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!

Elec and Plumbing Inspection Today.......yay...

With seven days left on our permit we had our inspector out again today to
look at the electrical and the plumbing.

Neither of which got fricken finaled.....

Plumbing
The plumbing was all good except for the lack of TPR line ran to the outside
of the house....the inspector was not buying my argument even though I followed the manf
instructions to a T...still wants it outside...arrrrrrrrrgh. I've got a call into his
boss so we'll see.

Electrical
Hmmmmmm, this was a mixed bag for sure.
All the outlets worked correctly except for one room where we had a floating ground...
All the overhead lights and switches worked.
The kitchen was wired correctly.
I screwed up on the AFCI breakers.....
In the code books it says something like, 'all outlets not GFCI have to be on an AFCI breaker.'
Okay I think, no problem, each room is on its own 20A AFCI breaker for the outlets.
I ran two 15A circuits for the overhead lights splitting the apartment down the middle longwise.
That was my BIG mistake....apparently, in code speak only, an 'outlet' is also the overhead lights!!!

Yay, so now I have to fit at least one more AFCI breaker in the sub-panel for this unit.

Unit Subpanel

All full! No room at the inn....not sure what the heck I can do about this...don't want to change
out the panel for a bigger one. To make this work I will have to combine circuits but since you
can't double tap an AFCI breaker (right?) I will have to put in a junction box below the panel
to tie some of the separate circuits together.....
Anybody else have a better idea?

Now Pics Of Paint And Lights!

Hallway

 Hallway leads to this little family room.

Off of which is two bedrooms.
The small one.

The medium one.

Turn right from the family room and into the kitchen.

The master area isn't painted yet but here's some fuzzy shots of the master closet.

 Pretty light.

So that's it for now.
Next inspection and probably our last one is this Thursday......wish us luck.
Did I mention how tired I am? Or how bad my back hurts? Yay.

Seven Days Left On Permit!!!

Passed Another Inspection!!

Whoop, Whoop, I say, Whoop!

My intrepid inspector was out today and signed off on the HVAC portion of my permit!!
Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop!

Now, 'all' we have left is the plumbing and electrical....ya that's all....

Electrical Final
To final the electrical I think all I have to do is well, install all the fixtures! All the lights,
the switches, the outlets and they all gotta work....
I'm about halfway done. Lots of box extenders unfortunately...

Plumbing Final
Just a couple of small things to clear up here and...
ONE HUGE THING!

What to do with the TPS lines for the tankless water heaters?

Guess I messed this up pretty bad... It was my understanding that you did not have
to run the TPS line outside if they are venting into an unfinished basement space.
My BI has a different opinion....he wants me to remove the valve at the unit, run
copper pipe up to inside the joist bays (which are already covered) put the TPS
valve waaaaaaay up there and have it gravity drain to the outside.
I think further research is needed....these heaters have 3 gal buffer tanks and only
heat when they are on...doesn't that mean that at max I would get 6 gal on the floor?
Couldn't I just put two separate six gal tubs under each line?

Of course this is the ceiling where the lines would have to run.

Level four and primed, ready for paint....yay...
This one single issue could blow the entire timeline....

Our next inspection appt. is Monday the 18th with another scheduled for Thursday
the 21st which looks like its our last chance for a final as the permit expires on
Monday the 25th....

But hey look, there's a kitchen sorta.

 Yep, yellow walls and a sky blue ceiling and I think neat looking CFL lights.

Crazy corner sink? check.
Brand new stove and microwave from the Sears outlet, check.
BTW the Sears outlet in San Leandro is amazing...I've always heard about the
place but never made it out there....well, I tell you what, I'm not buying an
appliance from anywhere else if I can help it. Soooooooo cheap like half off
and there is like soooooo much there....overwhelming.

Anywho, 12 days till the permit expires...

Potential Renters
The unit will not be ready till mid Sept!
Stop friggen pestering me unless you're ready to put some cash down.
 

We Just Had Our First Official Open House!

And well, it was kinda underwhelming...
Only 5 people showed up....sigh...

Here's the ad I put up on Craig's List.
$3000 / 3br - 1400ft² - Brand New 3bed2bath apartment in Alamedas Gold Coast (alameda)             

3BR / 2Ba 1400ft² apartment available sep 01
laundry in bldg street parking
no smoking

Open House Dates
saturday 2014-07-26

Hello Apartment Seekers,
We have a very nice three bedroom two bathroom
basement apartment for rent starting Sept 1st.
This is one unit in a triplex.
The house is located in the Gold Cost neighborhood
of Alameda two blocks from Franklin School and park.
It is a good sized unit with a big master bedroom and
a huge master closet.
Everything is new in this unit.
When its done there will be: frig (ice and water in door), gas stove, microwave over the stove, dishwasher, garbage disposal.

Here's the catch:
Its not done yet....we are working mightily on finishing the
unit but it will not be done until the last week of August.
So, yes, we are asking people to walk through the unfinished
apartment and make a commitment without seeing the finished product.

For everything you ever wanted to know about the apartment, the house
its in, and the owners-landlords please go here.
http://chezneumansky.blogspot.com/

So, think about it, read the blog, and then email me if you're still interested in
coming and taking a tour.
Open House This Sat 1-3pm.
Walk down the driveway, the entrance to the basement unit is at the back of the house.

So yea only five people...two of which obviously hadn't managed to read the ad
at all....Its a basement apartment??? What? How can you rent something in this
condition??

Well, I can kinda understand it...as the apartment looks like this right now.

The high end kitchen

When I was giving the tours I was like, 'And here's where the frig will go, and the stove,
and the cabinets...ya just gotta use your imagination....ha...

The Luxurious Master Bedroom

 Ahem, I keep forgetting that the average person doesn't seem to have much of an
imagination....
My way of thinking is, that this will give someone with the brains and imagination to
take advantage of the situation on a nice rental apartment in a great area.

What will probably end up happening is that we will have to wait to finish the entire thing
then when it looks all pretty and high-endy we'll have a bunch of schmucks in here
getting into a bidding war or something stupid like that...

A Home Depot Rant
Went to Home Despot the other day to buy some 'all purpose' joint compound for the walls.
Brought home an expired container with a bunch of hardened chunks in it. Take it back for a
refund and get a couple more buckets...they're expired also! In fact EVERY SINGLE BUCKET
of the stuff was expired....
I don't know which numbnutz's own stock in that company.....but you should really think about
selling it all...

Whoo! Passed The Screw Inspection!

Ya, I agree that its kinda silly to pay a building inspector to come to your
house and count the screws in the drywall...

But, ya know what? The drywall we demo'd was mostly being held up with
about 6 screws per sheet...a heck of a lot less than they should of been.
Ya wanna know why? Cause the job was done without permits!

Exciting picture of drywall and screws in the master closet.

Our inspector checked every room and every ceiling for proper screw placement
and spacing...don't know how he does it. I was starting to get woozy looking at
all of those screws on the white background...

Up Next:
Lots and lots of mudding and taping...lots and lots and lots of mudding and taping.
We are planning on doing this ourselves but I am worried about the time its
going to take...

Permit Expires in 29 days.