Day 1: Offer Accepted!

Exterior of 32nd snagged from MLS.

Day 3: Developmental Services

If you ever wanted to know what the City of San Diego Developmental Services cubical looks like, wonder no more. The step of buyer due diligence: Parcel information checklist. It took the guy a few minutes to figure out what I needed due to the fact I was asking for a “Preliminary Site Review”. whoops.

Parcel information checklists will give you a high-level understanding of what’s going on with the property. Zoning, setbacks, height limits, utilities overlay, transportation overlay, special conditions.

Day 4: Measure the existing structure

Exterior view from 32nd. Thanks to Ken Wu for the images!

Chris from Lloyd’s studio helped measure the property so we can quickly draft a model.

Stairs leading to front entrance.

The front patio has an amazing curved trellis.

Cool plants in the side yard.

East facing view of the mountains.

Neighborhood welcoming committee.

Chris’ notes from the day.

An early draft of the existing structure. Thanks Juan!

Day 5: Early Concept

Early sketch. As lloyd said it… “this is your house”

To help the existing structure better relate to the proposed addition, a parapet is added by extending the exterior walls that continue above the line of the roof. Additionally, the parapet will serve as a handrail for the rooftop deck.

the preferred tool in the studio: flimsy.

Day 6: Visualizing the massing
To get a very rough idea what the massing could look like, I quickly work over the existing structure and ballpark the addition using photoshop. it’s not terribly accurate, but it’s good enough to get the gist.

Day 9: Rough Numbers
Given the type of financing we’re trying to secure, much of the process has been accelerated to help satisfy the requirements of the bank. We need to quickly rough out a scope of work that’s needed for the proposed addition and cost to cure of the existing structure. Typically, a general contractor would review finished drawings in order to accurately scope the amount of work. However, in our case, lots of experience and a little creativity go a long way.

Lloyd put together a package that consisted of the photoshop rendering and proposed floor plans.

Handwaving starts and early numbers are thrown out based on prior work. Open questions are addressed, timing, size, materials, etc.

The art of negotiation moves from the table to the sofa.

You won’t see numbers until you show the details… So, Lloyd took a crack at the high-level items such as footings, masonry, framing, plumbing, electrical, bathroom, kitchen, etc.

Day 12: Saturday at the studio

Based on Vernon’s map, we (ok, lloyd) started to rough out a siteplan for the model. We cut a piece of 1/2″ MDF that included the property line, alley and street. Measured and penciled out the existing footprint, proposed addition, and setbacks.

Step 1 Many careful(!) cuts on the table and chop saws… with a little sanding….pieces of MDF glued together to create the mass. Many, many trips back and forth between the saw, sander and site plan to fit the pieces together. Repeat

I’m not terribly fast as this took me hours to make. Mostly turning the scale to find 1/8″. But you start to learn about the proportions and what the slope of the property is doing. Pen = Palm tree.

Week 15: Short sale Approved!
Short sales are a waiting game. Finally we are clear to close on the house.

Week 16: Phase 1 Design
Last update was back in June. It’s October and the short sale is coming to a close. A lot of work has been done in the meantime on the phase 1 details which includes the main house. Due to some flooding the basement. Looks like we’ll demo the garage from the start to fix the west foundation.

Here’s the scheme. Major props to Lloyd and Keith for getting us to this point. Keith has taught me a lot of sketchup tricks.

P1: Kitchen Details
To satisfy our loan requirements, we need to make the house ‘livible’ by adding a kitchen and bathroom within 30 days, really 27 so the bank can come out to review the work completed. This work is paid out of pocket. No real chance to get a loan for the funds unless we opted for the 203K loan, but mortgage insurance applies… it’s non-negotiable.

Anyway, lots of other stuff needs to happen at the same time so we’re not duplicating efforts in the future.

We’ll go with an open floor plan to provide maximum flexibility for the seating area. This cuts down on counter space, but we’ll use the table for added support.

Our fridge will go along the wall with floor-to-ceiling cabinets. We’re planning to do a backsplash behind the sink in green glass…. possibly do the uppers in green glass to pull in some color… if we do the uppers in green, we may as well do the counters in green too. That’s a nice look.