...Which is why Plan C makes sense

I did the math on Plan B. The expanded house would be 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths (no tub), with a 2-car attached garage and a wine cellar. It includes a 486 SF one-bedroom apartment with a separate entrance. 2,980 SF not including the garage. A brand-new house with those specs could sell in the mid-$700s in this neighborhood, maybe $800,000.

To get there, we propose adding 314 SF to the main floor and a 1,084 SF second floor. We need to add 184 SF to restore the garage, but that doesn't cost the same as living space. The plan includes a two-story volume for the Trees Room, and while that isn't free, it isn't the same as living space, either.

314 SF (main floor) @ $200/SF = $62,800
1084 SF (2nd floor) @ $200/SF = $216,800
184 SF (garage) @ $100/SF = $18,400
304 SF (Trees room ext. height) @ $50/SF = $15,200

RENOVATION COST = $313,200

Basis = $467,000
Remodel = $313,200
Cost = $780,200

Sale Price = $800,000
Excise Tax (1.78%) = $14,240
Profit = $5,560

Plan A

Plan A would be 3 bedrooms, 3 baths (no tub), with a 2-car attached garage. It includes a 263 SF studio apartment with a separate entrance. 1,630 SF not including the garage. A "studs-out remodel" with those specs should sell in the mid $500s in this neighborhood--it's just much smaller than its competition.

We would leave the footprint mostly alone, other than enclosing the porch. 

48 SF (porch) @ $200/SF = $9,600

184 SF (garage) @ $100/SF = $18,400

New kitchen, 3 new baths, reconfigure roof = $20,000

RENOVATION COST = $48,000

So, our cost is $515,000 (I think the conversion to gas, repiping, rewiring, and all new finishes might bump the cost another $20,000, but it's a swag.)

Sale Price = $565,000
Excise Tax = $10,057
Profit = $39,943 (or $19,943 if I'm right about the extras)

Put in $68, get back $20 profit--there aren't many investments that yield 29%. On the other hand, $20k is too small. I'd like to scale the whole thing up--put in $314k, get back $91k. Hey...$314k sounds like Plan B.

Let's work Plan B the other way:

Basis = $467,000
Remodel = $313,200
Desired Profit = $91,000
Cost + Profitt = $871,200
Excise Tax = $15,000 (about)

So, we sell for $886,200 and it's all good.

Comparables

12721 Evanston Ave N (Bitter Lake) - Asking $769,000 4BR/2.5BA, 2392 SF ($321)
1255 NW Blakely Ct - Asking $800,000 4BR/4.25BA, 4040 SF. Built 1969, lot is 12,600 SF.($198)
606 N 138th St (Bitter Lake) - Asking $689,000 4BR/2.75 BA, 2640 SF. New, modern ($261)

At $886,200, we would be at $298/SF.

Plan B

I'm designing three approaches at once: Plan A, the minimum footprint change; Plan B, a full build-out; and Plan C, a hybrid. Here's Plan B, with some details to work out.

Known problems:

• The kitchen has no refrigerator
• The living room is a Tetris shape with no definition and no particular place for a dining table. A eating counter in this situation seems stupid.
• What does one do in a Trees Room?
• There is no laundry
• Should the Guest Apt have a roof deck over the garage extension?
• The Trees Room is long and narrow--that was not the original idea.

Security camera

A few weeks of playing with the Samsung SmartCam in the kitchen have persuaded me that what is needed is an outdoor camera, showing the car, the garage doors, the front door and the side yard to the back. The indoor camera in the kitchen was not very helpful.

Good news--Samsung makes an outdoor model with a nice wide angle lens that meets this need perfectly.

I can connect the camera's base unit to power in the cabinet over the microwave and run the video line straight through the wall. (Right now, I have the video line going out the kitchen's north window.) Turns out the drill bits didn't make the truck north.

I returned one indoor camera, and kept the second one to monitor Bedroom 3, since it has an outside door. These cameras work with the wi-fi network, and the Bedroom 3 camera couldn't connect reliably to the router when it was 65' away in Bedroom 1. So, I moved the router to Bedroom 2, more in the middle of the house, and everything seems copacetic.

First draft of Plan A

Here's a first pass at what Plan A might entail. We need to resolve the kitchen and bathroom layouts, end the confusion about which front door to use, and restore the garage. The idea with Plan A is to make minimal changes to accomplish those goals (Plans B and C also add square footage in the form of bedrooms and baths).

I already see things I want to change

I held the new garage back 4" from the main house to be cute with the Seattle garage frontage rules, but that's stupid--the rule says "no closer to the street," so it can be even with the house.

I looked, but couldn't find anything that says that the man door on the south wall of the garage has to open in the direction of egress. That wouldn't be the end of the world, but it's better as shown, imo.

My apathy for the front yard shows...I didn't leave a door. I'm not happy with the kitchen layout, so presumably a garden door can be added (perhaps where shown) in a revised layout. The idea, by the way, was to let a super-wide refrigerator intrude into the public space so the chef isn't bothered by people getting drinks. I'm also assuming there is such a thing as a corner pantry unit.

The dashed rectangle in the garage, btw, represents the precise dimensions of a 2005 Toyota Prius.

I'm thinking that we leave the living room north elevation completely as is--hence, no garden door there--but re-face the kitchen on the north and west sides to match the garage extension, presumably something geometric like cement board, rather than vertical or horizontal siding. We might be able to save the hardwood in the living room, but not the old dining room, and it's fine in the two bedrooms.

Not sure how to treat the garage extension. Maybe a gable that ties back to the hip. But one possibility is to keep it flat and run stairs up the west side (hidden by the workshop extension), so there's an accessible roof deck. Sigh--a solution in search of a problem.

Zoning envelope

Trees House is zoned SF9600 (single-family homes only, minimum lot size 9,600 SF). The following information is based on Seattle Development and Planning Department (DPD) Tip #220. The lot size is important, because lot coverage is a consideration. Unlike most parcels, we won't know the precise boundary dimensions until the survey is prepared--it's just not clear from the available public records.

Setbacks

Standard setbacks apply: 20' front, 25' rear (see below), 5' on sides, and the existing house has a margin all around--we can extend the house in any direction.

I can't remember a project where the existing house didn't touch at least one setback.

Front: The living room can be at least 9' closer to the street. The garage can be 17' 6" closer to the street. (Pending confirmation by the survey)

Sides: The NW and NE corners are apparently not 90 degrees. The north boundary bears at N 88-27-02 W, and the west boundary at N 0-55-11 W, so the NW corner is 87.5309 degrees.

Rear: The garage can extend at least 20' to the south. The main house can move at least 28' south. The normal 25' setback is already reduced to 24' (20% of average lot depth), but an odd rule about not counting portions of parcels less than 10' wide might apply to the SE corner where the parcel makes an acute angle.

Keith Cross, the soils engineer, warned against proposing construction in the rear, for fear of Carkeek entanglements, so it is ironic that being in an Environmentally Critical Area (ECA) could reduce the setback requirement by 5'. That would effectively allow us to build right to the top of slope (pending confirmation by the surveyor). For the ECA reduction, see Seattle 23.44.014D15.

Height Limit

The height is limited to 30' about average grade, with several possible exceptions.

The average grade can be calculated by one of several methods (see Seattle Director's Rule 9-2011), but it will likely work out to about 3' below the main floor level (the grade is about 6' below at the SW corner of BR3).

Exceptions. The ridge on a gable or hip roof can be 35' from the average grade, but flat and shed roofs must stay under the 30' limit. Exceptions are made for railings and chimneys up to 4' above a flat roof. Clerestories can be up to 4' above a flat roof, but the raised area must be less than 30% of the roof area.

We have been using +263.0 as the finish floor of the main house, so the base height limit is +290. We can do two floors with a 10' ceiling downstairs and a 14' ceiling and a flat roof upstairs. Three stories would be hard to sell in this neighborhood of mostly one-story homes.

Garage Frontage

We would like to move a 20' wide garage to the front setback, but a special Seattle rule applies, designed to de-emphasize garages along a streetfront. First, the garage is limited to 50% of the structure width (currently 68' 1"), so we're good there.

Second, the garage may not be closer to the street than 80% of the walls that are not the garage. Currently, the 20' 3" garage is set back from the 47' 10" house, except for the 13' 8" breezeway, which is 28.57%. We are currently non-compliant, which is a potential exception for us--hey, it works for side setbacks.

Seattle wants to discourage this sort of thing

Lot Coverage

The lot coverage is limited to 35% of the parcel size, with several exceptions, none of which apply. The "footprint" is supposed to include things like bay windows, even if they don't touch the ground, but not ordinary roof eaves. The existing house, including the front porch and the greenhouse, is 1895.082 SF. The current coverage is either 17.9% (10,589) or 17.5% (10,800).

The limit is either 3,706.15 SF (10,589) or 3,780 SF (10,800), which we are unlikely to approach.

Parcel Size

We know the parcel is 90 feet wide (from the legal description--it's the westernmost 90' of lot 24), and the lot size is either 10,589 or 10,800 square feet. Not sure where the first number came from, but the King County Parcel Viewer database says it's the latter. Because the lot is a simple trapezoid, we can calculate the average depth of the lot. 90' wide at the street, sides parallel, means that the average depth is 120' becase 90 x 120 = 10,800. Because we know the angle of the boundary with Carkeek Park, we can calculate the lengths of the two sides.

The property line to the west is 102.06' and to the east is 137.94'--these are my calculations, based on the angle of the south line, pending confirmation by the surveyor. Even if my angle of 68.27 degrees is found to be mistaken, the lot area is still 10,800. (If the lot is really 10,589 SF, the average depth is 117.65'.)

Up on the rooftop, quick quick quick

First time on the roof today. Scoped out the gutters--there is debris in every run, some worse than others. Along the breezeway, the previous owners ran the cable TV line in the gutter.

I did not expect the carpet of dead needles on the west side of the garage roof, and generally, everywhere else. The chimney is very, very old. Dickensian old. No covers on the flues. The smell of diesel fuel ("heating oil," to use the industry's euphemism) wafts from one uncovered flue; warm, expensively heated air from the other. Good news--the flashing around the chimney is fairly new.

Looking east from the garage. Line on the right is the advanced cable TV distribution network installed by the previous owner.

Looking west from the main house. Breezeway ridge is about an inch below the garage ridge.

View from second floor bedroom into Carkeek Park

Chimney and neighbor to the east

Dickensian chimney. Ow, guvnor, it needs a good sweepin's all.

It was hard to figure out this little detail from the ground

John Lasswell says we need a rain cover. Roger that. He says they're called "spark arrestors" in dry California. Near flue vents the oil furnace; far flue is the damper-less living room fireplace.

Just a few needles. How does one clean them off without removing the granules from the asphalt shingles?

The Master Bathtub Leaks

I had just about persuaded myself that home inspector John Lasswell was wrong when he said that the bathtub leaked. I have no doubt he found moisture under the plumbing end of the tub, but that's the outside wall where someone cut a silly, narrow door out to a homespun greenhouse. When that narrow door is open, you can see a cross-section of the wall--siding, furring, sheathing--that they didn't bother to close. I wanted to conclude that the infiltration John found was the wall, not the plumbing.

Well... I took a shower this morning and five minutes later went down to measure the basement. We've had no rain since Saturday (it's Wednesday) and there was a small stain of fresh water--maybe 1 square foot--on the otherwise dry basement floor. It ain't the greenhouse.

It might be the drain line from the tub, or there could be water getting behind the tile, because the caulking has failed, especially on the long wall. A pro could poke and prod and likely find a quick sealant-based remedy. Just have to make it through Christmas with 4 or 5 visitors, then this tub is history.

Ideas

Peggy sent a link to these photos of the Ajioka House, a Buff & Hensman 1960 project.

I created an Ideabook on Houzz back in September to gather inspirational photos.

Surveying the estate

I need a full topographic survey of the Trees House. We've got a stake at the NE corner, but we need to know where the house is relative to the property lines and exactly where the top of slope into Carkeek Park is.

817 NW 118th St, Seattle, WA 98177 is parcel 761120-0125

Peggy called True North, Eileen Forrester, president. They said $900 for boundary, $2000 for recorded. Eileen emailed:

Because your property is within an Environmentally Critical Area (ECA), the requirements are a full topographic survey of the property plus 25 feet into adjacent properties and full right-of-way of the adjacent street. The cost would be $3680 plus the cost to locate the underground utilities which should be approximately $200.

Peggy also called Tim Griffin at 10007 Greenwood Ave N and Tyee Surveyors. Mia Natale, Project Manager, got back to us:

The cost for the topographic survey on NW 118th Street would be $1725.00.

The next day, she added this:

This is the scope of work for the topographic survey of the property on NW 118th Street.

TASK 03 TOPOGRAPHY SURVEY
This task includes:
Perform 2 foot contour topography survey.
Prepare drawing showing contours, spot elevations and improvements.
Includes trees 6” diameter and larger not in the steep slope area.
Includes existing utilities located by surface evidence.
Tied to City horizontal and vertical datum.
Includes elevations and location of house
Fee: $1725.00

I think a crew will be out on Monday, Dec 1, but I will verify it. I told Mia by email that I won't be back from SoCal until Dec 2, but she has not replied.

Update: Mia replied Sunday 11/16 that a full contract and invoice would be coming this week.

Further Update: Ken Green of GeoDimensions called Monday 11/17, following up on their proposal of 11/13. It was an impressive proposal, and I might have been tempted, but it got a little lost in the shuffle. They bid $3,008 including the King County recording fee. This explicitly included an ECA survey (not sure if that's different than the topo) and staking all property corners (which sounds like they didn't do a prelim look--the corners in the park are a ways down the slope). But Ken seemed like a good guy and he was following up--I'll consider him if I have any more work. 425-458-4488, www.geodimensions.net.

Radical Update: I sent Mia an email on Wednesday 11/19. When I had heard nothing by Thursday morning, I called their main number. No answer, no voice mail. I drove by the place last night--it's a house on Greenwood. I sent Mia and Tim Griffin a "forget it" email and got back to Ken Green of GeoDimensions. Within 10 minutes, I heard from Ken's assistant, Lizzy, that I had been assigned a project number #141544 and a project manager, Karen Swift. They say they need just 15 business days--that would be Friday, December 12. Their office looks more professional on Google StreetView, too.

Washing and Drying

Whirlpool Duet

At Albert Lee Appliances, I bought a new Whirlpool washer (WFW94HEAW) and a matching floor model dryer (WED94HEAW) on Monday, Nov 11 for delivery Saturday. The dryer had a scratch on the right side, but otherwise they're a matched pair. I needed a $21 stack kit. I liked my salesman, Vernon White (vernon.white@albertleeappliances.com).

On Saturday, Nov 15, at 2:30, the truck showed up with 3 men to bring it in. They unpacked and setup the units in the street, then walked the pair, stacked, into the house using a sling between two men. The 3-prong 220V outlet in the closet had three straight slots, which I'm told is for a range, so they couldn't test the dryer, which has an L-shaped ground plug.

They ran the washer to verify proper hookup and leak-less drain. Seems fine. After I signed the delivery forms, I went to Home Depot and bought the right outlet. After I swapped out the 220V outlet, I discovered that they hadn't bothered to install the vent.

Update: After I complained, Albert Lee sent two installers back out on Tuesday, Nov 18. They trimmed the vent hose and installed the water line for the dryer's steam feature. By the way, I found this photo on the internet. The closet still looks like this:

All is revealed

Dewey from Lee's General Landscaping and Yard Cleanup came by Thursday afternoon and gave me a quote of $1150 plus 9.5% tax to clear away the Rhododenron in back and the wisteria and ivy against the garage. He bargained down to $1200, tax included.

The garage is no longer being accosted by the wisteria. The brick veneer at the corner, and the green siding, had been completely hidden behind ivy.

On Friday, Nov 14, about 9am, 4 men showed up and started removing the plants (and trimming the wisteria or whatever it is at the SW corner of BR3). They worked until almost 1pm, with a short lunch break. I asked them to trim the wisteria at the entry steps some more, and they had left a Rhododenron branch skeleton at the south end of the bush which I asked them to take. Close to 2pm, Dewey showed up with a truck and it took the now smaller crew a full hour to load the debris onto the truck. Lots of chain saw action while standing in the back of the stake truck.

So, 16 man-hours in the morning, another 3 loading the truck, plus dump fees. If the dump fees were $200, with 9.5% sales tax, I paid about $900 for 19 man-hours. That's about $47. Seems like I could have had the work done for a lot less than $1200, but that's what I paid. I'll have to be more careful with my money in the future.

The cleanup revealed a very nice Norman brick entry monument from which the (still inoperable) post light emerges. It also revealed dark green siding that didn't get painted blue with the rest of the house. On the south side, it seems that the deck railing was once a rust red instead of bright white.

Charming 1947 site furniture that had been completely obscured

Site of the huge hedge that blocked the view of Carkeek Park

Dewey was certain that what Peggy called an English Laurel was actually a Rhododendron, which Peggy said would produce beautiful flowers in Spring. Turns out there are hundreds of varieties of "Rhodies," including the Azalea. This one had to go, however, so that we could see the trees of Carkeek from the entry breezeway. It worked, except now you can see the incongruous palm tree, which will likely have to be transplanted.

Before: Rhoda the Rhododendron hides everything

After: You can see clearly now

Now you're heating with oil

Aidan O'Callaghan of Sound Oil left his card last week and we spoke on the phone Monday morning.

Dear New Owner,
Congratulations on your new home! Please call us anytime for details on heating your new home and to schedule a furnace tuneup (no charge). We have served your home previously (Sound/Anderson oil) and the tank is very low. Thank you. Aidan.

It's a 300-gallon tank, about 60" x 38" diameter. They chart the weather daily for a more accurate estimate, and they try to top off the tank when it's about 1/4 or 1/3 full. They bill at the end of the delivery month, and 40% is due at that time, or a minimum of $105. The oil is currently about $3.80 per gallon, plus 5% sales tax. He guesses that two deliveries a year is enough for this house.

We'll get a delivery today or tomorrow, because Aidan thinks that the tank is pretty low--near "residual." If it's 290 gallons, that will cost $1,102 plus $55.10 sales tax, or $1,157.10. But they will bill at the end of November for $462.84 (40%). I guess (but I'm not sure), that that will leave a remaining balance of $694.26 and I'll be billed for 40% of that ($277.70) in December, and so on.

I'll contact Aidan (he's my account rep) soon to schedule a free furnace tuneup/inspection. Sound Oil offers a $189/year service plan that even includes parts, or we can go T&M at $140/hour plus $30 per call.

Office: 206-725-6300
Fax: 206-725-5007
Cell: 206-940-1113
Email: aidan@soundoil.net

Sound Oil
6346 Rainier Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98118

Update: Delivery on Tuesday, Nov 11 at 4:54pm of 212.1 gallons at $3.799/gallon. "Dyed Diesel Fuel"--odd, huh? The oil was $805.77, plus $76.55 (9.5%) tax. Total $882.32. Driver is Eric.

Update: Returning home Jan. 22, I found that the oil tank was empty. (It ran out sometime between Jan. 17 and 22.)

Update: Sound sent Eric Jan. 23 to fill me up--280.7 gallons this time. The oil is only $2.989/gallon, so I saved $227.37. Not bad. I added $918.72 to my Sound Oil balance.

Deep cleaning

A four-person crew from Secret Service Housekeeping descended on Trees House Monday, Nov 3 from 10:30 to just about 2. For $400, they cleaned everything except the oven (they didn't expect that it wouldn't have a self-clean feature). The leader is Ozzy Girl.

ozzy@secretservicehousekeeping.com
17430 Ambaum Blvd. S #12
Burien, WA 98148

The big move

On Thursday, Oct 30, I slept at the Joneses. We all woke up at 5am or so and they drove me to the light rail on Friday, Oct 31. I landed in San Jose, waited around a bit, and met Peggy's flight at 11. We arranged for a 14' U-Haul truck for Saturday morning, had lunch at a very cool Apple cafeteria (designed by Norman Foster) and visited Kelley's apartment. Then we met Jon and Kelley for dinner at Mama Mia. We spent the night at the Larkspur Landing in Campbell. Jon slept on the couch.

On Saturday, Nov 1, Jon drove us out to Newark (near Fremont) to pick up the U-Haul truck. It was brand new, with only 1,000 miles on it. Then we spent all of Saturday sorting through our storage lockers and carefully loading the truck with Peggy's things. Jon was a huge help. We all headed back to Larkspur Landing that night.

On Sunday, Nov 2, we finished loading the truck and couldn't refuse Jon's request that we visit his apartment in San Francisco. Jon, Kelley, Peggy, and I drove up in Jon's Corolla and Jon and I assembled his hat rack while Kelley and Peggy got hot dogs at Biergarten. We nailed up a ledger and hung his Mexican rug. Then everyone but Jon drove back to Los Gatos, We got the truck from Extra Space and convoyed to Apple in Cupertino, where we parked the Corolla for Jon's use and said goodbye to Kelley.

Peggy and I drove to Salinas Sunday night and stayed at the brand new Hampton Inn. The room was too big, so the TV was too far from the bed--champagne problems. We ate at Pica Fresh Mex downtown.

Monday, Nov 3, we drove down 101 to Pasadena. We arrived about 3:30 and scrambled to empty the truck until Peggy called and found we had until 10am the following day. So, we left half the stuff in the truck overnight and had dinner with Frieda at Panda Inn.

Tuesday, Nov 4, we emptied the truck and returned it to U-Haul, then I built the Expedit bookcase and put Peggy's books away. That left us with a lot of boxes to dispose of, which we did--in a "cardboard only" dumpster at Cal Tech. We spent Tuesday integrating Peggy's stuff into Frieda's duplex. I installed a sliding glass dog door for Oreo.

Wednesday, Nov 5, we got up at 5 am, only to find that Southwest had cancelled our flight. We had to call and book a flight that was two hours later.

The eventual flight was pleasantly half-full and we arrived in San Jose at 11:30, when we had planned to be there at 9:30. Kelley met us and drove me to U-Haul of Campbell, where I rented a 17' truck that was very similar to the 14' truck, only 3 feet longer.

Peggy and I worked all afternoon Wednesday loading the remaining stuff into the truck. At 3:30, we had to stop and drive Peggy to her 4pm meeting with David Beck. While they talked, I drove to Home Depot and bought rope and a box cutter. By 5:30, fortified with McDonald's, we were back clearing out the storage lockers. The sun went down and we kept working. Extra Space closed at 10 pm, and we kept working. Finally, at 11:30, we had only locker 1133 to finish. Lockers 4143 and 4144 (all 10x10) were empty. We drove the truck to Safeway, bought dinner, and headed to the Inn of Los Gatos for the night.

The next morning, Thursday, Nov 6, we finished loading the truck and I called Don at Extra Space to say that we were out of all three lockers. We went back to the hotel to freshen up for the drive north. We took 280 to 680 to the Carquinez Bridge. The 80 to the 505 to I-5, then had lunch at Granzella's in Williams.

I was surprised that it was only four and a half hours from Williams, CA to Grants Pass, OR, where we had reservations at the La Quinta. It was walking distance to a McDonald's, so we did that and then collapsed. We encountered some rain at the Oregon border, which was worrisome because the U-Haul truck wasn't guaranteed to be waterproof, but there turned out to be no problem.

Friday, Nov 7, we woke at 6am to get an early start, and by 7 we were driving through foggy Oregon. We had lunch at a McDonald's in Vancouver, WA, and at 3:30 or so, we found ourselves in downtown Seattle with the truck complaining that it had less than 50 miles of gas left. I didn't want to risk hunting for a gas station, so we went to one I knew on Roosevelt and we arrived at the Trees House at about 4:20. Peggy and I methodically emptied the truck into the garage and the MIL room behind it, and then drove the Prius to Chiang's Gourmet to meet the Joneses for dinner.

Saturday, Nov 8, we suggested that the Joneses use our truck to take their heavy, old TV to Goodwill. Kevin and I did that from 9:30 to 10, then Peggy met me at the U-Haul center on 15th south of Ballard. We kicked around Saturday afternoon, grabbing ice cream at Molly Moon's, and doing laundry at the Joneses. We planned to get started unpacking seriously on Sunday.