HOUSE AT HAWTHORNE HILLS

Modus V Studio Architects

2010-04-20T21:56:00.001-07:00

If you or anyone you know are thinking of remodeling or building a new custom home, we could help. Check us out at http://www.modusvarchitects.com/ to see our work!

Spring around the house

2010-04-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

I cannot take credit for this - though I suppose it was wise for us to save as many plants as possible when we were remodeling the house. The previous owners have done an amazing job with the gardens around the house. It's just a pleasure to see all the beautiful plants in the yards coming back to life during spring time:

Photo day

2009-12-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we last posted anything, and we have really been enjoying our house. We opened up the folding door in our living room in the summer and enjoy many barbeque parties in the backyard. We spent many winter nights watching TV in front of our fireplace in the entertainment room downstairs. We have been having a lot of fun cooking at home in our kitchen. A major local publication is interested in writing an article about us, and we have had the pleasure to work with an amazing photographer from them. We have got some awesome photos of the place - once the article is published we'll be sure to post a link so you can check it out!

It is done! House warming is on April 18!

2009-03-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought moving, installing the A/V stuff, and tying up all the loose ends would take so darn long - but we're practically done. We are still hanging pictures and adding some odd pieces of accent furniture here and there, but we are living in the house comfortably finally. Our housewarming party is on April 18th, and we are expecting about 80 friends. I am really looking forward to it.

Here are some photos of the finished house:

9th inning

2008-10-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

Just putting on the finishing touches now. Another week and we might be able to move in. Here're some photos.

Our stair treads came pre-stained, but we still needed to apply 4 layers of floor finish to make the treads more durable.

Basement hallway

Stairs going up to second floor

The laundry room

The basement media room

The desk we are building in our office

The house at night on the outside

Our kitchen is still under construction

Light fixture above the kitchen island

Almost There...

2008-10-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

We are finally finished with our exterior painting and installed railings. Now, all we need is a good clean up. As for the interior, we are getting closer. This past few weeks, we have been working on cabinetry, stairs, and lighting. Our scheduled move in date is late Oct.

Master bathroom cabinets

Kitchen cabinets

Toilets installed

Wood Floors

2008-09-13T11:42:00.001-07:00

Wood flooring is being installed. The wood has a heavy texture on it - thus wear and tear will only "add to the character" of the wood.

Our living room is nice and bright. The fireplace is faced with rows of slate tiles of random thickness.

Fireplaces

2008-09-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

Main Floor Fireplace "Before"

Main Floor Fireplace "Work In Progress"

Main Floor Fireplace "After" (Our painter wrapped the fireplace to protect it, we will update the photo once paint is done)

Basement Fireplace "Before"

Basement Fireplace "Work in Progress"

Basement Fireplace "After"

August Photo Update

2008-09-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

Metal Siding "Before"

Metal Siding "After"

New garage doors make the basement much brighter!

Interior doors & trims installed.

08.13.08 Family project

2008-08-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

Working late into the night, we finally finished "the wall". What's left would be filling the nail holes and some staining. Here're some photos:

Tiling mistake

2008-08-12T01:35:00.001-07:00

We've started tiling. It is a new phase in many ways, since this is finish work. The level of craftsmanship required must be much higher. The tolerance of error much smaller.

At first, we have a sub who's willing to do it for a very reasonable amount. We have worked with him before with some framing and rough masonry work and thought he was ok. So we gave him the job. He started by preparing our showers and tub surrounds with cement boards. That was not bad. Then he moved on to put the "subway" tiles on the two smaller bathrooms. That was when things went awfully wrong.

I'm not going to get into details and let's just say that there are unacceptable gaps, rows of tiles that were out of plumb, as well as rugged edges that looks like the tiles were hand broken instead of sewn. Some things that we observed that should have sounded some alarm bells:

1. He doesn't really use a level
2. He never plan the layout of the tiles before starting
3. He started with a whole tile from the edge
4. He was not responsive to our demands or suggestions

And so, we had to replace him with another guy after just two days. But the damage was done. The tiles in one of the bathrooms has to be torn down and replaced, while those in the other bathroom had to be altered significantly.

I would still call the guy who messed up our tiles for rough work. He worked hard and did a pretty good job when it comes to those other things that he did. Nonetheless, I know now that he will not be able to meet my expectations when it comes to finish work.

I guess the lesson is this: someone who's good at one thing doesn't necessarily means that he/she's good at everything- check reference for every single tasks, even if it is someone with whom you have worked with before on other things for your project.

08.12.08 The "Wall"

2008-08-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

I had an idea of using some of the old tongue and groove pine we took down from the existing ceiling in the basement and making something fun out of it. Upon entry through the front door, we have a feature wall that wraps around our future office. I thought perhaps we can use the wood to create an interesting texture on it.

This has to be the most physical work we have done since the beginning of this project. I'm so lucky that my parents are in town visiting and they were able to help us build this. It turns out to be a nice family bonding experience. Because of their involvement, this turns out to be more special than I could possibly imagine. Thanks mom and dad!

Here're some photos:

Drywall

2008-07-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

We will have drywall finished this week. We have level 5 smooth finish, and not a lot of people can do a good job with that. The guys we have are great, we have been very happy with them so far.

The only problem that we have run into is the fact that many of the can lights that was pre-installed before drywall don't line up. The can lights sits on a track so that you can slide them around for adjustments (see previous post for photo). There is a little screw you can put in to lock them in place if you choose to. Our electrician didn't lock them in place. I thought that would be fine assuming that the drywall guys will just align them when they hang the drywall. Obviously they didn't.

I guess the lesson is don't assume drywall people will move anything that's not drywall.

Exterior Color Scheme

2008-06-20T01:20:00.000-07:00

Milton and I finally figured out the color scheme for our exterior. We will see how close this is to the real thing when we are done!

A Milestone - Drywall!!

2008-06-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

The interior looks so different with drywall. Our drywaller said that they will finish our smooth level 5 drywall by next week! We are so excited...

Master Bedroom

Bedroom 1 on Second Floor

Dining & Kitchen

Inspections

2008-06-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

In the city of Seattle, your last inspection before your final inspection is the insulation inspection. Once you pass that, the inspectors don't come back again until everything is done. The following is a list of inspections that we have had since construction began in February.

1. Structure (passed the 1st time)
2. Plumbing rough-in (passed the 2nd time)
3. Electrical rough-in (passed the 1st time)
4. Gas piping (passed the 3rd time)
5. Framing (passed the 1st time)
6. Shear wall nailing (passed the 3rd time)
7. Insulation inspection (passed the 1st time)

Inspection is one of the most unpredictable part of your construction schedule. You don't know if you'll pass. If you don't, you'll have to call your subs back and fix things. You can easily lose 3 or 4 weeks just getting one inspection passed.

I find that we have had mostly a pretty easy time with inspectors. They know that I'm an architect and that definitely helps in terms of appearing more credible when i talk about what has been done. The inspectors we had tended to be friendly and helpful. With one exception.

When we had our second shear wall inspection, the inspector was pretty pissed off. The items that he had problems with were not any more significant or numerous as my other inspections, but he seemed to think that we were just wasting his time. I finally figured out later why he was so mad. I had a couple workers at the site adding some additional wiring that we decided to put in for TVs and speakers. Although they were minor alterations, the site was messy, and we still had to drill holes in the structure to pull wire.

Obviously, it looked bad. It taught me a lesson (though it should really have been obvious)... On inspection day, make sure that your site is clean and tidy. Also make sure that there are no workers doing any work during the inspection. If you do that, and you only have minor items that needs to be fixed, you'll usually at least get a conditional pass, which will allow you to keep the construction moving.

Nanawall - reason why we are broke

2008-06-02T02:24:00.000-07:00

Cool eh? Still wondering if it's worth it. One of the problems with the existing house's floor plan that we had to overcome was the size of the living room being too small. The nanawall, together with the new vaulted ceiling over the living room, does help to make it look much larger than it actually is.

06.01.08 More photos

2008-06-02T02:03:00.001-07:00

Siding (almost) complete, only part that's missing is the metal siding at the "bay window" on the second floor. I am having a real hard time finding a company who's willing to take a small job like this...

The clear cedar is nice, and the vertical arrangement helps to add scale and prominence to the main entry to the house. I guess in real estate talk that's somewhat equivalent to curb appeal.

We started insulation on the first floor. We had to do the first floor first because we need to put plywood sheathing for our shear walls on the inside. We can't put the sheathing on the outside like it is normally done because we have the existing brick finish on the outside.

05.28.08 Siding Almost Done!

2008-05-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

Our siding is soon to be done - with just the trims left. It seemed like forever, but we only had one person and he also had to re-do 1/3 of the work already completed. We have no complaints because we were able to change the textured siding to smooth siding!

We also glazed the first floor windows and installed the exterior doors. See pictures below.

05.02.08 Our house has clothes...

2008-05-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

The sider started this week. It's exciting because when he is done, our house will no longer be "naked". So far he is doing a good job. The only thing that bothered us is that they ordered the wrong hardi planks - I wanted smooth finish but they gave me textured. I was out of town so I didn't pick it up until today... but it's too late to change it now. A whole wall has been installed. O well, that's construction I guess. If you're going to be a general contractor, you've got to visit the site at least once a day.

Speaking of that, I had my framing inspection on Monday. The inspector told me he would be out there by 9:00am. He showed up at 2:00pm and of course by then I was already gone. That was a very bad thing, because I didn't get a chance to explain what happened at the site. As a result, we failed the inspection.

All this amounts to a fairly frustrating week. As a result, we have decided to set up a temporary office at the site and spend our days there for the next few weeks. Hopefully, that'll help us tighten things up and get through this critical phase of construction smoothly.

Nonetheless, despite these snafus, we did make progress in other areas. We met with a tile guy, finalized our door and hardware order, get a new gas meter and a new electrical meter installed, and received our shipment of wood flooring. We are using wide planks of old grove walnut with a handscrapped finish for our wood floors- really beautiful stuff.

Windows are installed, but...

2008-04-18T01:43:00.001-07:00

Well, we have our windows installed. The windows on the second floor are simple to install and there are no problems... but the ones on the first floor where there's bricks, that where we ran into problems. It turns out that the air gap at the sill between the existing bricks and the wood studs is larger than 1". Our windows has a pretty thin profile, and thus the windows were not able to cover the entire gap there. Click on the following photo and take a closer look:

So what are the solution?

Replace all the windows at the brick walls with new ones. Milgard does make windows that has a deeper profile that would cover the gap. However, they are triple pane ones, and the price is about triple too.

Rip out the existing brick sill and replace it with another brick still. This would have been a good option, but my mason smelled blood and wanted to charge an arm and a leg for it. I refused to part with any of my body parts.

Rip out the existing sill, and replace it with a wood one. If detailed right, this would be the best option in terms of aesthetics, water-proofing, and cost.

Here's a photo of one of those windows with the brick sill off:

Plumbing and Electrical Photos

2008-04-18T00:46:00.000-07:00

We have been taking photos, but it has been a hectic month and we have just been too lazy... anyhow, here we go. I'll try to fill you in on the progress of the construction. First, plumbing and electrical:

We found the existing sewer line under the concrete slab and tied the new drains to it, the concrete slab was later patched.

With plumbing close to being completed, electrical was started. The lower photo is a box for a light switch, the upper one is a typical can light mounted between joists.

Our new 200-amps electrical panel. Word of advice, decide where to put your electrical meter early on. The location of your electrical panel depends on the location of your meter. It will save a lot of headache if you have that figured out before construction begins.

Electrical Inspection 04.09.08

2008-04-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

We passed our electrical inspection today! Apparently it is rare to pass it on the first try. Even though this is a remodel, we pretty much re-wired the entire house so the scope of the project is quite big. Our electrician (who is also our plumber) is doing a great job so we are on track on the systems so far. We do have some other issues to be resolved with other trades. Our window installation is a mess and HVAC people are not as good as we thought - which created some other problems that we need to work around. The root cause for these problems is definitely communication. Often times, the subs just do what they think is the most convenient without checking with us first because they want to save time and trouble. We will definitely need to keep closer attention on them next time (if there is next time!)

In addition, we are busy working with many trades to get bids - dry wall, insulation, metal railings, siding, fireplaces, and gutters. It's amazing the price differences we have been seeing from companies. I am talking about 100% differences for similar product. That's why I will always compare 3 companies per trade to make sure we are getting the best deal!!

Plumbing Inspection 3.31.08

2008-03-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

There are a few inspection points that we need to pass during construction. Today, we passed our plumbing rough in inspection. The city has to inspect all the pipes, drains, and vents to make sure they are installed properly and to code. Our next inspection will be on our electrical system.

Roof installation 03.19.08

2008-03-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

Our standing seam metal roof was installed today.

Some plumbing issues 03.17.08

2008-03-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

Our drainage line has too many twist and turns - so to simplify things, we want to bring a drainage line down from the second floor directly down to the garage in the middle of the house and connect to the existing drainage line under the concrete slab. We were faced with the task to locate the pipes underneath the concrete slab before we make any penetrations.
We called in a guy who makes a living by detecting leaks. He has all sorts of gadgets. Here are three different ways to find underground pipes:
1. fish a wire down the drain pipe and then use a metal detector type equipment to look for it
2. fish a optic cable down with a camera attached to the end to see what's going on in the pipe
3. pour hot water into the drain and then take a picture of the slab using an infrared camera
We only did 1 and 2. Number 3 was too much trouble (and too expensive)...
anyhow, here're some photos. The last one was a shot of the inside of a 60 year-old pipe from a kitchen drain... yuck...

Not much happening 03.14.08

2008-03-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

The house is dried in finally - we have felt on the roof and the metal roofing has been delivered. The roof will be fully installed next week. We could have installed the roof earlier, but the problem is that our windows are not here yet. We need to install the skylights first before the roof can go on.

On hindsight we should have ordered the windows one week earlier. That way, they would have arrived when framing was finished. The framers could then install it right away and the roofer then could have started earlier. This is two weeks we could have saved. But then, we couldn't have anticipated such good weather and how fast our framer's been.

Now that we are doing more waiting than building, we have more time to pay attention to other things that are happening to us. Sounds like the real estate market is going through amagedon in the rest of the US. I'm writing this post from Los Angeles, and today's newspaper was saying that SoCal's real estate has dropped 19% over the last year. That makes me wonder if Seattle is going to go through the same thing...

Anyhow, I've been lazy with posting photos. It's not like the house looks dramatically different now anyway since most of the work that's been done since framing was finished was plumbing... I promise some more shots next week when the windows are in and the roof is on.

Comments and Questions Welcome!

2008-03-10T22:12:00.001-07:00

Many of our friends and family have helped us tremendously during this process. We are lucky to be able to share our experiences with you all. We would love to know what you think especially ideas or tips from your own experiences. Please feel free to leave us comments. Of course, if you ever have any questions about anything related to housing/construction, we will try our best to answer as well!

A busy week 03.08.08

2008-03-08T23:18:00.000-08:00

We shifted gear this week as far as our workload goes. Framing was wrapped up, and we were ready for all the other trades to come in and do their work. Those trades include the plumber, the roofer, the mason, and the sider, and heating and ventilation.

Obviously, the framer was only one trade. Now we have five different ones working together. Coordination becomes very important.

A few examples:

Plumber needs to install all the vent stacks before the roofer can come in and install the roof. They need to know the location of the vents so that they can flash around it.
It is preferable to have the roof installed before the windows. That's because the extra weight of the roof may increase settling and affect the rough opening dimensions for the windows.
The heating guy needs to specify heating equipment location for the plumber.
The mason has to work closely with the siders to deal with the existing brick to new construction transition.

And so on and so forth. This means we have to make a lot of phone calls, and have extra long visits to the job site. Nonetheless, this is the time when our work will make a real difference in the budget and the schedule. Fewer mistakes mean we don't need to pay extra to fix things and less delays.

Sqeaky floors

2008-02-29T19:47:00.001-08:00

The existing floor has only a layer of old 3/4" boards on the floor joists. The nails are not very closely spaced, and the boards were starting to cup. So we decided to add a layer of 1/2" plywood on top to stiffen it up.

Roof trusses are up 02.25.08

2008-02-25T23:14:00.000-08:00

Engineered trusses are used for the main part of the house. They are much quicker to build than stick framed roof because they are manufactured in the factory while the rest of the house was going up. Of course, they are only good for simple roof forms. The shed roof over the living room has a vaulted ceiling, and so that will have to be stick framed. The living room wall was opened up today (see last photo). A folding door system called Nanawall will be used so that we have the option of opening up the entire living room to the backyard in the summer. Nanawall is ridiculously expensive though, but on a gorgeous day like today, you might just beleive that the darn thing is worth its price.

We have a second floor! 02.21.08

2008-02-21T16:13:00.001-08:00

Our framers are amazing. But we are also blessed with some very good weather this week, making the progress of the job very fast. Next Monday we'll get the roof trusses, and we'll be ready for to start siding and plumbing very soon. Today, we were finally able to stand on the second floor and see what kind of a view we have, and it is a pretty good one that includes the space needle and the husky stadium.

Crane is here today! 02.18.08

2008-02-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

To lift the lumber onto the second floor, our framing guy suggested that getting a crane would be the most efficient way to do it. And so today the crane was here, and it was very exciting because it looked like a lot was done in a very short time. At the end of the day, the first floor framing was basically finished. We should be able to stand on the upper floor tomorrow to see what kind of view we will get!

Demolition 02.11.08 - 02.15.08

2008-02-17T00:57:00.000-08:00

We made great progress during the first week, or should we say that our crew did! They were fantastic! The second week's goal is to finish demolition including tearing down the roof and hopefully start framing some parts of the house.

First Floor. The Roof is Down!

House Without Roof.

Lumber Delivered.

Framing the First Floor. I love that they marked the lumber with my name! :)

Demolition 02.05.08 - 02.08.08

2008-02-17T00:23:00.000-08:00

After delaying the project for a month due to temp power, weather, and crew schedule, we finally began the demolition on Feb. 5, 2008. A very exciting day indeed!!

Livingroom. Before Demolition.

Guest Room. Before Demolition.

First Floor. First Day of Demolition.

Dumpster is already FULL after just TWO days.

Interior Demo in Progress.

The Design

2008-01-17T01:28:00.000-08:00

How to get a permit in 2 weeks!

2008-01-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

This is my rule of thumb: only buy a one story house with a big footprint!

In my earlier post on what we look for in a house, I wrote:

"To keep the permit application process fast and simple, we know that we want a house that we can attain the square footage we want without altering its footprint. "

Here's why. As long as you do not alter the footprint of a building, you will not be required to go through a full zoning review when are you are applying for a building permit, which means you'll save a couple of weeks of review time. This is significant because time is money. Not to mention that you'll have one less thing to worry about with inspections. Now whether you get your permit in two weeks of course is still dependent on the quality of the architectural drawings. But if nothing's wrong, that could happen.

Construction wise it's also a lot more efficient to keep the footprint intact. That's because (assuming that the existing concrete foundation is adequet) you will not need a concrete guy to come out and pour anything. You just build directly on the existing structure. That saves a lot of time and money. Afterall, concrete takes weeks to cure and coordinating a separate concrete subcontractor adds cost.

So when I look at a house one of the first thing I look at is the square footage of its foot print. Usually, that's the square footage of the main floor. For example, a 900 sf one story has the potential to become a 1800 sf two story if you are not adding any foundation. That in turn determines the financial feasibility of the project.

The Craig's List Miracle

2007-12-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

The house we bought was in a fairly good condition and more importantly, it came with a Viking range and hood! Even though we loved the Viking and a brand new set would cost about $10,000, we decided that new appliances would fit the look of the house better even though we would need to budget in a few more thousand dollars. So my first task was to sell the existing appliances on Craig’s list. The first item I posted was the fridge and washer/dryer. I remembered I listed them around 1 am before I headed to bed. I thought to myself, it would be great if I could sell these in a week. I was shocked when I checked my email the next morning that I had over 15 potential buyers emailing me already! I ended up selling those appliances in less than a day. I also sold our Viking range and hood to a guy who drove all the way from Vancouver. What an experience. The power of Craig’s list. Amazing!

After my success with the appliances, I started to wonder what else can be sold on Craig’s list. The answer is ANYTHING! Originally, we were going to dig out the hardwood flooring on our own so that we could save money on demolition. So on a cold windy Saturday, Milton and I went to the house to dig the hardwood flooring out. After 2 hours with very little progress, it got me thinking. Could we sell the flooring on Craig’s list? I immediately posted on Craig’s list and within a few hours, I got response! I sold hardwood flooring to a lady from Olympia who wrote me a very long letter explaining why she would like to have the flooring and was definitely committed to it. She and her friend spent two days digging them out and I hope they are enjoying the flooring now!

In the end, we were able to sell mirrors, vanity, fixture, and many other things before demolition started. I even got people to take away our flag pole for free! I found that people in Seattle are much more hands on and they are very willing to take old items and reuse them. Next time, before I start another remodel, I will definitely be on Craig’s list again. Watch for things from us in the future!

Viking Range Sold: $2500.
Old Vanity Sold: $150.
The time we saved not digging out the hardwood flooring: Priceless.

This is IT!

2007-09-16T22:48:00.000-07:00

We bought our house! After 8 offers in 6 months, we finally got our first house. Check it out!

House Size: 2590 sq. ft.
Lot: 6930 sq. ft.
Bedroom: 2
Bathroom: 2.75
Year Built: 1948

The 7 Houses We Tried to Buy

2007-08-17T00:07:00.000-07:00

1. Matthews Beach House

We liked this one because of the huge backyard that includes a basketball court, attractive deck in the front, and proximity to one of the nicer parks in Seattle. But location wise it is not in an expensive neighborhood. It's also kind of far from the freeway.

2. Windermere House

Windermere is a premium neighborhood. This house is a great candidate for our purpose as we could easily add a story to it. Only drawback is that the land is kind of small at less than 5000sf.

3. Wedgwood House

Right across the street from a couple of nice houses appraised at almost $1m, this is also a good candidate for a second story addition. The price was good too, but the neighborhood in general is not considered to be at the high end.

4. Norwood Village House

Great area on the east side at the Northeast quadrant of the intersection of I-90 and 405 freeways, it is very convenient. School district is one of the best in the country. Land is huge, and the architecture quite interesting.

5. Hawthorne Hills House 1

Nice area but the best of this neighborhood are the streets bearing names of colleges. This is not on one of those streets, and it was overpriced for what it is. We shouldn't have made an offer for this one. Nonetheless, the landscaping in the backyard is absolutely gorgeous.

6. Hawthorne Hills House 2

This one is on a street named after a college. The price was good too. But the house faces an intersection and that is considered bad "feng shui". Other than that though, this is a good fixer candidate.

7. Mercer Island House

Grossly overpriced, we made a low-ball offer. It is on Mercer Island, very close to the highway. You cannot find a location more convenient than this. However, the very stringent zoning restrictions severely limit the potential for this property.

Realtors

2007-05-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

At the beginning, we were just checking out properties on http://www.redfin.com/. But as we become more serious, we felt that we need to find a realtor to represent us. In February 2007, we have decided to make an offer for a house in a neighborhood called Matthews Beach. Through our neighbor we found an agent, and we went to work.

The property we liked was listed originally for $595k. It seemed like a good fixer upper candidate(See photos).

The list price was too high though. We figured that we need to spend less than $525k for it to make any financial sense. We knew the sellers were desperate because the seller's agent unwittingly disclosed that they had bought another property, and were feeling the stress of having two mortgages. So, we asked our agent to aggressively push a low ball offer. But our agent was timid with the negotiation. They end up selling the house for around $560k after having it on the market for a while.

Although our offer would have been a long shot anyway, the way our agent approached the negotiation told us that we were not a good match. To find a good fixer upper you need a bull dog, who's aggressive and thick-skinned with negotiation.

And so we started looking for another realtor. We were very tempted to ask a very good friend of ours who's in the business. He would have given us a good deal and he would do a good job. But since this is our first project, Ilona and I will most likely have to sort out our many differences. We need someone who would at least be perceived as objective. Would a good friend really be a good candidate then? As we have learned, we need someone who's not only a good realtor, but also a good match for our purposes.

So we ended up hiring someone who's older and has many years of experience. He has done some fixers himself. He charged the full 3%, but it was worth it because he did bring a wealth of knowledge to the table. Most importantly, he knows the aggressive negotiation tactics that would get a property at a price you want.

Anyhow, the point of this post - don't just look for a good realtor, but most importantly find one that suits your purpose!

Finding a good fixer upper candidate

2007-05-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

So what kind of house did we look for?

To maximize the potential for profit, we know that we want a house that has not fully realized the potential of the land in a good neightborhood.
To keep construction cost down, we know that we want a house that's old, but have good "bones" that we can work with.
To keep the permit application process fast and simple, we know that we want a house that we can attain the square footage we want without altering its footprint.

Also, as we study the market in greater detail, we began to know what we should avoid.

Houses on a busy main street will be challenging to sell
Houses with damaged foundation or on very steep slope are usually not worth the effort
Houses with a buried oil tank that has not been "decommissioned" can be very troublesome
Houses built of CMU (concrete blocks) are very difficult to alter

There are many small little things to pay attention to too while you're looking at a house and evaluating its potential as a fixer upper. It is very important that you get objective opinions from different sources before you proceed. For newbies like us, an experienced realtor and a knowlegable inspector are very helpful.

First post!

2007-05-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

So, what is this blog all about? Well, let us first introduce ourselves. I'm Milton, and I'm an architect in Seattle. My girlfriend, Ilona, graduated from business school in Chicago with a master degree in the summer of 2007. She had since moved to Seattle.

In late 2006 before she graduated, we started pondering what we want to do in regards to our living situation. I was renting a room at my best friend's condo then and I was aware that it had to be a temporary arrangement. She would be moving to Seattle and she needed a place.

An idea struck both of us - we should buy an old house together and fix it to our liking. We are convinced that by combining the skills of an architect and a business woman, we can pull off something like that. The more we think about it, the more we realize that there are actually many advantages with doing such a project.

We can customize our home to how we would like it
We can gain hands-on experience with construction and build valuable connections with different trades, allowing us the opportunity to further our careers in real estate related fields
I can move my architecture practice to the house, and enjoy the marketing benefits of having the house as a model home
We could make a profit one day when we sell the house

The purpose of this blog is to share our experience as we work through this very exciting project. Perhaps you're thinking of doing a fixer upper yourself, or maybe you're just interested in residential real estate in general. In any case, we hope you enjoy our posts!