..we have Roof

..we have Roof

by | Mar 22, 2010 | Framing, Roofs, Room Additions, Target House

For those of you taking notes, I just completed step #4 in my standard order for major renovations.

Step#1 Demo

Step#2 Level the existing structures’ foundation

Step#3 Frame up new construction portion

Step#4 Put the roof on

As with any renovation the demo always comes first. Next, I always level the existing house’s foundation so I am starting with something straight before I add on. Thirdly, I frame up the new addition and then finally get the roof on so everything inside will now be dry. After the roof I’ll usually move towards getting the siding on which includes doors and windows then I can have my sub contractors come through and rough-in the electrical, plumbing and hvac. I like to have the house secure before new stuff goes in so this is my reasoning. You can see how the roof gable pops up moving backwards through the addition, this compensates for the interior steps keeping the same 9′ ceiling height throughout. 

After my usual price shopping all over town I ended up getting the 30-year roofing material at Lowes for $50/square.  If you are spending alot of money at Lowes or Home Depot have them send your quote to the “bid room.”  They’ll come back with another 10% off everytime. If you bring in a competitors quote they’ll beat it by 10%. In San Antonio if you can speak a little Spanish you can get a roofing laborer to put on a new layer for $20/square if you supply all the materials whereas roofing contractors charge over $160 with materials. I ended up throwing down about $80/square total after including all new flashings, tar paper and drip edges. I used my favorite color Estate Gray by Owens Corning, it goes with everything and looks rich. This isnt bad and less than half of what a homeowner would pay. This roof is 37 squares so the total price is around $4000 which is a great price for a 30-year shingle with all new metal and added ridge vents on a 2200 s.f. house.  Another rain storm caught the guys mid-way Saturday so we’re finishing it up Monday.

Framing and TV Deal

by | Mar 14, 2010 | Framing, Marketing, San Antonio Real Estate Market, Target House, Videos

After some last minute on-the-fly floor plan changes Thursday night from our architect Morgan at Dewitt, we finally got our material delivery Friday afternoon and my new framing crew got started. We really cut it close as she actually showed up to the job site with the new plans just hours before the framing started. These guys are very detail oriented and even cheaper than my last guy so I’m pretty stoked I found them.

Framing in San Antonio goes for about $3.00-3.50 per square foot for new construction if you deal directly with a sub contractor, in case you are wondering we negotiated $2.71 per foot for this project. In a day and a half they got the floor system done and all the walls up, all that’s left for Monday are the ceiling joists, rafters and decking.

The master has a cathedral ceiling and we are also doing a double-sided gas fireplace between the spa tub and master bedroom which are both new for us so its exciting. I’ll get the roofers over as soon as framing is done so we’ll be all “dried in” and then i can get started on the siding myself.

A Major TV production company in Hollywood that does all the good reality shows on TLC Network and HGTV contacted us this week about doing a reality show about house flipping. They found out about us evidently through our YouTube channel and got to my website.

It would be real cool to get our own show but unfortunately they are looking for someone doing a minimum of 10 houses per year, probably so they can film enough episodes. Theres been a real lack of good flip shows on TV lately, we really enjoy Flipping Out because Jeff Lewis does the larger spec deals like us and Property Ladder was always good because Kirsten Kemp the host is great and they also featured such a wide variety of different investors from pro to novice.

As far as the new Flip This House crews, Rudy in LA isn’t really doing it for us and the New Haven crew seems to be more focused now on selling courses online like Montelongo. It’s pretty flattering nonetheless to get approached anyway, maybe there will be a Property Ladder episode in our future?

We are still getting good showings at The Neighbor’s House and I feel the Spring buyers are just now getting out there now that we have great weather. In San Antonio, sales are off 4% year to date when compared to last year and inventories are slowly rising this year by about 100 houses per month.

After a closer MLS search for our general area, its apparent that there are tons more sales that are AO (under contract) or Pending right now so this figure should be improving for March.

Foundation Complete!

Foundation Complete!

by | Mar 7, 2010 | Concrete, Foundations, Room Additions, Target House

We had a buyer come back for a third time on the Neighbor’s House this week as well as tons of calls and another new showing. Nothing in writing yet so we are still patiently waiting.

I got alot done this week on the Target House, with another day rental on the Bobcat but this time with the 2 foot auger attachment I drilled the holes for the 28 piers. The City of SA wants to see them 2 feet deep with #4 rebar at the bottom of each hole. I found a new engineer that came out and inspected the footings before the concrete pour. My old guy tried to raise his prices from 400 to 600 bucks for the inspection but the new guy’s price is only 350 so I am happy. The City of SA doesn’t inspect foundations for room additions anymore themselves, it’s up to the builder to supply his or her own engineers cerificate to satisfy that portion of the building permit.

After the footings were finished Friday I placed all the piers on Saturday so now I am all ready for the framers to come in and knock this puppy out. I used 12″ sonitubes for the piers but the City only calls for 8″. For the small extra cost I just think it provides for a way better product with the larger diameter piers so I always upgrade. We hand mixed 48 bags on 4000 psi concrete and poured them to the top. I’ll lay the 4×6 treated sills (beams) across the top next week before the framers get started. Stay tuned, we’ll be showing you some cool videos of the whole framing process soon!

I Am Digging It

I Am Digging It

by | Feb 28, 2010 | Room Additions, Target House

With the use of a rented Bobcat this week I put a big dent in the backyard grading over at the Target House to get ready for the footings and piers on my new addition. My lot slopes up towards the back (again, 3rd house in a row) so I have to take away dirt in order to create space for the floor system and crawl space. The addition is 22 feet wide and goes back over 40 feet, I had to go down 3 feet deep on the driveway side so the finished subfloor is above driveway level. Additionally the plans incorporate 3 steps up into the master suite so the structure can stay above grade for drainage and ventilation issues.

I’ve learned that there’s always engineering involved on a project like this, its not as simple as just drawing up a floorplan. One of these days hopefully I’ll get to add onto a house where the backyard actually slopes down so there wont be any digging. A big dead pecan tree was also right in the way and had to go bye-bye. My plans are ready, permits pulled, as soon as I can get these piers finished we can frame up this new 800+ s.f. in no time and put the new roof on.

Target Framing plus…New Site Coming Soon

by | Feb 7, 2010 | Framing, Target House

We had a really wet and dreary week but I still managed to squeak in some good showings at The Neighbor’s House and get started on the interior reframing of Target House.

I had initially wanted to jump straight into some work on the bobcat grading the backyard for the room addition but the weather just wasn’t on my side. It’s nice though to see the existing house all opened up and our floorplan changes really make the home modern and functional now.

It was a big deal for me to commit to not having arches throughout this project as I’ve become really attached to them as most of you know, but with the prominent existing built-in having a square cased out opening, the arches would have clashed majorly.

After framing up all the openings this week I am really feeling the square lines now, another good call from our architect, DeWitt. Our website is getting switched over to WordPress as we speak and will be a true blog and allow interaction with our visitors through RSS feeds, comments and also be way easier for me to do updates.

With a full work week and toddler it was getting really hard to keep up with our web updates so now this should make our (my wife’s) lives much easier. Stay tuned for the new site and more updates!