Despite the plumbing disaster, we are moving forward. The mitigation specialists are hard at work now tearing out the drywall and insulation in the basement, and have sealed it off from the rest of the house. We’ve brought in a load of stuff from our temporary rental, and have started unpacking the items we hadRead more about Occupancy![…]
Did I mention we are having a very large fire in the area? The Thomas Fire has been burning for more than a week now. Here is what the sky looked like a couple of days ago. Despite the fire, and the associated bad air quality, we continue to make progress on the house, albeitRead more about House update – painting, window & door casing, cabinets, and permits oh my[…]
We’ve got two permits being reviewed by the city at this time. The first is our revised landscaping permit. When we originally did the landscaping, we didn’t have the benefit of (a) spending a lot of time considering what we wanted the property to be like (we just needed something reasonably close to what weRead more about Waiting for permits[…]
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last update, but there have been no major change, just slow progress. We are in the nebulous zone between finishing everything in the walls and getting our inspections so we can then insulate and drywall the interior. There always seems to be a few more things toRead more about Update 9/8/17[…]
During the planning process, we made sure to convince the planning board that our house, despite being bigger, would not appear abnormally large from the street, as compared to the other houses on the street. We went as far as to prepare this top and street view drawing to compare our proposed house against theRead more about Comparing our house to the others on the street[…]
In addition to today being Lisa’s birthday, a lot has been happening here. Roofing The roofers have started the roofing process, laying down the second layer of paper, and flashing all around the edge of the roof. We are finalizing the solar layout and contract. Once that is done, the solar installers will install theRead more about Weekly update June 2nd[…]
Our zoning happens to allow a legal second unit, something rather valuable in Santa Barbara. The legal term for this, as we recently discovered is accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. Santa Barbara is a pretty expensive place to live, and has been for a long time. To make ends meet, many people convert part ofRead more about Accessory Dwelling Unit[…]
In December, our beloved designer informed us that she could no longer work on our project for personal reasons. Over the next two months, and interviews with 7 very capable designers, we found someone we felt comfortable with. During that time we also realized that we needed to do major changes to our landscape design. Read more about Design decisions[…]
Once the historical report was complete, we had to go before the Historic Landmarks Commission and get the HSSR approved. Getting it approved meant that the HLC agreed that there was no significant historical value to the house (other than the wall out front) and we were clear to tear it down. Now, here isRead more about The Backstory: Planning & Permits[…]