The “Phase I” renovations are well under-way. To date we have had:
- wallpaper removed
- asbestos-containing popcorn ceiling removed
- chosen our carpeting,
- found an architect and general contractor and
- booked a painter
This week is mudding and electrical week with the hopes that painting will begin on Saturday. Towards the end of next week is carpeting installation and then the week after that…. WE MOVE!!!!
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So here are some details on what we plan/hope to do next. I’ve added “hope” in there because everything we initially believed we could do with this home has changed over time. Not necessarily a bad thing – it’s to be expected of course, but now our awesome, “WOW”, dream house is now turning into a cool, “Hey, Nice!” house.
Observe the following floor plan. This roughly outlines what the home looks like today. You’ll have to pardon the architectural inaccuracies – I did this on my own. Needless to say some measurements are off, but that’s why I don’t get paid the big bucks.
We started off thinking that it would be awesome to wall-in the patio off the master bedroom and turn it into a bathroom. We wouldn’t use a patio, and the view from it is so awesome, we’d rather have it frame a gorgeous, modern bathroom whose jet tub overlooks the canyon as you sit and soak. After cost considerations, and complexities involved, we’ve now gone to thinking: bathroom should stay in it’s current spot, but we want to expand it by knocking down the walk-in closet. We’re also not walk-in-closet type people either. Built-ins are so much more practical! We would still like to get the patio framed out, but we’d like to convert that to an exercise room. Here’s what we’d like for it to turn into
The city isn’t going to make this easy on us, mind you. I paid a visit to the Planning department just to do a sanity check. Turns out we live in a Planning Division. Those of you who know what this is are probably now smiling. For those of you that don’t here’s the brief version: “it’s a pain in the ass!” Anything you want to build, even before you can submit a permit has to be approved. In some cases it can be done administratively (fill out some paperwork, write a check, wait the obligatory 2 months), but in others you have to present to the community and allow everyone to voice their opinions on your project (means more paperwork, lots of disclosures to everyone on the block, a lot more checks, and a 5 month wait). I’ll give you one guess where we fall in : That’s right – we get the commission route!!! Since our addition is on the second floor, and the book on allowing administrative review doesn’t mention anything on second floor additions, we are placed into the commission category. I understand the city. I get the rules. I’m not asking for an exception, but I would love some investigative consideration. I will happily pay for an inspector to come to the home and evaluate our plans prior to submission, just so that he sees that what we wish to do will not impact the community in any way whatsoever…. other than the few week long contractors working in the neighborhood.
In the meanwhile, we’re moving forward.
Wish us luck!
P.S. I added some photos of the house in our albums section
