Completed Work

The original property inspection done on March 8, 2010, had a number of recommendations for the home at 23 Linden Drive. As of the time of this writing (June 17th, 2010), we've completed corrections and fixes to almost all the recommended work.

This post will attempt to outline the recommendations made by the inspection and the work that was completed to correct these issues.

Structure

The first set of recommendations were around the structure of the home specifically the foundation. It recommended a separate report be produced around the foundation. This report was done by Edwards Construction, and their recommended work was completed on May 24, 2010.

Exterior

The report pointed out that there was some old fencing in need of repair on the right side of the home. The particular section of fencing in question is actually on the neighbor's property and none of it is within the property line of 23 Linden Drive. All the fencing surrounding the home is relatively new, and in fact the fencing along the back and right side, and front of the home was all newly done in 2007.

Electrical



A number of electrical fixes were called out. Specifically these were around missing cover plates, ground tied to neutral in the electrical panel, and a double tap in one of the electrical panels. All of these have been corrected. Cover plates have been installed where necessary, grounds have been removed from the neutral bars, and placed on the ground bar (including adding a ground bar in one of the electrical panels to accomplish this), and the double tap was removed and split into two separate breakers.

There was also a recommendation to put the electrical romex in the back utility room through rigid conduit. This was also completed, and all electrical in the utility room now goes through conduit.

The final electrical recommendation was to either have conduit or to drywall over exposed romex in the garage. This has been left for the new owner to complete, in case they want to do additional wiring, so they can drywall this section when their wiring changes are complete.

Heating

There were two recommendations for repairs to the heating system. One was to add a second vent to the door to the furnace and the other was to replace the brass gas flexible supply line with one made of stainless steel.

Both of these have been corrected. An upper vent was added to the furnace closet door, and the supply line has been replaced with a coated stainless steel supply line.

Plumbing

There were two areas that had plumbing recommendations. The first was with the water heater. It was recommended the venting system use sheet metal screws to hold it together (instead of or in addition the metal snaps currently in place). Also the discharge pipe was too short and it was recommended a longer one (one that reached below the water heater) be installed. Metal screws were added to the venting system and the discharge pipe was extended to below the water heater.



The second area of recommendation for the plumbing system was in reference to the p-trap below the sink in the kitchen. The kitchen sink has double bowls, and there was a p-trap below each sink. The recommendation was that the two drains should tie together and lead to a single p-trap. The configuration was changed so there is now a single p-trap below the connection of the two drains.

Interior

There were two interior recommendations. The first was to install an air gap for the dishwasher and the second was to install a threshold to the master bathroom on the ground floor.

The air gap installation is left to the new owner, as there a number of ways this can be accomplished. The sink itself is a 3 hole sink, and the current kitchen faucet only uses one of the 3 holes, so the "dummy" cover could be removed and one of the other two holes could be used to install an air gap (leaving a third hole that would need either a dummy cover or another feature (such as filtered water or soap dispenser). The other option is to keep the faucet as it is with the dummy cover and drill a hole for the air gap at either corner of the sink. Because the location of the air gap is a preference item for each individual, this task is left to the buyer.

A new threshold has been installed at the entrance of the master bath. It is oak wood tone to match the wood flooring in the master bedroom.

We've now covered all the recommended work in the property inspection. As you can tell, with the exception of a few items, almost all the recommended work has been completed. If you'd like the remaining work completed, just specify it (along with what or where you'd like that work done), and as sellers we'd be happy to accommodate your request as long as its reasonable and addresses the recommended correction.

Plans complete and available

The architect plans to make the house officially 5 bedrooms (the act of adding 2 closets to the upstairs rooms have been completed and are available for review. There's a small screenshot of the plans above. The full size printed version is a 24" x 36" blue print. As you can tell the plans require the removal of a single wall, and rebuilding the wall to accomodate two closet areas. These full plans will be included with the sale of the property. We can also put you in contact with the architect if there are any changes you'd like to have made to the plans.

As mentioned earlier these plans are completely optional, and only necessary if you'd like the home to be recorded with the county as a 5 bedroom home, otherwise the house remains a legal 2520 sq ft home with 3 bedrooms and 2 additional bonus rooms that have no closets.

The Neighborhood

At first glance, if you look at maps of 95050 and the surrounding area of San Jose, you'd think that 23 Linden Drive was actually in San Jose, and not in Santa Clara. The boundary is close, but this home is squarely in the city of Santa Clara, having Santa Clara utilities (considerably lower cost than PG&E and San Jose services) and part of the Santa Clara Unified School District.

This area of Santa Clara is generally considered part of the area surrounding Santa Clara University which is just to the north. It's also right on the border of the Rose Garden section of San Jose, one of the older more established sections of San Jose, which includes some of the most beautiful tree-lined streets in San Jose, along with shops and restaurants that line the Alameda.

There are also shops and restaurants within walking distance of the home at 23 Linden Drive. These include a video store, a Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian restaurants, a Starbucks, a donut shop, two dry cleaners, a convenience store, two gas stations and a Burger King, all conveniently located at the corner of Newhall and Washington.

Making the 5 bedrooms warranted

As discussed elsewhere in the blog, the house currently has 5 rooms being used as bedrooms, but on the county records, there are only 3 bedrooms listed. That's because the original plans for the home when the second story was added had only one upstairs bedroom. The two front bedrooms, were not planned as bedrooms and no closets were designed into the plan for that area.

Converting the house to 5 bedrooms and getting permits for the conversion should be relatively simple if that's the desire of the next owner. As part of the sale, the seller will include plans for the conversion showing the removal of a single wall, and the addition of two closets for the two front bedrooms. The plans are being drawn up by a California licensed architect and should be available before close of escrow. If you would like the design modified for additional changes, the seller can also put you in contact with the architect for additional work.

The Home Theater System

It turns out we may not be able to use the home theater system in our new home, so I can leave it for the buyer. It comprises of a 106 inch wide-screen electric, remote-controlled drop down screen and a HD ready projector. The screen hangs in the living room, has a switch attached, which is also the receiver for the remote control. It has a single touch up and down mechanism.

The projector is made by Viewsonic, a model PJ506D, features DLP technology, and supports: NTSC M, NTSC 4.43, PAL, SECAM, HDTV (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i) inputs. Its native resolution is 800x600, but has scaling to 1280x1024. It has component video inputs to handle high definition video up to 1080i or 720p. The inputs have been wired through the wall to the location of cable and antenna jacks for convenience.

The lamp in the unit should easily have more than half its life remaining as I rarely used the projector (the problem with having a 4 year old is you never actually get to watch as many movies as you'd like). The projector is about 3 years old, and screen only a year old (I previously had a 60 inch drop down manual screen).

Add your own DVD player, and audio system and you'll have a fantastic home theater setup.