Diary of a POP TOP Second Story Addition Project
Intro…
Keeping with the spirit of @J Scott 's “Diary of a New Construction Project” where we jumped into a HUGE project that we never really had done before, “Tear a house down and build a new one back”. This adventure will document our first foray into “Pop Tops” or RIPPING the roof off a structure and building a second story addition in its place!
While everyone involved in this project has a fair amount of rehab and general construction experience, this is the first time any of us has “raised the roof”, so if anyone with more experience sees us about to make a mistake feel free to chime in! Otherwise this post will detail EVERYTHING involved with the acquisition, permitting, zoning, planning, construction, and sale of a MAJOR addition renovation.
Also, along with this thread on BP, I’m going to host a few “Q&A Open Houses” at the project. “Before, During, and After rehab”, so any readers in the Atlanta area that want a behind the scenes look at how a project like this takes shape, shoot me a PM and I’ll send you the deets.
We’re about 2 weeks out from demo, which should give us enough time to catch up on planning and permitting so that the thread will be “Real Time” when the roof comes off!
P.S… Since Real Estate is ALL about the numbers, here's the QUICKMATH on the project. Purchase 225k Rehab 175k-ish ARV 525k-ish We'll dive into the numbers more on some later posts….
POP-TOP Rescue Mission
Got to the jobsite early today to meet with our new buyers to walk the house and go over options and upgrades. While we're upstairs talking we see the drywall cleanup crew backing their dumptruck up. All the sudden we see him pull up....adjust his angle.... and proceed to drive OFF THE DRIVEWAY! If it had not been raining ALL WEEK this may not have been such a big deal, BUT......
My rescue efforts did NOT prevail, this truck was REALLY REALLY stuck! I deleted the good walkthrough video on accident so here is the unfocused bad walkthrough video..
And the 3 HOURS later WTF are these guys doing video...
Needless to say our landscape budget just took a hit...
And the General rule of "NEVER TRACK MUD ONTO A STREET" was apparently made to be broken....
Ugh.....
PopTop Driveway
Things are moving at a BRISK pace! Driveway is in and Flooring Has started! The old driveway removal ended up around 2K since it was CRAZY thick!
Hardwoods will finish up over the weekend and Trim will start Monday!
Pop Top with all the Trimmings
Trim Guys came in with a VENGEANCE! We tend to get go a step above on our trim packages, instead of ordering doors with the pre-attached molding you see on every house, we go with a custom 4 piece detail. Instead of using the same ol' raised panel doors EVERYONE else uses, we special order to get a different look.
DOWNSTAIRS
UPSTAIRS
TRIM is one of the things where adding a little but more doesn't cost much, but makes a HUGE impact on setting your houses apart from your competition!
This is one of my favorite features of the house! We took the OLD fireplace from the original dining room and REMIXED it into an AWESOME outdoor living area!
We used SEVERAL different finishes on the cabinetry, from White with Pewter Glaze to distressed Olive. Again, something alittle different than the White shaker that you seem to see in every house "including some of ours.... :\" these days!
So you're one of them ... the ones who do not paint before installing their cabinets ;-)
Originally posted by @Roy N.:
So you're one of them ... the ones who do not paint before installing their cabinets ;-)
And that's one of the least weird things about him! ;-)
- Realtor, General Contractor, and Developer
- Redding, CA & Bend OR
- 4,138
- Votes |
- 7,606
- Posts
@Todd Whiddon I see you've been beating your head against the same walls we have! It's finally smoothing out though, but seems like we've lost a lot of time. One of the utility lines we have to tie into is of all places, in the neighbors across the street, driveway! Not the street, right smack dab in front of his garage door! :/ The fun just never ends.
On a positive note though, your project is great!! Congrats! I've loved watching this project come along.
Originally posted by @Roy N.:
So you're one of them ... the ones who do not paint before installing their cabinets ;-)
Yeah.... Occasionally we'll PRIME the walls BEFORE cabinets and trim, but this paint crew likes to prime AFTER trim since we are using raw MDF trim and a light trim paint so they just prime everything at once.
Our ideal schedule is Drywall - Hardwoods/Tile - Cabinets - Trim - Paint. Sometimes that gets shuffled around with our subs schedule and/or me forgetting to order the cabinets in time...
Originally posted by @Todd Whiddon:Originally posted by @Roy N.:
So you're one of them ... the ones who do not paint before installing their cabinets ;-)
Yeah.... Occasionally we'll PRIME the walls BEFORE cabinets and trim, but this paint crew likes to prime AFTER trim since we are using raw MDF trim and a light trim paint so they just prime everything at once.
Our ideal schedule is Drywall - Hardwoods/Tile - Cabinets - Trim - Paint. Sometimes that gets shuffled around with our subs schedule and/or me forgetting to order the cabinets in time...
Todd:
Is protection of the drywall paper surface or the permeability of the drywall itself not a concern in your region? If you do not apply at least a sealant primer to the drywall before installing cabinetry, the unprimed drywall remains quite vapour permeable and will allow moisture movement into the wall.
Mind-you, there are probably other holes around electrical boxes, plumbing and the like which are more significant.
Originally posted by @Roy N.:
Originally posted by @Todd Whiddon:
Originally posted by @Roy N.:So you're one of them ... the ones who do not paint before installing their cabinets ;-)
Yeah.... Occasionally we'll PRIME the walls BEFORE cabinets and trim, but this paint crew likes to prime AFTER trim since we are using raw MDF trim and a light trim paint so they just prime everything at once.
Our ideal schedule is Drywall - Hardwoods/Tile - Cabinets - Trim - Paint. Sometimes that gets shuffled around with our subs schedule and/or me forgetting to order the cabinets in time...
Todd:
Is protection of the drywall paper surface or the permeability of the drywall itself not a concern in your region? If you do not apply at least a sealant primer to the drywall before installing cabinetry, the unprimed drywall remains quite vapour permeable and will allow moisture movement into the wall.
Mind-you, there are probably other holes around electrical boxes, plumbing and the like which are more significant.
Roy-
Haven't really thought about that aspect of it, but it makes sense. Will take into consideration on our upcoming builds, Thanks!
PopTop Paint-1
It's all fun and games until you paint.... In the words of the great Charles Barkley...
The primer coat on the stitched in brick revealed a LESS than desirable result.... Granted the original brick was painted beforehand and this is the first coat on the new brick, hopefully our painters can pull some moves and get everything looking good!
OMG!!!
Things SHOULD improve once we ROLL on the final coat. On the next PopTOP, chances are I will demo ALL the brick, as trying to save it caused us issues on the framing inspections, trying to repair it back, and it COST more to fix than it would have to demo and replace with siding.
I just read this entire thread, start to finish. Any new updates @Todd Whiddon ?!
Originally posted by @Doug W.:
I just read this entire thread, start to finish. Any new updates @Todd Whiddon ?!
You mean you read it start to 3/4's of the way finished.... Your slack thread author @Todd Whiddon needs to get his act together! The BEST parts are / were at the end!
Originally posted by @Todd Whiddon:
Originally posted by @Doug W.:I just read this entire thread, start to finish. Any new updates @Todd Whiddon ?!
You mean you read it start to 3/4's of the way finished.... Your slack thread author @Todd Whiddon needs to get his act together! The BEST parts are / were at the end!
I'd be willing to bet that you have been too busy to update the thread. But an update would be great!
PopTop Paint-2
A few LOT more roller coats on the exterior brick got it looking GREAT acceptable!
Interior paint took FOREVER, our painter used a new crew of his that didn't quite pan out, and ended up having to bring his regular guys in to finish to job!
Our wall mount electric fireplace that we thought would be AWESOME, ended up looking like a wall-mounted toaster oven! Just another example of how things can look better on the inter-webs than in real life!
At least ONE fireplace in the house is turning out BETTER than expected!..
Originally posted by @Cal C.:Originally posted by @Todd Whiddon:
Originally posted by @Doug W.:I just read this entire thread, start to finish. Any new updates @Todd Whiddon ?!
You mean you read it start to 3/4's of the way finished.... Your slack thread author @Todd Whiddon needs to get his act together! The BEST parts are / were at the end!
I'd be willing to bet that you have been too busy to update the thread. But an update would be great!
It's true... there is this ONE guy in Atlanta that I work with that takes up ALL my would be BP time! @J Scott told me this guy would open the doors to more opportunity than I could likely handle, but once again I learn the hard way...
Choosing NOT to listen to J Scott is Choosing to be WRONG...
Forgive me if I totally missed it, but what did your all-in number end up being??
@Todd Whiddon Wow, just read through this whole thread. I'm closing on my first POP TOP project next month, and this was a huge help.
What were your final numbers on this project??
Any update on this?
I'm still making my way through this thread, but prematurely jumped to the end. I also would love to hear how it all turned out! Thank you SO much for sharing the process and all the details. Really insightful and priceless knowledge!
Wow, this project finished about four years ago now, so I don't remember all the details. But, if this is the project I am thinking of, I believe we walked away with about 15% return on ARV. I'll try to dig up better numbers or maybe Todd has them...