What was done to the house
great question...
After I decided to update/upgrade the house, I looked at what needed to be done and broke it down into several independent projects starting with "RE-PIPING"...
That was a bust. I got estimates/quotes from 11 companies, finally weeding it down to the last best one - who then tried to jerk me around the day before they were supposed to start work.... I fired them before they started the work
After that poop-fest, I rethought the process and decided to try a general contractor. At that point, I contacted, interviewed 18 companies getting quotes from 12 of them (the rest were flakes). The bidding process came down to 2 different companies where their "scope of work" on the bids was both impressive and weirdly - practically identical.
The deciding factor was that the best company that I chose had TWO things going for it:
1. They brought a strong, confident & PROFESSIONAL energy to the table with a definitive vibe of integrity.
2. They came in $20,000 cheaper than the other company.
The money was NOT the deciding factor - the true deciding factor was that this company exuded a confident feeling of being trustworthy.... The other company I did NOT pick - felt a little bit... "sketchy", and I felt they were overselling their work & service.
When YOU purchase this home, YOU will get the full and complete documentation from the contractor AND the full warranties; yes it transfers to the new buyer as that was a question I specifically asked ahead of time.
Overall, the scope of work completed (through this general contractor) was:
A. A complete re-pipe for the house, using COPPER pipe, not PVC, plastic or anything else...
B. All new flooring; Removing the carpet and pads and everything back down to the ORIGINAL hardwood floor. Installing new PVC wood flooring (1.5 extra boxes in the garage).
NOTE: The new flooring is NOT bonded, glued, nailed or attached to the original 1950 hardwood floors of the house. You can take up the PVC flooring and easily re-finish the hardwood floors if you desired. The hardwood floors are NOT in the bathroom, kitchen or the bedroom closets. A lite sanding and re-stain is likely all you would need. I chose NOT to do that this time as I did that myself in my other house in Huntington Beach 15 years ago - I chose to save time and make this floor instead.
C. Re-locating the laundry hookups from inside the kitchen - to outside in the garage. Hookups are 120VAC and Natural gas, with both Hot & Cold water & drain line with a vent.
NOTE: A washer and (gas) dryer ARE included with the house. While we are taking several appliances with us when we move to Thailand, we are NOT taking the washer and dryer with us (too much of a conversion hassle, especially for the washing machine motor).
D. A complete internal paint job, including any and all patching and the installation of recessed lights in the Living Room, Bathroom and Kitchen.
E. Brand new bedroom closets; removing the old framed wooden closets, which would have been a big problem to refurbish, and making very large bedrooms closets with floor to ceiling mirrored doors. The space in the closets is open for the new owner (you?), to design for themselves.
F. Bathroom rebuild. re-glazing the shower tub, installing a new large glass door, replacing the vanity and the toilet with brand new ones, recessed lights, an illuminated mirror with a defogging option.
The special part; a NEW cabinets. I had the old cabinets removed to make the bathroom larger; I cut the hall closet in half and made half of the wall closet open into the bathroom. The net result is: CLEANER lines, MORE floor space and MORE actual usable storage space. 'I' did not do this, I had the idea and then I had the contractor do this for me.
G. I had the contractor, strip and replace the green paint on the exterior trim and freshen up the yellow color in a few spots.
C. Of course, A complete new kitchen - ripping out EVERYTHING and rebuilding it from scratch. Discovering there was a convection vent above the stove (we never knew it existed), having them re-route it to the new microwave so that it now actually is a forced air vent to the outside. All new electrical in the kitchen, NEW dishwasher (never was one before), NEW stove, NEW microwave, NEW cabinets, NEW countertops AND backsplash, NEW sink, NEW disposal in the sink, NEW 'lazy Susan' in the end cabinet. Every inch was utilized to make the kitchen bigger and more spacious & functional than anyone in our family could have dreamed; It used to be a very small kitchen - but not anymore.
SPECIAL NOTE on the contractor: I was so impressed with their workers, quality of their work and professionalism after they started the job, that I quickly added and additional $20,000 of work to their contract. I would highly recommend this company to anyone needing work completed. I provided this same information to several people and I have heard that forwarded it to their clients - - based on the quality of work visible in this house as it sits now.
ALL OF THE WORK IS LEGAL AND FULLY PERMITTED. I have the original hand signed permits from the inspector, which will be passed to the new owner.
Other (non-contractor) work;
A. Includes a NEW fence on the South side of the fence. The neighbors to the South, chose to replace the fence all around their house and contacted me to see if I wanted to split the cost with them. I agreed, I paid for half of the white fence from the front gate to the brick wall and I paid full price for the matching gate (with lock). The topping on the brick fence, they paid for that as they wanted their privacy. The contract (and the gate keys) will be included with the house papers, in case you need to contact the fence company.
There was never a gate on the South side of the house; just a wooden fence at the rear, leaving the side of the house fully exposed - not anymore.
By putting the new fence in and installing the gate in the front, I took down the old blocking fence and it opened up the whole South side of the house. You could install some little cabinets for storage out there and have them safe inside the fence line. Why did they not ever think about that? Parents, go figure....
B. Front irrigation lines. We had them 40+ years ago but they got broken and lost a long time ago. I put in garden hoses attached to sprinklers for several years, just to repair and re-build the grass in the front yard. I had a landscaper from across the street, remove the hoses and install new PVC pipes, from the existing valves in the front, to all the sprinklers as they are now. I had them install lines into the planters as well, currently configured as drip lines. There are 6 gear driven sprinklers that cover the entire front lawn. All sprinklers connect to the controller (Orbit, B-Hyve) unit in the garage which is WiFi connected and controlled manually OR on an app on the phone. These are GREAT units, I have several in Thailand that I control from here on my phone.
NOTE: The current controller in the garage is currently LOCKED into my app on my phone; I will be taking that particular unit with us to Thailand. I will gladly help the new owners install, configure and setup theirs, if you choose to use the same controller - AFTER you install your own WiFi service in the house (for connectivity).
1. The rear irrigation system is fine and working great. There is an UNUSED 24V control valve (with wire) in the North planter. It is connected to the controller but NOT active. If you want a special line for that planter for a little garden or something, that is the perfect line for that.
C. Landscaping: Most of the plants in the front and rear of the house were added to make the house look nice. The new owners SHOULD know and understand that we (my wife and I) planted those plants in the ground STILL IN THEIR POTS. If you LIKE the plant and want to keep it, pull it up, take the plant out of the pot and drop it back in the dirt.... If you do NOT like the plants, then it is easy to remove the whole pot with the plant and then replace it with one of your choosing. We did this intentionally for that purpose; so that the NEW owners can choose to keep or REPLACE the plants - as easily and as quickly as possible.
All the plants have a drip line which runs for a minute or two a few times a day to make sure they get enough water during this summer.
D. Fountain: There used to be just a birdbath there to serve a LOT of local birds but keeping it filled was a pain. I finally just ran a drip line across the grass and clamped it onto the edge to keep it filled.
I chose to change the game....
I removed the bird bath and replaced it with a fountain, something that mother would have LOVED. I installed a conduit under the planter wall to the edge of the foundation. It is only about 6 INCHES deep so be aware of it....
That conduit carries 3 things:
* 1/4 inch drip irrigation line - - into the fountain, to automatically keep it filled.
* 12 Volt AC wire - - to power the lights in the water and on the ground to light up the fountain at night.
* 9 Volt DC wire - - to power the water pump.
The other end of the conduit is a grey watertight box, inside the planter and just under the grey colored rocks. In that box, comes the drip line from the drip irrigation main line. Also the other wires. One connects to the lighting circuit that connects all the lights around the yard. The other wire for the water pump, comes from the garage where the power in located... It uses a doorbell power transformer to go from 120Volts AC down to 12 Volts AC, all the way to that grey box. Inside that box, is a bridge rectifier, that changes the 12 Volts AC to 12 Volts DC power. The 16 Volts DC power then goes into a DC to DC converter, that accepts the 12 Volts AC in and provides 9 Volts DC out, which goes directly to the water pump inside the fountain. The fountain pump was originally a SOLAR water fountain that uses a small SOLAR panel to give 8.5Volts DC to the pump; all I did was to get the pump a tiny bit more power - but a completely reliable power source (on a timer), There is nothing fancy about any of this, it is a simple setup. AC power travels further with little loss of power; DC power from the garage to the pump, would not have worked very well, because of too much Voltage loss along the way.
The MOST important, is that this is all LOW VOLTAGE, you can't get hurt with these low voltages. Regular house power (120V), under the grass and into the fountain, with WATER - is NUTS and way too dangerous for adults - let alone children. Everything is LOW voltage and it is safe, at least as safe I can possibly make it legally. Since landscape lights all legally run at 15 Volts or LESS, I made sure the fountain was UNDER that already legal standard.
E. The grass itself is simple St Augustine grass. First planted in the late 1970's, it has been growing there ever since. Father had a tendency to OVER fertilize it, to the point he almost killed it off before he passed away (Google earth history). I watered the heck out of the front AND the back, just to flush the excess fertilizer down deep into the dirt - it took a couple years to complete, but now look at it. It is deep and plush and actually stronger than I have EVER remembered it being. The corner bushes in the backyard are 'Japanese Boxwood', planted with the grass way back then.
