Bath Project Problems....part 2 Vanity

Bonfire of the Vanities

Looking at how exactly I am going to install the bath vanity and have run into a couple of problems.

Here's the fabulous vanity we got from the Home Decorators Collection.

Notice the fancy sides and top edges. This thing can not be placed flush against a wall on its short sides.

And here is problem numero uno.. This is the stub-out for the sink drain...its only 4.5" from the wall....not sure how I managed to F this one up so much....because of the position of the stub-out the drain lines for the vanity can not come in through the openings in the back of the vanity. The only thing I can think off here is to cut a hole in the lower corner and bring the drain line in that way. I'll probably also have to shorten the drawers on that side as they look to slide all the way back to damn near the back of the cabinet.

Here's a shot of the back of the vanity showing the access holes for the drain and water supply lines.

Which brings me to issue #2. How to get the water supply lines in. If I have the vanity as shown in the previous post they would have to come in from the side which will be visible from the front.

One thought is, is that if I raise the vanity up enough I might be able to bring the lines down the wall and have them enter the cutout just above the sole plate of the wall. For this to work I need to raise the vanity up ~4".... I'm not sure what's the best way to do this.

Here's a shot of the legs that came with the vanity. They measure ~7.5". Could it be just as easy as buying some legs that are 4" taller? With the stock legs the vanity top is at 36" which I feel is a bit low for me and for elderly folks. I think 40" feels a lot better and with the taller legs it'll be easier to clean under it?

Vanity Questions:
1. What to do about getting the drain line into the cabinet when the stub out is unfortunately placed.
2. What's the best way to raise the vanity cabinet up ~4" so I can get the water lines into it easier?

Any useful advice would be greatly appreciated.

Bath Project Getting Started-Gots Problems....part 1 Shower

Yes it's been a looong while since we've posted on the house blog and boy do I have a back-up of posts....we've got Halloween posts, several knifecatching posts....lots of posts...if I can find the time. Right now I've got exactly a month before the permit runs out on this bath project and I'm going to attempt to get as much done as possible.
Bottom Floor Bath Project
needs help....cause we gots problems...of course.

I've spent a TON of money in the last couple of days ordering everything I think we'll need to get this project finished. I truly had no idea that shower plumbing stuff could be so expensive! It blows me away that you have to buy the fracking valves separately!!! Same thing with the dang vanity faucet!

Here is the plan view of what we are trying to do with the bottom floor bath.

Here's a total side view of everything. You can even see the ceiling mounted rain shower head and the ceiling fan and light.

Ignore the placement of the vanity in this shot it should be rotated 90deg and placed against the wall we're looking through here.

Of course before I can even start thinking about construction I've got to basically clean and organize the entire bottom floor of the house putting away all the seasonal stuff and fully recovering space from the Halloween crush...oh and I have to plug a tire on our truck too....isn't this what every remodeler has to do before starting work?

Ta-da one clean bathroom space!
Now, lets get to the problems....

I've decided to use the Kerdi system and have purchased the Kerdi Shower kit with the 32"by60" pan.
This should have everything I need to waterproof the shower floor and walls.

Problem #1...this is the drain pipe for the shower...notice how it is higher than the floor? Because of where our sewer main is, this is as low as this line can be and still drain properly....

The top of this line is ~5" above the floor! What in the heck can I do about this?
So far my only idea is to build some forms and pour some additional concrete in this area to raise the floor level up and cover this pipe. Then I could set the Kerdi shower base on this raised flat-level platform and continue as normal? I don't want the step into the shower to be any higher than required...anybody have any idea how little concrete above the pipe I can get away with?

Shower Questions
1. The rain shower will project down from the ceiling about 1' leaving it ~8' off the floor. How high up should the waterproofing-tile go and how high up should the glass enclosure go?

2. What to do about the drain line being 5" above the slab in shower area?
-Does it make sense to pour a base-footing for the shower to cover the pipe? If so should I use regular concrete? or what? Dry pack mortar?? The Kerdi shower curbs sit on the outside of the pan so I would need to size this base to be big enough for the curbs also?

3. Placing the drain- I'm pretty sure that the existing location of the drain stub-out is off by 6"...I'm worried about adjusting this as it looks like from reading the kerdi instructions that you have to have this placed EXACTLY in the right spot?

4. On the walls of the shower I would like to use plywood so that I can screw in anywhere for the grab rails and not have to worry about it. Whats the recommended thickness of plywood for this application? Can I adhere the kerdi straight to the plywood or would I have to screw in cement board to this? I'm kinda worried about the thickness of this wall 3/4" ply + 1/2" backer board + 1/2" tile...maybe I don't need to worry about it?

That's part one any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to pour the pad before the weekend if possible...

Knife Catching 1345 Bay St.

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.

Knife Catching 1345 Bay St.
Up for review today is 1345 Bay St. Which has the official specs of being a 3-1 of 1371 sq ft on a 6300 sq ft lot. The house is a craftsman built in 1915. The asking price is a not insignificant $679k. View the Harbor Bay listing here.

Here's the google street view of the place. Sorry, I didn't have the camera with me so this will be the only pic in this review. Take a look at the HB site above for some more pics.

First Off, This place is really a 2-1.5. There is a non-permitted half bath in one of the bedrooms. What they are calling the 3rd bedroom is really the covered porch and its right off the kitchen, it does have a closet but the room is tiny, being right off the kitchen it might make a decent home office/guest bedroom.

House Impressions
Location: Well, this place certainly has location, location, location...its on the prime block of Bay St. for Halloween. The Realtor said it was 'The' block of Bay but I'd argue the blocks that dead end on the lagoon are probably 'The' blocks... This is a great tree lined street in the Franklin school district.

Grounds: That sounds pretentious doesn't it? The place has a great front yard for Halloween and a really good sized back yard. The back yard needs some serious landscaping work but it is large and has several mature trees...In fact, I'd say if you want to grow anything other than the existing trees that its got too much tree....one of them will probably have to come down. If you tour this house check out the neighbors backyard on the south side....Its got this amazing 3 story tree house thing that looks pulled from Disneyland! Its got rope bridges and a big slide and MAN I wish I was 10 yrs old again so I could go play on it.

House Exterior: The exterior appeared to be in good shape with the unpainted shingles looking to be okay. There was evidence of dry rot in the eaves and on the front porch. Several of the windows looked to be painted shut.

Interior: The front room was a good size though I would not call it 'spacious' as the add copy does. The dining room is also a good size but not humongous. Both bedrooms are actually pretty good sized with decent closet space. The half bath in the one bedroom looks a bit uh, cramped shall we say...The full bath looks original still, but it looks nice and its actually a good size, as in not tiny.
Kitchen: The kitchen is TINY and looks to be of a 50's vintage. Off the kitchen there is a little nook that they are pretending is a breakfast nook...no way, too small, and the only way into the 3rd bedroom is through this nook. This means, that you will HAVE to use the dining room to eat in, which leaves just the one decent sized but not huge front room as common area space.

I had a nice chat with the Realtor about the place and it seems like she's not trying to mis-represent the place (a nice change). She had the certified permit history there (which goes back to the 40's! and Shows that they converted the porch into a bedroom with permits in the 50's!!!) and not one but two termite reports (~$48k in work!!!) but no house inspection. I asked her if there where any issues with the house and she mentioned the electrical...apparently it would not work when the watering was turned on????

I asked her about the price, since 1290 Caroline is about the same size house on the same size lot in basically the same neighborhood why did she feel that this house was worth ~$80k more. She said, it was the location and the fact that the house was a Craftsman and that, 'Craftsmans always go for more than 50's houses...' I don't know about that. The price differential seems a bit unreasonable to me....

I asked her who her target market was, and I was surprised to hear her say retiree's. But it makes sense, the house is all on one level in a safe neighborhood.

Conclusion: The house is SMALL!!!!!!! I don't see how any family (even with only 1 kid) that can afford the Gold Coast being happy with how small the place is. The house is probably the smallest on the block. This house would work well for a couple of retirees who want to be close to the grand kids.

What The House Needs:
There was no house inspectors report to read so based on my observations.....
Even though it has a concrete foundation circa 1915 the termite report calls it out as failing! This can happen when there is too much water seeping through the concrete for too many years...

1. New Foundation: Dig down and give yourself a real basement for storage and maybe a 'plus' room. ~$100k with good water management features.
2. New forced air furnace and get rid of all the abspestos lined ducts.
3. House is still partially on fuses in an abspestos lined box..might want to change that.
4. House still have galv water pipes that look old, repipe the place in PEX.
5. Do a pop-top master suite addition to give you the room a modern family needs to raise kids.
6. Remodel the Kitchen annexing the 'breakfast nook' space.
   

We'll call it ~$300k worth of work. If you could get the place for $600k you just might break even after adding all the legal square feet....cause the place does have location....Course if you're a retired couple the place might work 'as-is'.

And that's the way I see it.

Halloween Sneak Peek....

Something Wicked This Way Comes........

Check out this video for a sneak peek at what's new this year in the Haunted Graveyard...

This should give you some idea about how the creepy scarecrow is going to look.

Closer-up shot of what's going to be the head for our new even creepier scarecrow.

Alamedeans, Decorate Your House For Halloween!!!!
This year I'm part of the team putting on the annual 'Alameda Haunt Your House' Contest. First prize is two round trip tickets on Frontier Airlines!!!! Woo-Hooo!!!!

This year we're teaming up with the Alameda Food Bank. Every entry will get a Halloween themed canned food collection box. We hope that people will donate food on the two days of the contest and on Halloween.

Alameda is full of neat old houses that would look even more amazing spookified for Halloween don't ya think?

Its easy to enter the contest just email your name address and the name of your entry to boo@alamedahauntyourhouse.com Deadline for entries is Oct 25th.

We're getting the word out about the contest as best we can. The Journal ran an article about it, the AAPS is putting an article about it in their newsletter, we're flyering around town, we're even working on a short 5 minute commercial to be played on the local cable access show about Alameda!!

We could use your help to spread the word even farther. Know someone who lives or has a business in Alameda who loves Halloween? Send em the link to the contest!

Thanks,
Madmadscientist

Garden Report Sept 25th.

Okay, just cause Aunt Sue asked for it.....

Garden Report for Sept. 25th.
If there is any kind of society for the prevention of cruelty to tomatoes I'm probably going to get picketed after this post.

The sun gold tomatoes....don't they look super healthy and vibrant and awesome?
I'm going to blame the super cold weather we've been having on how pathetic this plant looks....

The green zebra's look not much better...tomato plants are supposed to turn grey-brown right? And why the green zebras are yellow??? Heck if I know...

We've already eaten several tomatoes from this plant....we haven't been overwhelmed by the flavor..

The pineapple tomatoes are doing just as splendid as the others as you can plainly see....yikes... The few ripe ones we've eaten do taste better than the not-green zebras though...
Doesn't that plant look healthy?

The basil-pepper pot is going the best. We are constantly clipping basil and adding it to pasta...Out of two different pepper plants I only got 2 peppers....guess I better pick them soon and eat them before they get over ripe....but they just look so pretty on the plant.

The neighbor on one side has yellow cherry tomatoes that are growing up over the 6' fence! She regularly gives us bags of tomatoes! Please her heart....

Here's the other neighbors tomatoes planted in the exact same pots as mine...yet hers are growing taller than the garage they are planted next to!

Here's another neighbors garden as viewed from our stairway window....shes got tomatoes and sunflowers and well, tons of stuff!

So, to sum up the garden report, my tomatoes are sad and pathetic, and everybody elses are doing great..... Yes, I've got a brown thumb it seems....

The End.

Burning Man Comes To Alameda Year 2

Over the past labor day weekend we had our 2nd annual 'Old Farts Burning Man Experience'. I don't think that was the official name.....maybe it was, the 'We're too old, tired, and grumpy to go to Burning Man so we're bringing it to us' party?

Anywho, unlike our regular BBQ parties this party started at 6pm so that the bulk of the party would happen after dark.

Here's Natasha doing her level best to sneak into the bar....she likes the wine bottles....You can see on top of the bar the large pitcher of Sangria Irene made. It was the 'drink of the night' and wow was it popular...I think we went thru like 5 bottles of two buck chuck!

Here's a shot early on of all the people who actually showed up on time!
Actually, I included this shot cause what's going on in the lower right corner. Tasha and her bestest pal Virginia are both trying to sneak into the bar!!
Yay!! Double martinis for everyone under 2 yrs old!

Here's a shot of Tasha and daddy, just because. I think that's her pensive look.

A Burning Man Cupcake uh, thingy even showed up! The melted sugar in the cupcakes was meant to look like fire! Best thing about it though, was if you tried to eat it, it would cut you! Safety Third!!!

Once it started to cool off we uncovered the fire pit and sparked it up. Turns out you can make pretty decent jiffy pop over the fire. Trick is, to keep it moving nonstop. I think Gimpy won the prize for best popped corn.

As it got dark we started to light up more and more of the fire art.

We lit up some of the bouquets.

Ummmmmmmm.......Arty!

Here's the traditional family fire portrait, this time in front of one of our Reuben's tubes.

Nice shot of the flaming wedding arch. Looks like Gimpy is looking for somebody to get married too....

This is right before Tasha went to bed. Shes in her super cute skull and crossbones pj's.

Just a shot of family, friends and neighbors enjoying the last BBQ of the summer season.

Here's a pretty decent shot of one of the tulips firing off.....Well we had both tulips going on their lowest possible settings for a while....Don't tell a couple of 3rd grade boys that if they press this button they can make 20' fire balls....cause they'll press that button non-stop!
Apparently even though we thought we told all our neighbors what was going on somebody still thought it was the end of the world and called 911....

Apparently every single fire engine from every single fire station was rolling to our house at the same time....The first guy who showed up was a captain and he took one look around and rushed to cancel all the other trucks. Still we ended up with a pumper truck, a ladder truck, AND the chiefs suburban!! All flashing lights and sirens!!!What fun!
I love this shot, the place is swarming with fire fighters and my friends are so blase about it they're not even stopping their conversations!
In this shot I'm explaining the works to the Chief, captain and some other fire fighters.

You can barely tell from this shot but the young fire fighter here has a big ear to ear grin on his face. Actually all the FF's thought it was pretty awesome and liked all the art.
Having the AFD show up was great. All the kids loved getting their pictures taken with them and the party had many single women of a certain age who just LOVE FF's. The ladies actually made the captain blush by woo'ing at him.

Here's a good shot with me in front of the Ruben's tubes with the Chief, captain.
I convinced them that what they were looking at was essentially propane tiki torches (yes a whole lot of them) which are legal so I didn't think there should be any problem with them.... They were cool about it and just wanted me to turn off the Ruben's tube on the right here cause it was near a tree and the neighbor was bitching....They also made us turn off half the wedding arch near the fence cause another neighbor was bitching....
It was funny the FF's kept coming back in little shifts of 2-3 to check out the fire art and for me to give them a little tour. I think they liked the Ruben's tubes the best. Its neat to watch the flames dance to the music.

I thought we where done but the Captain came back and said, 'Uh, do you have something that shoots 20' fireballs???'
'Why yes, a couple of the pieces have that ability you wanna see?'

'Uh, no, one of your neighbors is pitching a fit about it.'

'Oh, OK well, I've disabled that function and it will not be re-enabled tonight.'

'OK, that works for me.'

Okay neighbors, y'all got cards inviting you to the BBQ like 2 weeks before the party. On those cards it explained what exactly was going to be happening and some of you even watched as I set up the fire art. Why in the F did you just not ask me then about what ever you where uncomfortable about? I could of shown you that the fence and your tree where not in any danger! We could of talked about it and I could of set your mind at ease.....

Instead you call 911 and have the fire fighters do the talking for you? I'll never understand that....

Happy Labor Day to Everyone (belatedly)

Check The Permit Record!!!

I've mentioned this is the past but I think I need to re-enforce the message...

Check The Permit Record Of Any House You Are Considering Purchasing!!!

If you are looking at a house in the city of Alameda you can go here to find the permit record. Yes, supposedly this online data base only goes back to 89 but I've personally seen records online from the 40's and 50's.

Of course if there was work done 20+ years ago that's a different thing...but work done in the last couple of years should absolutely be permitted. I'm sorry, but ignorance, is NO excuse!!

Here's what I've learned in the last few days about the consequences of buying a house with work done without permits.

1. You, the new owner, will be absolutely responsible for fixing any unpermitted work issues. That means, if you unwittingly buy a house with extensive recent work done without permits and you pull a permit for something simple like adding an exhaust fan in a bath and the inspector sees all the unpermitted work, you, the new owner will be responsible for fixing it.
2. Fixing unpermitted work can be a very expensive can of worms. The city will make you pay all the permit fees and possibly 4x all the fees and that's just the start. Then, you'll have to open up a bunch of the walls to expose the work and then, who knows what messes the inspector will find? Then you'll have to pay someone to fix them all and patch back up the walls.
3. Some changes might not be able to be remedied. The new place you just bought has a fabulous man cave in the basement? If the ceiling isn't the right height there is no way you can make that legal habitable space. You'll have to remove all the lights, outlets, flat-screen TV, that fancy built-in bar with sink. It will all have to come out and you'll be left with one over-head light and one outlet.
4. Getting a loan might be impossible. I spoke with 2 mortgage brokers who said that if the bank knows about the unpermitted work that the bank will require the work be permitted before a loan can be issued! How do they find out? They check the official spec's of the house against what it's being sold as against the permit record.

So, don't be fooled by pretty counter tops and fancy tumbled marble baths! If the work was done recently without permits you are buying a huge can of worms.

If you're in escrow and you find this out make the seller fix everything before the close of escrow! Or, make them cut enough off the price so you can take care of it yourself afterwards.

If your Realtor tries to gloss over this, find a new Realtor! as they are more concerned about their commission than your safety.