The Permit Is Finaled,....Now What?

Now what indeed.
Now, we just simply have to actually finish the apartment.
Permit finaled and rent-outable are two different things.

Let me take you on a visual tour of the apartment as it is now.

Here is the view at the front door down the entrance hallway.

The hallway ends in the family room.

 That is not me in the picture.

Off the family room are two bedrooms.
The small bedroom.

The medium bedroom

The kitchen is also entered off the family room.

Check out those sweet counter tops. Ya some work to do here.

 The plywood is the base for the 'real' counter tops which HAVE to be granite....

Different angle of the kitchen showing the family room on the left.

Guest Bath

Yes, this one will look a lot better when its done also...

The dining room.

Off this doorway in the dining room is the master bedroom.

The master bedroom looking from the doorway into the dining room.

Different view of the master bedroom looking back at the door into the dinning
room/kitchen.

The entrance to the master closet.

Right inside the entrance looking right.

Little hallway in master closet to master bath.

Master Bath

 Don't worry its going to look a lot nicer when done.

Master bath from another view.

 I really like the lights over the sink.

This shot shows the back door out of the master bedroom.
The door on the right is.

The utility room.

 Love those copper pipes.

Walking past the utility room on the left is the laundry room for the entire building.

 Our tenants have free use of the laundry.

Here's something that's hard to see. The painters are smoothing out the
horrible, horrible texture on the walls. You can see on the left its smooth
and on the right its still the original texture.

Freaking Union Drywallers!!!

 The union drywallers screwed up on a lot of the boxes.
Just look at these...

This one bugs me the most. Really? were they even trying?
I totally screwed up and didn't look hard at all the box cut outs before I
paid them.....so now I'm paying the painters to fix the drywallers mistakes....

Does the apartment look like its ready to move in?
Heck No!

Still To Do
Oh, how I wish this list was shorter.
Install new counter top in kitchen.
Install the trim (its gotta be stained and finished first).
Install the flooring.
Install window coverings.
Figure out what the heck we're going to do in the master closet and do it.
Install new vanities/mirrors in bathrooms.
and probably a bunch of other stuff...

We Got Our Permit Finaled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woo-whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man my back hurts.
Woo, I say, Woo!
Ouch, my back.
Break out the good Scotch, Whiskey, Bourbon, Tequila, etc....
Did I mention how much my back hurts?
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Owwwwwwww, make it stop hurting.
Here is what a finaled permit card looks like in the city of Alameda

If you don't think that this is going under glass on the wall to be very proudly displayed
you would be very mistaken.
Man, my back is just killing me.
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up Next?
Sleep? Ha, I wish..
 

The Word From On High.....

Surprise
Is it EVER a good thing when your building inspector shows up onsite unannounced?
That's what happened to us today! Yay! I guess its a good thing that we've developed
such a close relationship that he feels like he can just 'pop on by' whenever he wants....

Thumped From Above
Today I made it through to my inspectors boss. We had a nice chat about the electrical
code and the plumbing code. He had done some research on my case and he had
discovered that my permit was issued 6 days into the new code cycle....that if it had
been issued 7 days earlier I'd be under a different less stringent code....yay.

So, in no uncertain terms, I need to put the lights on an AFCI breaker, I need to run both
TPR lines outside and I have to change out every single outlet (24 of em) to a tamper
resistant model....this is the part that I wouldn't have to do by 7 days...

Rant Mode On
By the CBC it is now illegal to use any outlet in a house that is not marked TR for tamper
resistant. Why the F do they sell a HUGE assortment of outlets that are not TR at Home
Despot? In fact all the stores I've looked at have huge assortments of non-TR outlets but
only a couple TR outlets?!?!?!?
Rant Mode Off

Plumbing Fixed
Here is the code legal solution for the TPR valves.

Approved by the inspector today...imagine hangers every 4 feet.

Electrical Panel Fixed

Ya, exciting...the blue tape are empty breakers. I will probably replace the empty
double with another 15A AFCI breaker so I can split the overhead lights back out.
Now they are all on the same circuit.
Turns out, you can make splices inside of sub-panels in Alameda.
As of now all outlets work correctly and all overhead lights.

Paint For The Entry Way
We need to paint the entryway, laundry room area also.
We want to use some combo of the colors we've already used (have the paint).
So, what do people think?
The colors we've used are bright yellow, sky blue, slightly darker blue, light green, and
a slightly darker shade of light green.
I think the light green on the ceiling and the light blue on the walls?

6 Days left till permit expires!

Another Code Enforcement Permit Signed Off!!!

Woo-Freaking Hoo!!!!
The inspector just recently came to inspect the giant mess of a deck redo project.

I missed two things...I forgot a couple of Simpson brackets called out for in the plans and I
didn't get the nail pattern correct for the doubled up beams.

Took an hour to fix that and now its good to go!!!!!

I'll say it again...
Woo-Freaking Hoo!!!!

The one year hard deadline is fast approaching in mid October so this is none too soon.

The final code enforcement issue is the kitchen...I'll be posting about that later...

Sorry no pics for some reason...guess I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Deck Project Planning

Alright, while we are waiting the 3-4 weeks for our kitchen cabinets and exhaust hood we need to focus on getting the deck up to snuff...and when I say up to snuff I mean untrucking all the wacky stuff the PO did and bringing it up to modern code. From what we can tell the deck was built around 5 years ago, which means its built with the extra nasty PT wood.
What I think that mostly means is;
   Adding risers to the stairs.
   Changing out ALL the non-PT rated hardware, bolts, washers, screws, nails, joist hangers...etc...hurray!
   Adding code compliant hand rails to the stairs.

Here's how the deck looks from afar.

Pretty big and impressive isn't it?
Now, lets look a little closer...help me figure out what needs to be replaced and how?

First there are no risers to either run of stairs.

This run has 6 1/8" clear between the treads.

This run has 6" clear between the treads.

I need to put in a riser that passes the 4" sphere rule.
Does anybody have any opinions on the best way to do that?
I think a single PT 2by4 would work and pass the 4" rule and allow some light to pass through.
I'm sorta thinking if it was centered in the opening it would be best.
I have PT rated pocket screws. Would two in each end and into the beefy 4by12 carriage be a strong beefy connection?

It also looks like I'll have to replace all the treads in the lower section that are not PT as they are showing signs of rotting...

Speaking of Stairs.
The PO used some sort of bracket that is not a Simpson Bracket and I don't know anything about it.

Unknown stair bracket.

The bracket itself doesn't appear to be rusting but those bolts sure do...and I believe you have to fill every single hole with these brackets.

Nails
The PO really, really, liked nails...

None of these nails should be rusting if they are of the correct type right?
So, I think I have to replace every single (if its actually doing anything useful) rusting out nail with something else.
I'd like to replace them all with PT rated structural screws from McFeelys, does that sound reasonable?

Corroded Structural Bolts
Notice how rusted the washers are. The bolts don't look so bad but I haven't backed one out yet to see...I'm afraid too..

 Look at all the rusting out nails holding this stuff together. Are they even required with the bolts in place? Seems to me that the nails are mostly just chewing up the wood.

Whats a PT rated joist hanger?

Or hanger nail?

None, of the fricken joist hangers are PT rated...just standard hangers and they are starting to rot pretty well, some are actually green and fuzzy from corrosion...It also bugs me a bit that they use hangers for 2by6's on 2by8's and 10's.

Questions: (remember that this is a one man operation)
Is everything that is rusting after 5 years need to be replaced? IE, the correct hardware would not be doing this right?
What's the best way to remove and replace the joist hangers? I've got slightly over 50 to do!
What's everybody think of my idea to remove the rusting out nails and replace them with PT rated structural screws?
Best way to add a riser to the stairs? Does my idea sound reasonable?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, I know that the most sensible thing to do is to tear the entire thing down and do it right from the beginning but we don't have the money or time for that.

Nobody Speeds in Alameda!

No, I did not just get a speeding ticket in Alameda.

Everybody knows...you don't speed in Alameda. Everybody knows this. Everybody knows that the APD takes speeding seriously.

You may go 28MPH but any faster and 'THEY WILL GET YOU' Everybody knows this right?

Somehow the APD has been able to leave this lasting impression with those of us who live/work/frequent Alameda. Heck, I don't even know if they STILL enforce the speeding limit so strictly...maybe they don't have to because they've convinced us its really, really not a good idea to speed in Alameda.

As a result, we have streets that are safe for kids, safe for bicycle riding, just safer-better.
As a parent, I am very happy about that.

Here's my question.

Why don't people have the same opinion of the Alameda Building Dept???

Wouldn't it be better for our fair city if people had the same opinion on doing work without permits as they do towards speeding?

What if people knew, KNEW that they would most likely get caught and have to pay big fines if they did major remodeling without permits?

Why is there not some sort of fine-administrative judgement that can be levied against contractors who do unpermmited work? Right now, its the HO that shoulders all the burden. Shouldn't there be a fine levied against the builder also? Maybe revoke their business license.

It seems to me that right now the system is set up to encourage illegal builders to do unpermitted work.

Putting the Fear into Home Owners
Here's what I think should happen....

Outreach to Homeowners and Contractors to explain the new reality.

First off, step up code enforcement dramatically. Its human nature, people are not going to toe the line unless they feel like they are going to 'for sure' get caught and that the consequences are going to be severe.

On top of the other code enforcement fee's tack on a FINE to the homeowner for using illegal contractors.

Figure out a way to slap a fine on the contractors that work illegally in Alameda...I mean, its against the law right? Just like having too many chickens.

The Result
No more scary-shoddy-illegal work done on the island. What's that going to do to property values?
No more illegal contractors undercutting the legit guys.
More revenue to the city due to the increase in permits.
More revenue to the city due to houses being correctly valued and taxed by the assessors office.

Now before somebody can say, 'Of course you over there in the republic of CA want to increase taxes.' I'm not talking about adding any taxes. I'm talking about getting people to obey the law which will have concrete benefits to our city.

Yes, doing it illegally will be cheaper than doing it legally....BUT YOU'RE DOING IT ILLEGALLY!!

The current system is broken with illegal contractors ruining it for the legal ones.

I'm going to send this post to all the Alameda elected officials and Building Dept heads. We'll see if I hear anything back.