digital level going from one side to the other.  I hired a foundation guy who has worked for me in the past even though I had a cheaper bid from a new guy, I just felt it’s such an important part of the rehab and I didn’t want to go down that road with a new sub contractor, especially on my first project back in San Diego. The only downside was I had to wait for him to finish another job so it slowed me down a bit. I’m not sure that I would have wanted to be under this huge house with jacks on a Friday the 13th! The next step now will be to set all the wood forms for the stem wall and tie all the rebar inside per building code.

My sub contractor has been doing foundations for over 25 years so he’s got cool little tricks to make things easier for himself. I always enjoy learning these little tidbits from a true experienced professional in their field. As you can see here he’s got the outside of my house sitting on “sacrificial homemade screw jacks” we made out of 3/4″ galvanized pipe with 5/8″ all-thread inside and nuts and washers for the adjustments. Once everything is level he uses these jacks to hang the rebar on, and they’ll actually remain inside the new 8″ wide concrete stem wall permanently. Inside the trench they are sitting on small 8″ pier blocks, additionally he’ll hang the j-bolts from the new treated bottom plates so the house will be anchored to the new stem wall once its poured. It’s looks crazy to see this huge, heavy house sitting on these skinny legs but most of the weight is actually on the beams underneath a short distance away. Hopefully by the end of this week we’ll have the forms built and new foundation poured so we can get on to the framing.  After the framing I’ll do the roof, plumbing, hvac and electric. Everyone is ready to go for these trades so stay tuned as things shall move along a little faster soon. I pulled off some of the Sears metal siding that’s probably been on the house since the 70’s and as I guessed, the original 1909 ship lap wood was in perfect preserved condition with only one coat of faded yellow paint.  I’m pretty stoked as this could have gone either way with what I was going to find under there. On a side note, I had to rent a temporary construction fence this week to keep out the local kids who’ve evidently adopted the house as their local hang out at night. Every morning I’ve arrived to small surprises such as spilled ice cream, candy and even an egging. While nothings been stolen, construction sites are just not safe places to play so for the first time I’ve had to go on total lock down. This flimsy fence wouldn’t have kept me out 30 years ago but it gives me a little more piece of mind now knowing it’s not wide open.

Remodeling Plans & Permitting

Remodeling Plans & Permitting

by | Apr 28, 2011 | Floorplans, Painted Lady, San Diego Real Estate Market, Victorian House

After hearing all the horror stories about how hard it is to work with the City of San Diego with regards to permitting your rehab project I have to say that it really isn’t that bad. After designing my floorplan on graph paper I hired a draftsman to put it together for me. Since my company is the owner of the house I’m able to pull an owner/builder “Combo Permit” myself without being a licensed GC.

I actually found my draftsman’s number on a bandit sign believe it or not, and he’s doing drafting work while putting himself through architecture school downtown. A real smart young guy and his price was great at $700 for a full set of plans showing all mechanicals, framing, foundation, connections, elevations and it even included him to accompany me downtown to submit the plans for approval. It’s always good to have your architect go with you because sometimes they let you make changes on the spot. Here’s my boy making changes to the 3 sets of plans during our appointment.

In order to submit the plans I had to provide 3 complete sets, the County building records and 4 photos of the house, one from each side as well as the jpeg images on disc. Once you arrive downtown you check in with the receptionist and tell them you are there for an over-the-counter permit and plan check. They do take appointments but I opted to just go early in the morning and wait as they open at 7:30.

 

 

First you get sent to a preliminary desk that makes sure you have everything you need, then they send you across the building to wait for plan checking. The plan checking is very intensive and I found it to be completely opposite than in Texas. Here they look at every little detail, framing connections and sizes, mechanical placement, setbacks, elevations, demo plans, structural, and even smoke alarm/CO2 placement.

Additionally, there are all these other disclosures you have to show on your plans, you even have to designate trash areas, concrete clean out areas and account for storm water run off with regards to keeping your debris on your lot in case of a downpour. In Texas to the contrary, the City didn’t even want to look at the plans but rather left the responsibility up to the inspectors as they went through for rough-in and final inspections to make sure everything is correct.

It’s a little more red tape up front here but at the end of the day its easier to build it once you have such detailed plans for all your subcontractors to refer to. All in all, we had a great experience with our plan checker and even learned that we can request her in the future if we want to. On the second visit downtown we got stamps on the plans showing approval but now we have to wait the mandatory 10-day historical department review.

The only item on my plans that’s still unclear is with regards to what type of siding they are going to request for the new rear portion of the house. Total cost for the permitting and plan check was about $2700. A far cry from what would have cost $300 in San Antonio.

While we wait for the historical department approval I’ll have my foundation guy start doing some prep work so we are ready to start leveling the house the day we get the permit. With the arrival of dumpster #4 yesterday, all of the big demo work is done minus pulling nails and some small framing stuff which we’ll do at the time I frame the master suite.

 

 

I’m still spending a lot of time getting bids from sub contractors, its always one of the most important parts of any project but once I get my team in place on this first project, then I can just improve from there. It’s a lot of work acting as your own GC and now I’m essentially starting over without all my valuable San Antonio contacts but with a good team of subs I’ll be able to really stretch my budget thus enabling me to compete in this competitive market.

Hammer Time

by | Apr 24, 2011 | Demolition, Floorplans, Painted Lady, Victorian House

Victorian House Remodel San Diego

Feels great to be back doing what I love, creating new spaces, and most of all home in San Diego. We spent all week doing demo on The Painted Lady, with 3 laborers I gutted just about the entire house, maybe only a half day left and we’ll be done. I filled nearly (3) 40-yard roll off dumpsters at $427.00 each. I was really worried that we weren’t going to be able to get the dumpsters into the back yard, having to put them on a public street is a pain in the butt as you have to have a permit. My only other choice was paying someone with a dump truck to drive the loads to the dump one by one. This would have been very time consuming and costly.

The house is huge inside, I am really excited and can see the final product already. Next up on deck after the demo is done is the foundation work, then I’ll be ready to re-frame the back of the house and put the new roof on. So far it seems sub contractor prices are not that much higher than I was paying in Texas, although I still haven’t nailed down a good electrical or plumbing contractor. Here’s a walk through video so you can see this great floor plan.

 

New Project – The Painted Lady

New Project – The Painted Lady

by | Apr 15, 2011 | Painted Lady, San Diego Real Estate Market, Victorian House

74 days after arriving home in sunny San Diego we’ve finally bought our first rehab project, The Painted Lady. I’m real excited about it, she’s a 1909 Folk Victorian Gingerbread. The house is located in an Urban Redevelopment neighborhood just 1 mile from Petco Park and Downtown, with incredible views of the Coronado Bridge and all the way to Tijuana.

There are original hardwood floors under the carpet, 10 foot ceilings, and a lot of original details still intact. This is a huge project and needs just about everything a rehab could require. I’ll be leveling the foundation by adding a new perimeter stem wall and 40 new footings, new roof, re-framing a 360 square foot master suite on the back, replacing all the mechanicals, new kitchen, 2.5 new baths including adding a half bath under the staircase, some new windows and complete landscaping and fencing with an automatic gate on the alley. The house has aluminum siding that’s probably been on there since the 70’s. I peeked underneath it and there’s fiber shingles probably from the 50-60’s . Under the shingles I found the original wood board and bat siding which I’ll expose and also add some of the missing period details like the gingerbread ornamentation and porch decoration the Victorians are famous for.

The Victorian era began in the 1830’s and ran until roughly 1940. Our house is a Folk Victorian, more simple in design than the ornate Gothic or Italianate Victorians, and was usually built more modestly for the middle class. I’m excited to see the scalloped shingles under the gables which I’ll paint multi-color and the decorative gable bracket. This architecture can really hold color well so I’m planning on using a minimum of 6 bold colors to bring her back to life. I’ve done a lot of Craftsman style houses but this will be my first Victorian and only the second 2-story house we’ve rehabbed. With the huge scope of this project it will be a perfect welcome home project and enable me to become reacquainted with the City permitting, historical and inspection departments this summer as well as dial in my sub contractor team. If you can’t see the potential in what we have here, Google “Painted Ladies San Francisco” and you can get an idea of where I’m going with this project. Stay tuned for demo and a walk through design video!