Inspiration

Here's a style I'm thinking about deploying in my kitchen:
I really like the simple, clean lines of the cabinet detail, and the dark wood is brightened by light color counters, floors and backsplash (not to mention adequate lighting). It's a nice blend of modern and traditional, so I think my little house will be able to pull it off. My only concern is if having the dark wood in the really small space will make it look too cramped. The kitchen is quite sunny, so it might work out fine.

Planning, planning, planning and more planning

Locked in my interest rate today, so that's one item to check off the stress-inducing tasks list. I'm not going to allow myself to fret about it anymore. The lending market is super-crazy right now and I know that it'll be better at some point in the future and when it is, I will make changes if necessary and advantageous. So there! Mortgage nightmares be gone!

This means I need to get down to the business of really planning all the work that needs to be done to my little house. I met Contestant #3 at the house last night. He's the contractor I had come out to look at the house before I even made an offer. He can talk the hind leg off a mule, but he's a good guy. However, after an hour with him, he says that he'd still need to do a walk through with all his sub contractors before he can generate a bid. Boooooo!

He'd already seen the property and we'd talked about the work necessary to bring it up to code as well as some other improvements the first time he was out there. I even sent him my RFP in advance thinking he'd review it before he got there. Not so much. I decided that he's probably not likely to be a finalist, so I told him I'd have him come back with his subs after I take ownership since it's not exactly convenient for Nora to come up from Saratoga to RWC all the time.

I have a feeling that I'm going to go with contestant #1. He has done work in Nora's house, which is a referral in itself, and his ballpark number is VERY attractive. I have yet to see a formal bid from him, so I'll decide once I do.

On a positive note, it looks like the floors are worth salvaging if they don't need to be ripped up for the foundation work. Bonus that a friend who recently remodeled her house has offered me some 1920's red oak floor planks rescued from her house. I sure hope they are the right size to do a little patching here and there. There probably is not enough to do the whole kitchen floor, but my tiny little house might be in luck!

One thing is very certain at this point: the day I get the keys will see me out there raking up apples from the back yard. The stench of rotting apples is powerful indeed, and that doesn't even begin to address the mushy mess.

Holding Pattern

It's been a few days with no real action. After a flurry of initial activity, I'm in a bit of a holding pattern until the close of escrow when I can actually start moving on getting stuff done. I'm waiting for bids from the two contractors I met last week, and am meeting a third contractor out at the property tomorrow night.

My financing plans have changed, so my plan of attack has changed too. With all the turmoil going on in the mortgage market, I decided against using the renovation financing. In addition to the various points and other fees charged by Wells Fargo, adding the $$$ to do the renovations pushed it up into jumbo mortgage territory, with really horrible consequences on the interest rate (even with the full point!). So, I'm doing conventional financing and will begin doing the critical work with cash left over from the sale of my condo. That means all the corrective work--foundation, roof, windows, electrical--necessary to bring the house up to code.

Once it's habitable, I'll partially move in (read: bed and a few essential items) and will progress with interior work like the bath remodel and kitchen expansion/garage addition after opening a HELOC in another 4-6 months. My aggressive schedule is to have it completed in 12 months, my more conservative estimate is 18 months. Either way, I know it is going to take a lot of money, patience and work, but I know it will be worth it in the end.

It would be nice to get all the work done up front, but I'm being optimistic that this will enable me to better plan the kitchen and avoid making hasty decisions. It will also give me time to look into the possibility of enclosing the full carport to make a real garage so I can do that and the kitchen expansion in one fell swoop.

I spoke with someone at the county planning office on Friday and I may be in luck since the house is a "non-conforming structure" (meaning it does not adhere to the 5' setback rules) on a "non-conforming parcel" (a lot that is below a certain size). Also since the carport has a roof and pillars, it's technically a "structure" and I'd simply be enclosing it rather than constructing it. Nice little loophole, I think.

A few more random photos

Here are a few more random photos of the house that didn't fit in with the other posts from last night. Click on the photo for a larger version.

This is the hallway off the kitchen:
That door to the left is the smaller bedroom, the door to the right is the bathroom, and the larger bedroom is at the end of the hall. I'm trying to decide what to do for heating upgrade. If I tear up the floors, I'll see about putting in radiant heat. If I don't tear up the floors, I'll probably do HVAC, but all that ductwork is going to be a pain in the tush.

Here is the chimney and it's really pretty climbing rose:
The TV antenna would go. The chimney has a crack in the masonry. I think I'm going to do a gas insert instead of repairing it. I know Santa Clara County code requires a gas insert if you do any fireplace repair because they are trying to reduce the number of wood burning fireplaces to improve air quality. I don't know if San Mateo county has the same code. Regardless, I think gas is the way to go.

While we're talking about it, here's the fireplace:

On the front of the house is a little garagey-shed thing. It's not big enough to park a car in it, and it's definitely an addition. I'm not too sure what to do with it. I think garage conversions generally look like crap, but I don't think I have enough easement available to build a real garage. That's my tentative long-term plan, so I'm going to leave it as is for now. I'm definitely relocating the water heater out here, and maybe the furnace if I end up with one.

I'd like to build a garage that uses the whole existing carport slab, which is the maximum of my setback, but I think I'm too close to the neighbor's for that to get approved. I'll have to look into it since there is certainly a lack of easement going on in general. I think my neighbor's house is a mere 6 feet away (I hope they are nice!). I have seen 2 cats in the windows, so maybe Mali will make some friends to stare at across the sidewalk between our houses.

So there you have it, the expanded tour of the grounds. I should be getting bids back early next week and will likely have to adjust my plans after that, but we will see!

Bathroom

I honestly LOVE the tile in the bathroom. It's bright and cheery and super-retro cool. Alas, the sub floor is rotted, so the whole thing needs to go to the big shower in the sky. But, before it goes, here are some photos of it so you too can enjoy the retro funk:

Kitchen Detail

Here are some better photos of the kitchen space. It's hard to get good photos because the place is so small, I can't stand back far enough to get a sweeping panorama. :) I'll probably knock out that wall to incorporate the laundry room into the kitchen. It means having my washer and dryer in the kitchen, but I'll take that for now until I am able to build a proper garage and/or laundry room where the garagey-shed currently lives.

You can see the stove is quite the antique. It may even fetch some money on craigslist. I'll give that a go before posting is as a "free, you haul" item.

For the size of the house, it is definitely not lacking in windows. This is the dining area of the kitchen, which as mom pointed out, I neglected to include on the 5 cent tour:
Not much to see.

The kitchen needs serious work to upgrade it in a way that will improve the traffic flow of the house, so I'm sure it's going to take the most planning of everything.

Backyard

Here are some photos of the backyard. I spared you a photo of the hideous metal shed that takes up 25% of the yard. Instead, I give you apples:

I have no idea how a tree that is so totally butchered can produce so many apples. It is quite a nasty sight to behold. And the apples are EVERYWHERE!!!! That tree will be removed as soon as humanly possible. It hangs over the roofline, and also hangs into my neighbor's yard, so I'm going to remove it now before it has a chance to cause some more serious trouble.

That shed next to the apples is also going to be removed asap. Doing so will give me a little patio (approx 4' x 5') on which I can put my bistro table and chairs. Nice. That's the window to the big bedroom, so I'm even thinking about making that a door so I have access to my nice little patio.

There are some healthy looking camellia plants near the back wall of the house. I'll be interested to see what they do. I'll leave them alone for now.

As you can see below, I desperately need a new fence on two sides, so I'll negotiate that with the neighbors after the rest of the construction is complete. At that point, I hope they'll realize that I'm adding tons of value to their property by improving mine, and a shiny, sturdy new fence will only further that trend.
Since I know your interest is so piqued, and I'm sure you're tired of seeing apples, here's little corner of the Big Ugly Shed peeking out from the left side of the photo:
I plan to post that bad boy as a freebie on craigslist. I might leave it there during construction if they want to use it for storage of equipment or materials since my garage storage it pretty small.

I'm thinking of doing raised beds along the fences, but landscaping is really the least of my worries at this point, so I have plenty of time to come up with some ideas. I'm open to suggestions!