A Tale Of Two Foundations

Here is a tale of two foundation jobs I saw on a recent walk.

First we have this foundation.

See the not so big temp beam holding this part of the house up. See the tarps up to protect newly
dug foundation trenches.

See the pile of 'vintage brick 50 cents each' in the yard.

A different job site.
Hmmm, why'd they backfill the foundation without removing the form boards?

and ya know, that OSB isn't even water proof? There's no way that's enough
support for the form boards.

Lets look around the corner a bit....

Hey, the new foundation only goes down 6" and wait, what's that under it?
Brick?

Lets take another look.

Hmmmm, this appears to be some sort of cementatious coating on top of the
original brick foundation!?!?!?!
Sure looks like a new cement foundation up front......Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Have I caught these people in the act of faking a new foundation? Lots of
other cosmetic work happening on this house.
Wonder if its going up for sale soon?

 We've had reptile Realtors do we have reptile home owners also?

Foundation Information Overload!!!

I wish....

Went down to the building dept yesterday to try to find any documentation on the foundation redo here at Chez Neumansky 3.0.
Last time I went down, about six months ago, they didn't have anything for it! It was apparently lost in a nether world or something?

This time they had it scanned into the computer and the very, very nice people at the dept printed out what they had for me to look at.......

Behold the super detailed, high-tech document that got you a foundation permit in '01....

Yep, that's it....well, maybe not, but this was the only bit from the finaled foundation permit that was scanned in....so maybe there was more documentation originally and it got misplaced??? I doubt it....

No footing sections, no rebar schedule, no slab section...no nothing...
How, is this enough to get a permit for a foundation redo? Blows me away...

The city has minimum standards for foundations on their website.
http://www.cityofalamedaca.gov/getdoc.cfm?id=168

Lets just hope that with it being inspected and approved by a city inspector that we got at least the 2 story foundation..though I am hoping that its the 3-story version.

Crazy right? The most important thing holding this house up and this is all the docs the city has kept on it....

KnifeCatching 1310 Pacific Ave

Read This:The following review is just my opinion and only my opinion I am not a professional house appraiser or inspector and I am not a structural engineer. The opinions expressed in this review are based on my own inspection of the property, the publicly available facts from aggregator sites such as Redfin and Zillow and the online permit database for the city of Alameda. I am not responsible for incorrect or missing data that appears in these sources. In fact, its probably best that you just ignore everything you read here as the lunatic ravings of an unbalanced mind.

KnifeCatching* 1310 Pacific Ave Alameda CA
Up for review today is 1310 Pacific Ave which has the official specs of being a legal triplex with - - amount of bedrooms and baths and a ---- amount of square feet (but the for sale literature calls it a 4-3 of 2858 sq ft) on a 3500 sq ft lot built in 1897 on sale for $485,000

The house is an interesting Marcuse and Remmel. I just love the swoops and flares of the roofline.
I can see here that the foundation has already been redone!!! Hurray for home owners who have the sense to do the foundation first and I just love the antique brick driveway and walkway. I was completely fooled by the garage doors! They look like original antique swing out carriage doors but it is actually a modern roll up garage door. How Clever!!!

Walk up the stairs and come in the front door which appears original with original glass and the original working stained glass transom window and you have this entryway.
I applaud the home owners sense of style. Just look at this shabby chic entry way! I can only imagine what it must of cost to have artisans 'antique' the house. Oh, I hope the entire house is done in this shabby chic style. I hear it is quite the rage in NYC. With some multi-million dollar penthouse apartments done up to look like this.

Turn left from the entry and you have what was originally the formal parlour.
What an amazing room!!! From the in stock home depot carpets to the multiple outlets on the wall...how much do you want to bet that the home owners attention to detail means that only half of the outlets are working!

And look, the abandoned fish tank motif. I heard that Madonna paid big bucks to have a room done up in just this style. The home owners truly are amazing visionaries.

Next to the formal parlour is this room that would of been the formal dinning room. The contrasting fabric on the walls, the mantle set just so...even the blown light on the ceiling fan...wow, I think that this is the absolute best example of avant garde shabby chic I've seen anywhere.

Just look at this runner! Right off the rack at Home Depot!!! Look closer and see that its actually screwed down!!!

Seriously, how avant garde!!!

Here's the 'kitchen' from the doorway. Wow, if this is not the epitome of farm house shabby chic what is!

There is a good sized bedroom off the kitchen. Again, more fantastic shabby chic.

I feel compelled to stop right now and tell you something truly amazing about the house. When I was there viewing it the owners where there!!! They actually encouraged me taking pictures! They freely offered to answer any questions that I had about the house. I had a ton of questions and they appeared quite knowledgeable about the house and quite honest. WOW, what a refreshing change from the angry, duplicitous attitude I usually get from home owners and their Realtors... They even said, 'When selling a house you should be completely open and honest and forthright with all the details of the house.' How refreshing.

One more thing that really struck me about the owners....damn are they good looking...The husband with his long flowing hair, I bet he was a surfer...the wife with her pale skin and black hair, she is truly stunning...and the baby!! She redefines cute!!

Ascend the wonderfully period correct stairs to the top level of this manse and you are greeted by this amazing sight. The exposed wood work, the home depot carpet, the clawfoot tub just waiting to be filled with water. The owners have really captured the South of Market Artist Loft aesthetic here. I hear Justin Beiber has a room just like this!!!!

Continuing on to the other side of the top floor you have yet more South Of Market Hipness...Look at the single lonely ceiling light hanging by its wires. Tres Chic.

Can't you imagine sitting up here and banging out the next great American novel on your manual royal typewriter??

Exit the amazing main house and through a separate entrance we have this amazing space. Imagine yourself in your own art studio, with warm heated floors, creating your next masterpiece.

The brawny exposed woodwork subconsciously pushing your work in a more marketable masculine direction.

Did I mention just how amazingly attractive the owners are??? It's obviously still on my mind as I'm writing this.

Through this hallway, done up in some new post modern spare aesthetic is the rest of the bottom unit. Through the doorway on the left is,

A generously proportioned bedroom. I didn't have a tape measure on me but I estimate this room to be at least 2000sq ft.

Don't you just love how the bright blue of the empty electrical boxes plays of the brown of the exposed exterior sheathing? Visionary!

On the other side of the hallway is this masterpiece in the making, a bathroom. I simply adore the 'everything is still in boxes waiting to be installed' aesthetic. I hear Bill Gates has several rooms in his mansion done up like this!

Stepping through the doorway at the end of the hallway you'll feel like you've just stepped out into a Wonderland. A wonderland of stamped concrete and imposing metal sculptures. I've recently learned that along with being so darned pretty the owners are also famous artists.

Their pieces typically sell for many hundreds of thousands of dollars but they told me they might include some of the minor pieces with the house, for the right offer. They feel that the neighbors would miss the 30' fire balls...

Conclusion:
This house is an amazing find!!! New foundation, slab, amazing radiant heat, 200amp electrical service with subpanels on each floor, shockingly good looking current owners (I heard they were both models), the amazing, breath taking avant garde shabby chic atmosphere. So what if it still needs a little work!!! With a 203k loan the new owners can put their personal stamp on the property and have a personalized, customized home. All for less than it will be worth!!

Out of all the houses that I have reviewed, this house, I can say without a doubt, is in the best condition for the money and is by far and away the best deal on the market right now!!!

*Obviously this is a joke review if you can't see that take a deeeeep breath and stop taking yourself so seriously.

Knifecatching 1417 Central Ave

Warning-this review is based on incomplete permit information. Please go here to read the new revised review.

Today's very special house is 1417 Central Ave. A 4+bed 3bath 3000 sq ft home (public facts show this as a 2-2 2900 sq ft house) on a lot of indeterminate size but I'd guess around 3500 sq ft for $799k. Last sold in 03 for $720k. Check out the zillow page here.

I'm going to put in a stronger than usual disclaimer for this very special house....

Read This: The following review is just my opinion and only my opinion I am not a professional house appraiser or inspector and I am not a structural engineer. You should probably regard this as just the incoherent babbling of an unbalanced mind....

If you love your family and value their safety Run, Run away from this house!!! Do not be enticed by its location and size!

Man, where to start.....this house has so much wrong with it that I was literally flabbergasted when viewing it. Ugh... as an exercise count how many unpermitted modifications were made to this house.

Looks okay from the outside right? We were initially very excited to view this house as its spec's seemed right up our alley and the price is in our comfort range. The house is located 2 blocks from Franklin park and school and it has the amazing central ave street trees that we lust after. When we got up closer to the place something didn't seem right.

Damn some jackass clad the entire house in vinyl...vinyl siding, soffets and no original trim left on the outside of the house. There however is a newish electrical service of 200 amps....done without permits.....

Here's a view of the brady-bunch front door...This house is a colonial revival and this stacked stone entryway is so not correct...and the brick porch is wrong also...

I couldn't get a picture of the front room but picture a McMansion great room with a stacked stone brady bunch corner fireplace. Here's a shot of the 'great room' with all this amazing open space-notice there are no interior walls in this entire area-that's going to be important later...look at that fancy kitchen.

Off the great room is this full bath with a super great circa mid 90's feel...redone without permits...

A close up view of the kitchen. Its big and big, the countertops look newer than the rest of the place. Check out that staging..this entire new-fancy kitchen was also done without permits...

Opposite the kitchen is this nice sized dining nook. Which had an interesting slant to the floor.

At the end of the great room is this nice little library room that counts as one of the bedrooms. It has sliding glass doors out to the deck..this room was also built without permits...and when I say built, I mean that this is a 2-story addition to the house done completely without permits!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Next the the library room is this little laundry area with a door out to the backyard and deck.

Here's a shot of the deck that you can access from the library or the side yard. Speaking of yards...this is it. No yard just a deck...by the way this deck was also done without permits....;

Walk down the stairs of the deck and you see this 2 carish garage. It appears to be in good shape...its also covered in vinyl siding...problem is, that they've landscaped the side yard as to make in impossible to get a car back here!

The house is advertised as having a basement... This area is maybe 6'-2" high. Its got a concrete foundation with lots of evidence of water seepage. I guess this could be storage space...when you walk through that opening to where the water heater is it gets weird... I should say that a permit was pulled to do some earthquake retro-fitting!

Walk through the doorway and look right. There is this weird tiered retaining wall thing they've done instead of just doing the foundation correctly.

Here's a shot of the center load bearing wall. This looks to me like the original framing on its original brick foundation!?!?! Notice the complete lack of posts and beefed up foundation piers to handle the severely increased point loads from the open floor plan above. Seeing the original sole plates everywhere is a serious red flag to me. All the real foundation contractors replace the always rotted sole plate with treated 3by lumber. Whats with the cement block retaining wall? How do we know its not compromising the integrity of the brick foundation.

Here's a peek through to the other side of the basement that has not been dug out. It looks like a concrete foundation but still with the original sole plate?!?! Okay now I have to drop a major bomb on y'all....all this foundation work, done without permits!!! This just blows me away...but once you know that, the half assed job they did on the foundation makes some sense. They had to do it on the sly. No jacking the house up on steel beams and excavating and forming up and pouring real foundation walls.

Up the stairs to the second floor you have this landing.

Off the landing you have this little room set up as a nursery. Which made me laugh cause those non-original vinyl windows are acting as doors to..

A little balcony-just what you want your toddler to have access to. The balcony did appear to be nice place to hang out and enjoy a cuppa in the morning. I can't say if this is original to the house but it was redone without permits.

Next we have this good sized bedroom. This was probably the original master bedroom. Those windows face Central Ave which is a pretty busy street and it was surprisingly loud in the room-even with the dual-paned vinyl windows shut tight. Don't think I could sleep in there.

Nother bedroom on the top floor.

Here's the kids bath...also done without permits.

Here is the new master bedroom in the illegal addition. Its good sized.

Super disco master bath..with groovy gold-toned hardware...was there a time when gold-toned metal actually connoted luxury? It just seems dated to me. This bath was added without a permit.

Big master closet off the bath. That's it for the pictures.

Okay kiddies lets review all the changes made to the house without permits...
1. Replaced the windows and siding with vinyl.
2. Rebuilt foundation.
3. Made MAJOR structural changes to the main level by removing load bearing walls.
4. Added a 2 story addition to the back of the house.
5. Built a deck off the back of the house.
6. Remodeled the kitchen.
7. Remodeled the 2 baths.
8. Added a master bath.
9. Completely redone the elec, waste and plumbing lines.

The remodeling kitchen and baths isn't such a big deal..But the big structural changes made to the house, including adding a 2 story addition and redoing the foundation without permits are a really, really, REALLY big deal. They removed a significant amount of the load bearing walls on the second floor reducing the shear strength significantly. Actually I didn't see any shear panels in the short dimension of the house...that coupled with the lack of interior walls on the middle floor is a scary proposition in an earthquake.

The cities engineer didn't sign off on any of these modifications...did any engineer? I'd guess no by the lack of posts and piers in the basement to take the added point loads of the open floor plan above. Are those beams and posts, now hidden behind drywall, even close to being correct for their spans-loads? Who knows...there is absolutely no guarantee that this place won't fold like a house of cards in the next good sized shaker.

I talked with the listing agent at length about the house. He confirmed my fears that all of this work was done without permits and or oversight. That the house was completely gutted, a second story addition was added and the house was completely remuddled in the interior and the foundation was redone all without permits. I asked the listing agent, 'How in good conscious can you sell a house in such a state.' He replied that it was all in the disclosures and basically washed his hands of any responsibility. He said that he personally would never buy a house in such a state...He said that the current owners were ignorant and had a bad buyers agent which is why they didn't get the previous seller to correct these issues. What he's looking for is a 'greater fool'. An ignorant buyer with a incompetent or corrupt agent to offload the house onto.

In the permit record there is a complaint from 93 saying heavy equipment is on site and major work being done without a permit. The city appears to of done nothing about it...if they had maybe the house wouldn't be in the sad-scary state its in.

Legalizing this work is a seriously expensive minefield.

If the city wants to play hardball (and they have done this in the past) with this house they can require that the addition be torn off and rebuilt to code, actually they can require that ALL the unpermitted work be torn out and redone to code. That means you'd have to pay the fines, then pay the new permit fees, then pay to have it all removed and then pay to have it all installed correctly. You'd have to hire a structural engineer to do a full analysis of the house. That means opening up finished surfaces so he can see whats there, I don't know how he would determine if the foundation is safe without digging up large sections to inspect....

To reiterate-

Run, Run Away from this house!!!
Don't be the 'Greater Fool.'

KnifeCatching 1832 San Antonio

Read This:The following review is just my opinion and only my opinion I am not a professional house appraiser or inspector and I am not a structural engineer. The opinions expressed in this review are based on my own inspection of the property, the publicly available facts from aggregator sites such as Redfin and Zillow and the online permit database for the city of Alameda. I am not responsible for incorrect or missing data that appears in these sources. In fact, its probably best that you just ignore everything you read here as the lunatic ravings of an unbalanced mind.

Okay this house is actually the house that started me back on the knifecatching kick....as we were leaving the house a Realtor was taking a young couple in. The wife recognized us from this blog!?!?! and stopped us to ask us what we thought...I gave them my quick synopsis (no spoilers) and their Realtor overheard. As they rejoined the Realtor I could hear her say, 'Oh its not really necessary to replace the foundation.' This was not the sellers Realtor but the buyers Realtor giving this shockingly horrible advice....what do you think the Realtor was really thinking about? Getting this nice family with a couple of young kids the right house or getting herself as big of a commission as quickly as possible? Arrrrrrrgh!

Up for review 1832 San Antonio Avenue. A 3 bed, 1.5bath, that is 2413 sq ft on a nice 6k+ sq ft lot built in 1895 for $815k.

My sources told the me the story on this place. Elderly gentleman owned the place and lived here alone for many years keeping the place up by himself. He unfortunately DIED in the house (a fact that the selling Realtors were not making obvious) and the house was left to his heirs. The house is long paid for with astonishing low property taxes. The heirs did a general clean up and paint of the house and put it on the market trying to squeeze as much money as they can from their windfall, sound familiar? Heirs have almost no money in the house and they are trying to sell it for a price that honestly is just not reasonable. Don't believe me? According to ZIP reality its been on the market for 79 days! What's that tell ya? Baring the Zombie Apocalypse if a house isn't in contract within 30days it ain't priced right.

The house looks gorgeous from the street. I was impressed with how nicely kept up the outside of the house appears to be and how nicely kept up the lot is. The house has a lot of fancy trim that all looked pretty original to me.

the front door looks to be the original in good shape with its original stained glass.

I'd like to say that the house was very original on the inside. Probably the most original of any house we've looked it. There was just amazing period stuff everywhere. All the original hinges, doors, door hardware all really nice. I'm sorry that I couldn't snap any pictures of it cause the battery on the camera was dying....

Here's the view looking in from the front door. Nice looking stair case The carpet and white paint appeared to be new to me. What really kills me is that in a lot of places it looks like this gloss white paint was the first coat over the original woodwork!! Why God Why would you do that!?!?!?!?!?!?

The women peeking around the corner there is the listing realtor...she kinda reminded me of the mom from 2.5 Men after talking with her. She said she recognized me and was giving me grief for taking pictures of the house?!?! I thought the jig was up. But, it turns out she remembers me from when we bought our current house. During the 'open house' for the Chez she wouldn't come off the sidewalk to get any closer and sent her poor clients into the rat hole without her.
When did it become a capital crime to take pictures during an open house?

The house has double front parlours. This is the front-est one with nice working pocket doors with gorgeous hardware.

Its a good sized room with decent carpet probably covering matchstick oak that just needs to be refinished...cheaper and faster to just throw carpet down ya know...

This is the 2nd parlour with non-working coal burning fireplace. The door on the left leads into the kitchen. Nope I'm mis-remembering it, sorry, through that door is the formal dining room that I forgot to take a picture of...I think...its a good sized dining room but as the layout of the house stands it would need to be repurposed as the family room to make the house work for an actual family.

Both of these rooms together give you a pretty good amount of indoor entertaining space.

Down the hallway a bit there is a nice sized closet under the stairs with its own window.

Here's the kitchen, vinyl floor, Formica counter tops...I believe the area inside that opening is probably the original kitchen. It looks like the original cabinets it even had a cold cabinet with venting to the outside. the area in the foreground I'm not sure what it was originally but its sorta hodge-podgy kitchen now. This entire space if redone would make a good sized eat in kitchen I think. Problem is, its GOTTA be redone as its way below par for houses in this price range. Formica does not sell...through the doorway you can just barely see to the left of the range.

Is an addition. This is a weird space. Its long, and skinny and awkward. Not sure what it would be good for.

Its sorta set up with the TV on one end and a couch on the other? You'd need binoculars to watch it. This would make a decent home office though.

Through a door in the kitchen to a nice covered side porch (with the half bath) there is an interior stair down to the basement. The basement is split into two rooms of reasonable head height. Notice that galv plumbing...see how the fridge is up on blocks? Thats gotta be evidence of habitual flooding.

The other basement room thats the base of the chimney behind those shelves.

Through the door on the left is...

Pure ugliness...thats a brick foundation with lots of water movement thru it...

More scary brick foundation...I say scary because to me it looks like water infiltration has already done a pretty good job of turning the mortar back into sand. Scroll back up real fast to the top picture. This is a full 2 story house with 12' ceilings on each floor. See how long and skinny the house is? This house needs a real foundation, earthquake retro-fitting and water remediation really, really badly. In my opinion this is not optional...

Back up from the basement and into the back yard. Which is really good sized and well kept. Perfectly adequate for us. its even got a couple of different types of citrus trees. The little garage on the left would fit a car and our motorcycles. It was locked and FULL of crap so I could not determine its condition.

For us, we'd want to raze the garage so we could have garden, koi pond and plenty of entertaining space.

Now to the second floor. At the top of the stairs you have this sorta landing.

The top of the floor is weirdly set up. The part you see in this picture (the back half) is kinda set up like a apartment. I'll get to this in a sec.

Here is one of the bedrooms this bedroom is on the street. Its decent sized with a decent sized closet.

Its also right next to...

The only full bathroom in the house...small cramped, I'd guess the tub is probably original. But this needs to be redone badly...

Here is another bedroom. There is a pocket door between this bedroom and the bedroom above. Its a good sized room with a decent closet. The pocket door between them is odd...doesn't seem very private.

Okay back to the odd part of the layout. I think that this is the third bedroom. Its really, tiny....but it does have a closet.

Then off this room is this...

Weird pseudo kitchen.

More vinyl but a cool porcelain sink with built in drain boards.. Through the door on the left is a pretty cool feature...

A roof top deck!

This deck faces south and that

silverized water proofing membrane on the floor was reflecting the heat and making it unbelievably hot up here....If you want to use this at all in the summer you are going to have to add shade... this could be a really cool space with a nice container garden.

Off the kitchen-like room is this weird huge dressing room sorta thing. This is not original and was added sometime later.

Okay so to make this house work you'd have to take this last three rooms and reconfigure them into some sort of master suite with its own private deck...doesn't that sound nice.....and expensive?


Not pictured but from what I could see the roof appears to be failing with shingles curling up in abundance.

Reports: Uh, didn't write it down (sorry I'm human after all it seems) but I remember that the termite report was substantial. They did have a couple of foundation redo quotes a couple of total B.S. ones and one real one from our buddies at Alameda Structural.

Conclusion: Its a gorgeous mostly original Victorian like you hardly see anymore. That's good and bad. All the original trim is there but its also still got its original brick foundation, galv water pipes, etc. Its got a good sized front lawn and great backyard in a nice neighborhood...better than our current 'hood.

To make this house work for us it would need:
1. A new full foundation and dig-out, possibly adding a garage door and driveway so we could get rid of the garage out back. $120,000 easy.
2. New roof- ~$16,000
3. Complete Repiping $20,000
4. Remodeled kitchen $40,000 easy
5. New master suite...~$100,000
6. Redo existing bath $20,000

So lets see thats uh,.. $196000 plus what ever the termite report was for plus the cost of redoing the electrical.

Buying the house at asking puts us at just over $1M...there is no way that neighborhood can support $1M+ houses that are only 3-2.5 and ~2400sq ft...that's not even a big house really.

So, to us, the place is only worth $615k.....think they'll take it?

I asked the Realtor what they'd take for the place and she said, 'I think that they could be bargained down to $770k.' and I just laughed...

Really it can't just be me. Sellers need to figure out that in this more rational market they have to price a house based on its actual condition!

Actually the Realtor and I got into kinda a shouting match when she tried to use the, 'The foundation doesn't really need to be replaced, its optional.' line with me. I read her the riot act in front of like 5 other people....she was not pleased...I don't think I'm on her Christmas card list anymore....