Jeeman was nice enough to allow bubbleinfo to tour his recently purchased home in the Covenant of Rancho Santa Fe. His purchase is the lowest ranch-style in the Covenant this year – congratulations Jeeman!
Jim Klinge
Klinge Realty Group
Broker-Associate, Compass
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- 682 S. Coast Hwy 101, Suite #110
Encinitas, CA 92024 - (858) 997-3801 call or text
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CA DRE #01527365, CA DRE #00873197
Definitely stain it! And if possible, try to remove the pink overcast. That’s a bit too “Miami Vice” 80s. 🙂
Would hardwood floors work in that room? Or stick with the carpet?
I agree the 90’s whitewash has to go. Sand and stain.
If it were me, I would leave the ceiling AS-IS, but I would remove the terracotta tile at all costs–by the way, I love the 70’s room with the diagonal firplace–swank! The house has good potential, but conservatively, it needs $100k in remodel work, probably much more–Here is the good news–if the remodel is done properly, they should get about $2 in equity for every $1 spent (in that price range/location).
You’ve got what looks like some nice wood on the ceiling. Don’t cover it with paint. Sand and stain the ceiling a bit darker, or leave it as is.
Delete all tile, especially on the kitchen work surfaces. The grout holds spills and tears apart sponges when you try to clean it.
Awfully fancy framing around the passage from the master bed to the bath. Poor Jim was surrounded by mirrors in there…
Lovely place, Jeeman. Congratulations.
Thanks, Local Boy! We expected about $100k in work. The expansion around $50k or so. We’ve gotten mixed reviews on the terra cotta, but I’ll go with the opinions of those familiar with the high end.
Besides the floor, what were your top 3 must-dos on the remodeling? We have our ideas, but having more input will help us make the best decisions!
ewhac, in the kitchen, we were thinking about dark cherry cabs, tan granite (the smearing look, not the speckled look), and stainless steel appliances.
If we do the addition, we’d have a totally new master setup. I was thinking of turning the existing master bath into an indoor jacuzzi room, and the master bedroom into a theater. But all of that is years off.
As for the ceiling, I vote for sand & stain. I also vote for ditching the terra cotta tiles. I thought Jim’s comments on the tiles were right on-the-money (literally).
Congrats, Jeeman! I love hearing stories like yours–three years looking! It gives me hope…
Jeeman – nice work getting a Covenant lifestyle underway.
Given the smaller volume of the rooms I would err on the lighter side of stains as dark stains/cabinets tend to shrink the feel of rooms. I would err toward honey/maple type of a feel.
You can spruce it up by ‘tipping’ the cabinets with black which gives it a distressed/antiqued look.
Flooring: Agree with JTR on travertine. To refine that comment, I would check out a 5 piece Versailles (sp?) pattern which essentially is similar to your firplace with 5 various sizes fit together. This will trend towards a more ‘rustic’ look than all squares.
Secondly, I would look at a chisled edge travertine with a semi-wide grout. This will save you real $$$ on install especially on an older home. In an older home the floors are not going to be level, thus they need to float the floor perfectly level and then match up the tiles very exact if you use square edges.
On the chiseled edge/wide grout the edges do not meet and are rough, thus less labor/effort as no one will notice if they are not perfectly flush.
Well played and in RSF to boot *thumbs up*. I vote for sand and stain on the ceiling.
Don’t “paint” the ceiling, and DON’T cut down the tree(s).
Bad ideas.
George, we won’t paint the ceiling. We may stain it though. Why not cut down the trees where we might want to expand out to? Just curious.
Thx!
Jeeman
Clearfund,
Thanks for those suggestions! They are very valuable to us! We will look into that type of travertine. I believe my mom did a similar pattern, but with smooth flat travertine.
Sounds like a smart buyer, not a forever one to me. My guess is, he’ll redo the kitchen & move on in two years – with a hefty profit ($500k tax-free). I agree with JTR on the fp wall & the ceiling, but travertine – high end? That stuff is a bad fad that saw its 15 minutes. It’s a cheap, incredibly fragile & pourous stone with no character that could only have become upscale in the crazy times we just lived thru. The stuff I like as a reasonable alternative would be slab or 24″ polished crema marfil limestone with stark marbling.
Thanks for the tour, it’s likely to be the only time I’ll get a close up view of that part of town
Doug – are you ready for a video tour of your house? I’d love to pick it apart.
Jeeman – Here is a photo of a 5pc chiseled edge pattern….not my favorite 5pc arrangement but gets you a fair representative look (there are many many versions and I like one with a longer rectangle piece in the mix…but that a personal preference).
http://versaillespattern.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/V/e/Versailles-pattern-oro-antico_1.jpg
My suggestion is to visit Encinitas Tile just off Enc. blvd as it is close and they do a large majority of the RSF big boy houses and have great samples and ideas…also have a slab yard on site where you can troll the granite/marble slabs and see all the various unique choices…selecting your exact slabs is a mind numbing chore as they all look alike after an hour of staring them.
ps: I too like the slabs with more movement in them vs. the specs…
Jeeman-Here goes–Paint, Flooring, and FULL remodel of the Kitchen (cabinets, countertops appliances and flooring). Then bathrooms, one by one, beginning with the master–remodeling as necessary. A thought on the floor material–in the room(s) with the beautiful stone work on the walls, wood floors might compliment well–travertine there would be overkill in my opinion. Also, anyway to create a “great room” or connect the kitchen with any of the adjoing living areas would be a plus–it is usually more messy than it is costly.
Clearfund, excellent pattern! The wife loves it! I like the door in that picture too…we might swap out our standard white doors for wood-finished doors.
Local Boy, good idea on the wooden floor. We could put that in the sunken living room. The bathrooms are on the list too. I’m thinking same cabs/granite as the kitchen. Any thoughts on making all cabs and counters throughout the house the same? Or is that too monotonous?
clearfund, btw, we were planning on going to some slab yard this weekend, and we didn’t know which one. You just gave us a destination to hit up tomorrow or Sunday.
Ask for Sherri (a designer) in the Encinitas Tile showroom…she’ll design good stuff for you at no add’l charge beyond materials.
SWEET!!! Party at Jeeman’s place!!!!!
Seriously, I love the place and most of your plans to fix it up. Agree with everyone — please don’t paint the wood, just stain at most. Hate to see that beautiful tree sacrificed for the expansion, but you do what you have to.
Jeeman is stylin’!
Nice house, Jeeman!!!
Love the style, and all the gorgeous trees on the lot. That’s something you can never really have in Carmel Valley.
Agree with Local Boy’s suggestions in #16, and also would hate to see that tree cut down — it’s a beautiful tree. Not sure, but of the additions we’re familiar with (all done during the bubble period, so they’re probably a bit less now), a new (large?) master bedroom and bathroom would probably cost more than $50K.
Are you planning on staying for the long term, or are you looking to move in a few years? IMHO, that’s a great “final” house. Nice to have the guest house for extra income, or for a parent/in-law if they should ever need it.
Thanks for sharing your house with us, Jeeman! Hope you enjoy it for many years to come. 🙂
Jeeman,
Since CA renter mentioned it, you really should drop the “guest house” thing in favor of “man cave”. 🙂 Throw a monster flat screen, bar and pool table in there!
Late to the party – Agree with Clearfund on the tavertine flooring recommend. Don’t agree with Doug S. (sorry) on the Crema Marfil – it’s soft, scratches easily (personally know someone who used it heavily), requires sanding, honing & repolishing way too often, not dog friendly material.
Must do – sand, light stain wood ceiling. Ditch all terra cotta, travertine (I’d also use it throughout halls, passages and all bathroom floors). Deminish the use of mirrors throughout the interior through complete removal, replacement in bath areas with smaller framed versions at sinks to compliment cabinetry. Paint. Slab granite counters in the kitchen. Travertine, marble or granite tiles in the baths would refresh without the expense of slab. Stainless professional grade appliances in the kitchen remodel.
P.S. – congratulations, and really nice bones there.
JTR, You’ve had an open invite to kibbitz since the week we bt. this money-pit. You’ve seen more of these in any 3 months than we’ve seen in total. There was a utube video done of it years ago but I don’t know if it’s still outin cyberworld. A tour might be fun when we settle in.
Let me know when you’re in the neighborhood, if you think it’s noisy in rsf we’ll get you some ear-plugs. :>)))
Sol, YES it does.
I am tired of seeing stainless appliances. You see them in all income levels of houses. In another 3-4 years they will be definitley out.
I think it was green refrigerator in the 50’s. dark brown in the 70’s. almond in 90’s, stainless in 2000. Its time for a new fad.
I second the motion for Party at Jeeman’s place.
Congratulations,
I really like a nice ranch house, and like you said in your second video, nice bones. I’m not an interior decorator, but keep it simple and avoid the timeline markers. Well done on a very nice place in a lovely location.
CA Renter, we bought it expecting to stay for life. We have no plans on selling. But we may be enticed during the next upturn (after renovations) to put some ridiculous price and see if someone bites. 🙂
Worm, if stainless steel is going to be out of style, do you have an idea of something “up and coming”? I am thinking sub-zero for the fridge to match it to the cabs. But the rest of the appliances don’t have that kind of option.
bill, thanks! I’m a bit concerned about travertine being dated, but then again, it does have that rustic look.
Nice find and score Jeeman.
Its a keeper!
Jeeman – The house we were pursuing on your street was your neighbor to the right (looking from the golf course). I believe an architect bought it with a plan to teardown….obviously that never happened.
My number was in the $700k range at the time (if my aging memory still works) in 2001/2…but the house was smaller and had less rear yard than yours.
Jeeman-
I tore down and rebuilt in South Mission one house back from the ocean. Since I was single, all the decisions and interior design were made by me.
So I basically stayed away from trendy stuff. Of course I have granite in the kitchen but my cabinets are basically white with slide in refrigerator fronts. They looked traditional 12 years ago and they still look modern (traditional) today.
No idea on what will be popular next. Just remember that you will not be replacing the appliances in five years and you will be having an open kitchen concept.
My third floor has a great ocean view in the front. I put in plumbing for a future bathroom but use the room as my familay room with the master in the back with only a tiny view. All the guys say great room to party and all the girls wonder why it is not the master. Enjoy compromising and you made a great deal and choice.
clearfund, I drive by the house everyday (obviously)…it looks extremely dated…like a 1960s ranch, and definitely a tear down or a serious renovation.
Jeeman – you are correct on the condition of your neighbor’s home…i brought in some large BB’s, put them on the floor and watched them all roll across the room and congregate in the corner….don’t need an engineering degree to figure that issue out…
That is also why we offered $700k in 2001 which i considered dirt value (had just paid $760k in The Bridges in October 2001 for a 1.5ac lot w/o view).
I’d like all yall’s opinions on cabs…I’ve read online that you can use Ikea’s cabinet boxes and put your own doors on them, and that it’s vastly cheaper to do so. They claim that alot of high-end homes are doing this, and that Ikea cabs are rated higher than Home Depot’s.
So, I went by Ikea and looked at the cab boxes, and they seemed sturdy, but all particle board. There is no way I am going to put particle board in my house, but do you guys have an opinion on this? I find it hard to believe people won’t notice Ikea boxes even if custom doors are on them.
Most people won’t notice, however, you will and that’s most important.
My suggestion is to have them quote your house, then have a custom guy quote your house (keep boxes and doors separate on the bid).
Then you’ll see how much you “notice” the IKEA boxes or not.
Cabinets used to be VERY expensive. We were spending well over $100k (some up to $250k) on 5-6k sf homes in RSF for custom cabinets.
I dare say that cabinet makers will do the work for much less than they used to…just don’t be in a rush or tear out the old ones until the new ones are onsite with an install crew!!
ps: lots of the added cost in cabinets is the ‘ginger bread’ trim you add such as fluting, crown, claw foot at the base, etc. depending on your ‘theme’ adding a little custom touch of trim can be a relatively affordable way to make it a very custom look for your personal style.
clearfund, for sure, we will do the trim stuff. A friend who is a woodworker will do that stuff for us. I’m not sure he can do the rest of the cabs for that much less than others. I have a long time to research/compare, so I’ll take my time in doing it 🙂