Plan comments

Dave and architect went to the city's building department today at 4:15pm, ready to pick up comments on our plans. Comments were ready!

One department had signed off, but that hadn't been entered into their records. The comments from Building were extensive, and involve a fair amount of work to meet their requests. They insist on five new sets of complete full-size plans (at $50 a pop!) for re-submittal.

One piece of good news: USAA's upgraded property valuation put our house value higher than it's ever been (? huh? In this market?), so we can increase our credit line without any trouble. (Turned out USAA couldn't understand why we'd want to increase it when we hadn't used it yet and it had a zero balance....umm, because, doesn't it make more sense to line up all the financing before you start the project?)

Living room window

Met with window salesman and architect to review window selections. Windows almost ready to order, pending a few questions such as about operable awning windows with grilles.

Apparently it's tricky to size, install and level a bay window with a countertop flowing into the bay, so it's great when your architect and your window person are talking to each other, instead of through you (well, me). Lots of other problems prevented too (only one of those $800 windows needed, tempered glass in a stairwell, hardware finish selections, knowing left from right in hinge-speak).

Our talented Architect has designed a most beautiful living room window, based on the original dining room window.

Working together

Super productive meeting w/ contractor and kitchen designer together. Together! Verify measurements, do floors or cabinets go in first, who installs cabinets, when to order...lots of great stuff. It's so comforting when your main resources cooperate.

This too: architect and contractor scouring the plans, preventing one problem after another, catching things, deciding things, finding things. Together. Before demolition. Yay.

Rental lease signed

Lease signed for rental house, 9 months, starts May 23. 4BR/2BA, yard,nice neighborhood...not bad. We'll live. We'll move early June.

Contractor signed

Yay! We have our contractor! I'm delighted with him, so organized and thorough. It was nice to hear him say, "I'd really like to do this job." It really got old begging contractors to take our money and completely disrupt our lives.

May Construction is known for keeping schedules, and that's because they manage in both directions. I'm on notice to select all our finishes, so I don't delay the project. Demolition doesn't start for another month, but I need to be picking tile now!

Permits Timeline

What we went through to get permits from a city with a reputation for being helpful and efficient.

All told, the process took over 5 months.

Feb 6 2008: First step: Architect showed plans to city Planning dept, confirmed that we are passing regulations. No formal design review needed, we're told -- only a short review over-the-counter when we submit plans for building permit.

Apr 7 2008: Try to submit for permits. Sorry, previous planner was wrong, can't do this over-the-counter after all. Now we do need a formal design review, despite Feb 6 conversation. Earliest we can submit is May 12.

Apr 8 2008: Submitted plans for design review. Estimate for review is two weeks.

Apr 24 2008: Planning reviewed the design, recommending approval. However, require neighbor notification process to give neighbors a chance to comment. City sends notice to neighbors and posts notice in front of our house, neighbors have until May 7 to review plans.

Apr 25 2008: Dave visited city building dept, spoke with Building and Engineering to ask how this unexpected 5-week delay (design review, neighbor notification process) can be used. Suggests pre-reviewing plans to maximize chances of over-the-counter approval on permit submittal day. If plans are good, and we happen to submit to the same people who pre-reviewed, chances are good we can get an over-the-counter building permit.

Apr 28 2008: Architect met with city structural engineer, went through the plans and structural calculations, minor changes for our structural engineer. City engineer says plans are clean and well prepared, sees no trouble getting plans approved for construction. But, must be submitted for a standard review, no over-the-counter permit.

May 9 2008: Submit plans, 3 days early. Comments or permits due Fri May 30. $2508 paid.

May 20 2008: Temporary power pole permit obtained.

May 28 2008: Dave talks to building coordinator -- any news about our plans? Planning and Fire okayed, but Building has redlines which will require a resubmittal. Neither Structural nor Water Pollution have even looked at the plans yet. So, no permits for us on the 30th, just comments.

May 29 2008: Architect talked to building coordinator, who gave a preliminary list of comments from Building only. These include items that could easily have been flagged earlier, such as deck design. Structural, Water Protection, and Public Works haven’t even looked at the plans yet. Previous conversation with engineer at the city not binding; as he was a consultant and not THE city engineer who decides if Structural will sign off. Comments due 5/30, no commitments on time of day besides COB.
May 30 2008: Dave and architect meet at the city at 4:15 to pick up comments, which are ready. Building wants detailed deck design, electrical plan for master bedroom, detailed plans for radiant heat extension, plans for new electrical panel location and installation, details on upstairs forced-air vent relocation.

May 31 2008: Further examination of the Comments from the city reveals a page about Encroachment permits for all offsite improvements. This includes an applicable developmental impact fee (tbd), an encroachment permit fee of $250, and "The new accessory building would add the following fees: $1,157.13 for the SS" but the grayed-out text is crossed out! And we don't have any offsite improvements. You can believe we'll be talking to Public Works next week.

June 4 2008: Architect re-submitted to the city (who tried to send her away when she arrived at 4:30pm). Comments or permits due June 18.

June 12 2008: Dave and I meet with assistant director of Public Works to discuss developmental impact fee. It's a one-time charge for when a house goes from low to standard occupancy (2BR to 3+BR), and is calculated as a delta of sewer connection fees.

June 13 2008:Send email requesting waiver of $1157.13 impact fee, as we're not adding bedrooms or connecting to the sewer. We get a call from the ass't director of P.W.: request granted!

June 19 2008: Permits granted! Paid and picked up, ready to go. Finally!

Pre-Project Lead-up

Many events led up to this massive remodel, including deciding whether or not to do it at all.

Upstairs Remodel

Jan 2006: Move downstairs, start upstairs remodel. Addition to master bedroom, new bathroom, new closets in all rooms, new floor, trim and doors, paint all around.

Feb 2007: Move back upstairs, plus one. Long story.

Remodel or move?

May 2007. Met with Dave Clark, local neighborhood realtor about our house. Open-housed in Sunnyvale and Willow Glen. Same old, same old, for a higher price. It'll cost a fortune to upgrade whether we move or remodel, but we'll get what we want with remodeling. Most houses we'd move to would still need some work, and we've already done so much to our house we like (underfloor hydronic radiant heat, nifty upstairs windows, huge garage).

Remodeling has a much higher hassle factor, but higher satisfaction also. Decided to remodel instead of move.

Finding an architect

June 2007. Follow recommendations, cold-call from phone book. Met at home with various architects. One architect's receptionist's phone skills were so poor I thought I'd called a Chinese restaurant. This architect referred me to a former employee who'd broken out on her own.

July 2007. Meetings set up with three good candidates, but the former employee who was now independent was so many heads above the others that it was only due diligence and courtesy that made me bother keeping the other appointments.

July 31 2007. Signed with architect.

Design process

September 2007. House is measured scrupulously by a crew of 2. Takes two trips, over 10 hours on-site, 4 weeks of entry into CAD system, and over $4000. Whew.

October 2007. Several designs suggested by our creative architect. Loved the proposal to move the lower section of the staircase to solve downstairs flow problems. She sees beyond that, separating public and private spaces of the house.

November 2007. Sign with kitchen designer, recommended by architect, and they've worked together before. Architect present at several pivotal design meetings, this was great to do things like move or align walls as needed for the kitchen.

January 2008. Kitchen layout done, appliances chosen, now time to pick out drawers, doors, pullouts. Not easy to decide where your silverware goes on paper!

February 2008. Structural engineers being slow, but the plans are nearly ready to submit to the city. I make a preliminary windows & doors selection for Title 24 calculations. Architect pre-reviews plans with the city, planner says this should be an over-the-counter permit.

Finding a contractor

March 2008. Start calling and meeting with contractors. Two recommended by architect, one recommended by a friend. None can start serious bidding until plans are in their hands. Starting finish selection (doors, windows, etc).

May 5-8, 2008. Meet with contractors for bids. Like with the architect, we already have a strong favorite but are doing due diligence.

May 9, 2008. Signed with contractor! Targeting to start work first week of June.