Getting Started on 69th Street

Christmas 1988

With the permitting process behind us, we were excited to get started framing our new home. 

For Christmas that year we gave each of our six children a hard hat and their personal hammer.  We wanted them to feel a part of the project.

But before we could begin framing, first the foundation had to be done properly.  We outlined the footings on the building pad.  It sure looked like a small house as we gazed upon the footprint from up the street.

I rented a backhoe.  I think my brother, Don, did most of the digging, but I probably took a turn on the equipment.  I was surprised that not only did we need the trenches around the outside of the house and down the middle where the bearing wall was to be built, but there were substantial footings under the stairway as well.  We also had to trench for the underground sewer lines, and install the sewer pipes before the form inspection.

We were doing the footings and forms in the month of December.  I was too cheap to rent a porta-potty, so we would drive over to the park, about a quarter mile away, when necessary to use a restroom.

The southwest corner of the house required a combination retaining wall & footing.  Rather than spend a lot of extra money on hiring an engineer to design the retaining footing, we opted to use the county approved design that had an oversized footing that required lots of rebar (steel reinforcing bars) and lots of concrete.  The base of the footing was 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep, plus the 3 1/2' concrete stem wall above it that retained the dirt on those two sides.

We had a couple rain storms during the forming process, and I remember having to bail out the water so we could work in that deep and wide trench.

We borrowed electricity from a neighbor across the street so that I would not have to pay to put in a temporary power pole.  We ran a long extension cord across the street to power our saw to cut the forming lumber.

We were fortunate to have extended family willing to help on the project. My two sisters and their husbands (and families) came from northern California, and I had two brothers in town and their families who also helped us get ready for placing the concrete in the forms.  After the forms were in place and the trenches were cleaned out, we put down two inches of "clean washed sand", covered with a sheet of Visqueen plastic as a moisture barrier, which was covered by two more inches of sand.

With the sand in place, we began tying the rebar.  There were two pieces of 1/2" rebar in the bottom and two at the top of all the trenches.  Then we placed 1/2" rebar every 24" across the slab, in both directions, supported on "dobies" so that it would be in the center of the concrete slab.

Once the forms were in place and the rebar tied, we called for the form inspection, which we passed without any problems.

The next big hurdle came the day we placed the concrete.  Fortunately my brother, Don, had some experience placing and finishing concrete, and I had worked with him on the driveway in Inglewood.  So we took on doing the finishing ourselves.  Truckload after truckload of concrete were emptied as we filled the footings and then the slab.  We were fortunate that all the areas needing concrete could be accessed using the truck's chute.  This saved us a lot of money that it could have cost had we needed to have the concrete pumped.

 There was always the concern of "cold joints" as we experienced time between trucks.  After the next to the last truck was unloaded, we had to hurry and calculate how much more concrete was needed to complete the job, and the truck driver radioed dispatch to let them know how much to send in the final truck.   In an attempt to minimize the cold joint problem, the edge of the concrete was raked thin, and the new concrete was worked into the edge to help them join together.

Foundation bolts ("J-bolts") were placed in the appropriate locations while the concrete was still fresh.  After the final truckload was emptied, the driver washed out his chutes and was on his way.  Of course we had to screed the concrete to the correct thickness as the slab was placed.  And someone tamped it to work the larger rock down below the surface.  Then we ran a float across the surface to help smooth it and bring more slurry to the surface so it would trowel easier.  The fresh concrete needed just the right amount of time to begin setting up before we could begin finishing it.  Working it too much, too early, just extended the setup time, before it could be troweled.  Waiting too long, it becomes too hard to trowel properly.

When it was firm enough to walk on, I helped Don place the power trowel (a gas powered machine that resembles an over-sized buffing machine with several trowel shaped feet on it).  This allowed him to finish the expansive area of the slab fairly quickly.  Once he was done, we still went out on knee boards and hand finished the concrete floor.

It was a long day, and we were beat by the time we were able to go home!

The City Engineer

It has been so long, I forget the sequence of events regarding the permit process with the City of Lemon Grove.

I do remember it taking an extremely long time to get a permit from the City.  First we needed the grading permit. This required getting approval from the Zoning Department.  We wanted to build as far up the hill as possible, to leave as much land as possible on the other end of the lot, for a future lot split.  We also were trying to get the house as far up hill as possible so that we would not have to pump the sewer for the lower level.

Since we had an odd shaped lot, due to the swath of land taken by the county by eminent domain for the now abandoned College Avenue Extension, it was a challenge to position the house on the lot and meet all the setback requirements. The city's map showed a cul-de-sac along the front (west) side of the lot, ending at the top (south end) of the parcel.  The Director of the Zoning Department helped me understand that there is some zoning code that allowed in a situation like this, to use the side yard for the front yard setback.  And since it was a triangular shaped lot, there is a code that says you measure the back yard set back from a line drawn parallel with the front property line, and measuring 10 feet long.  But we still needed to maintain a 10 foot setback from the property line to the nearest corner of the building.  Once we got all that worked out, and approved by the Zoning Department, it was on to Engineering.  That was one of the slowest and most unpleasant aspects of the permit process.  The City Engineer would require a change to the plan.  I would have my draftsman draw the change, and resubmit it.  Then it would sit on the Engineer's desk for a week or two before he would give it back to me asking for another minuscule change.  Of course each change would take my draftsman a week or so to draw up.  So back and forth, our patience wore thin.  The final item the City Engineer required was that we show a five foot long swale at the north corner of the building site for rainwater runoff.  The funny part of all this is that the swale never was made, because the driveway served for the rainwater runoff.

Plan check for the house plans went equally slow.  Every required change took a week for the draftsman and two weeks for the City plan checker.  I would say that it took nearly six months to get our plans approved and stamped so we could begin building.

In addition to the building permit fees (which included fees for plan check, and fees calculated per electrical outlet and fixture, each plumbing fixture, square feet of living space, square feet of garage & storage, etc.) , we were hit with "Park Fees" of $200, and the major expense were the school fees, which, if I recall correctly were about $2.50 per square foot of living space.  Once our fees were paid, we were permitted to proceed with building the new house!

Setback

Since we were trading services with Lee for the grading, it seemed that it was not on the top of his priority list.  Or perhaps it was because he was waiting for more dirt.  But the grading just seemed to be taking a long time to complete.

One evening Kathy was driving a van load of scouts from our troop over to the Bonita Building for a Court of Honor.  This was back before the freeway.  She had to turn onto Valley Road from the two lane highway that was referred to as the "South Bay Freeway".  There wasn't a traffic light there.  As she made the left turn onto Valley Road, she was broadsided by a motorcyclist.  This unexpected event threw a wrench into the works.  Lee never discussed it with me, but it seemed he stopped working on our job, perhaps out of fear that we might lose the property.  We had $50,000 liability insurance on the van, which was not very much considering he hit her at nearly 60 miles per hour, with no helmet.  (After three months in a medically induced coma, the motorcyclist began a long recovery process.)

Soon we received papers regarding the dreaded lawsuit.  Kathy was called in for depositions.  We were not sure we would come out of this situation financially intact.  There was a good chance we would lose everything.  There was a lot of emotional turmoil as well.  As each month passed, we saw little if any progress on the grading.  We stressed over the outcome of the lawsuit.  Life just was not fun at the point. 

Nearly a year after the accident, as I was perusing the lawsuit papers, I noticed that it named "Does 1 through 20", but I did not see Kathy's name listed in the suit.  I talked to Tom's wife, Terry (our neighbors) about this.  She seemed to be a bit more knowledgeable then I was.  She explained that in a law suit they often put "Does" (like John Doe) into the lawsuit to include anyone that may be liable, but was overlooked when they first filed the paperwork.  But Terry said that Kathy could not be considered as one of the Does, since she was the primary defendant.

I called the attorney who was representing us from our auto insurance company and brought this to his attention.  He called the plaintiff's attorney and explained the situation, and offered him one last chance to accept the $50,000.00 settlement.  By this time a year had passed, and apparently there was some technicality why he could not file a personal injury lawsuit after that much time had passed.  So the defendant's attorney hurriedly tried to have his client declared "incompetent", so the time limit would not apply.  But for some reason that did not happen.  They accepted the settlement, and the issue was favorably resolved for us.

After one long year of stress and concern, things seemed to return to "normal".  Lee found a source for lots of free dirt, and was able to finish the grading to an elevation were downstairs sewer, with slope, ended up being about three feet above the connection point in the street. 

The "Propadirty'

My dad gave me some house plan magazines he had purchased, and I may have bought one or two myself.  We poured over the various house plans for many months.

My dad had built a split level home, and I had seen several others, and I liked the idea of building a split level home to live in.  They were more popular at the time.  My brother, Don, accompanied me to the lot, and we measured off the footprint to see how a split level home would lay out on the terrain.  We discovered that in the width of the house the slope dropped about 8 to 10 feet, and for some reason we came to the conclusion that a split level would not work.  So we decided we would need to have the lot graded to provide a pad to build on.

Eventually we found a plan we liked.  The magazines offered the opportunity to purchase blueprints from them for a very reasonable cost.  The plans even came with engineer stamps.  Unfortunately there was some hitch that we had to have a draftsman draw up the plans.  Perhaps the engineers were not registered in California, or something.

So as we discussed the plan with the draftsman, he asked what features we thought we would like in a home.  I mentioned columns in the front, and perhaps a big clock on the front, and the idea of a split level.  What came out of that, since we didn't have a deep enough lot for columns and a covered porch, we ended up with a pop-out on each side of the porch.  And below the center of the peek of the roof line, we have a big round vent (pseudo-clock), and we have a "split entry".

To get to the stage where we could build, we first had to get the grading done.  I engaged Lee Burch, who was a member of a merchant exchange group that I was a member of at the time.  I was able to do some work for him on an historic home he had moved onto his property and was restoring, in exchange for a portion of the costs involved in grading the lot.  Initially there was a concern that we might have to pump the sewer from the downstairs bathroom.  I mentioned this to Lee, and he said "don't worry about it.  I can bring in as much dirt as you need."

After going through a lot of hoops with the City of Lemon Grove, and lots of red tape, and paying big bucks, we got a grading permit so Lee could get started leveling the pad.  Through his contacts he lined up some free dirt, as well as some where we had to pay "half trucking", depending how badly the other excavator needed a place to dump, and how far away they were.

Of course the project was the center of many of our family activities.  We were always going over to "the property", or talking about "the property."  By this time Alan was a toddler, and when he would talk about "the property", he pronounced it "propadirty".  It was cute, and to this day we will often refer to a lot we are going to work on or look at as "the propadirty."

In pursuit of the dream

Still wanting to pursue the dream, we decided to plant fruit trees along the property line, so that they could become established while we were working toward the goal of someday building a home there.  (See the First Presidency Message for January:  The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago!)

So in between 1981 and 1982 we put in a water line so we could plant and water trees.  This entailed getting a permit from the City of Lemon Grove.  I also had to pay what I thought was a significant amount of money to Helix Water District for a water meter.  I think I paid about $300, if I remember correctly.

We would take the family over to work on the trees on Saturdays.  One Saturday in 1983 we drove over to work in the blue Dodge work van.  Alan was an infant, and Kathy had him in his car seat, secured in the front passenger seat with a seat belt.  The van was parked at the top of the hill, at the southwest corner of our property.  We were working on the other side of the lot, weeding, watering trees, maybe even planting.  I looked up to see the van begin to roll down the hill.  I frantically ran toward the van, not realizing that there was nothing I could do to stop it without perhaps getting run over.  But that is a mute point, because I couldn't run fast enough to reach the van before it rolled past me.  It crossed the road and took out a section of the neighbor's fence and their mailbox.  It continued across their driveway and rolled off their bank to their lower pad, where it took out one leg of their lattice-covered parking structure before rolling over the next bank and coming to a stop when it ran into a tree.  When I arrived, the van was stopped, and fortunately the passengers were unharmed.  Eric, then a toddler, was in the driver's seat.  Apparently he managed to release the parking brake, and had jiggled the gear shift lever enough to pull it out of "Park", which allowed gravity to do what it does best.

I spent some time the following week repairing a fence, a mailbox, a parking structure, and a damaged part of the power steering system.  All-in-all, the property damage was minimal, and bodily injury was insignificant.

As the years passed, I kept thinking how my dad built his "dream house" too late for the family to live in it.  When the house was complete, I was just finishing High School and heading off to college.  My three older brothers had also left home.  So their "at home" family now would consist of my two younger sisters.  It was at this time that he was called to serve as the Mission President of the Mexico West Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  When they returned, only my youngest sister lived with them at home for several years before heading off to college.

I was afraid that might become my reality as well, if we didn't start building soon.

Lemon Grove Property

Early on, even while we were living in a rented apartment in El Cajon in 1974, we had been married for two years and I was beginning to feel the desire of home ownership. 

By this time I was working at Wimsatt Carpet, becoming a tradesman, learning to install carpet.

I remembered that my parents owned some vacant land in Lemon Grove.  After they had moved to San Diego, the Tanners and they went together in the purchase of about four acres in Lemon Grove, a part of San Diego County, just outside San Diego City limits.  They each ended up with a two acre parcel.  The Tanners went ahead and began building a two story home, but moved in after the first story was complete, and never completed the second floor.  Years later, the County of San Diego acquired a strip out of the middle of their property through eminent domain, with the plan of extending College Avenue up to the intersection of 69th Street and Mt. Vernon.  This also took out the Tanner home, which was demolished, leaving only the concrete foundation.

After the section was taken for College Avenue, my parents were left with two irregularly shaped parcels, one on each side of the phantom road.

The community rose up in objection and eventually caused the demise of the road extension project.  Of course the acquired land remained in the name of the County of San Diego.

So in 1974, as a young married couple eager to get started in life, we made an offer to buy one of the lots from my parents.  Wishing to be fair to all their children, they contacted each of them to see if anyone else was interested in buying the land, before accepting our offer of $5,000.00 for the lot that was .59 acre, on the west side of the never-to-be-completed College Avenue extension.  We made payments of $50 per month until it was paid off.

During 1975 & 1976 Kathy and I completed our bachelor degrees at Brigham Young University, and graduated.  Then we went to Inglewood, CA where I earned my MBA and we had the remodeling experience at 515 N. Main Street.

In 1977 Lemon Grove became incorporated as a city.

Late in the summer of 1979 we purchased a 4 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home in Spring Valley.  I set up the front bedroom/den as a home office.  But I built some shelf units which we used as partitions to divide the room in half, to provide a "play room" for the children.

We rented a small store in El Cajon, where we established our "family owned" business.  My parents were anxious to see us succeed, and provided a lot of assistance.  My mom tended the "showroom" while I would be out doing estimates or installation.  Having lived in the area for so many years, they had lots of contacts, which provided some initial sales to get things rolling.  Eventually I hired someone to take mom's place, as her other interests demanded her time.

In addition to building the business, we still kept alive our interest in developing the property in Lemon Grove.  Initially we looked into building a "CAPP Home", which was package home that sold pre-cut pieces of lumber, materials, and supplies.  (Think of it as a huge Lincoln Log kit).  The main advantage would have been the financing they could have provided.  I don't remember why that never materialized.  Maybe I didn't qualify for their financing plan.

One day I saw an ad in the paper by a contractor lady who offered to build a home for what seemed a very reasonable price. We contacted her, and even got as far along as having the southwest corner of the property staked by a surveyor.  But as the negotiations proceeded, this fell through when we learned that FHA would not finance a home on a dirt road.  This all took place in the early 1980's.

Inglewood, California

While working on my MBA at Cal State LA, we lived in a triplex on Market Street in Inglewood, California.  Across the street from where we lived was a rental house at 515 N. Market Street, Inglewood, CA.  It was an old Victorian style house, and the yard was not kept up.  The tenants had dogs living in the house with them, and parked their cars on what once was a front lawn.  One day I noticed a "For Sale" sign in front of the house, and the tenants were gone.

My parents must have set a good example for me in regards to home ownership.  So my sights were set on buying a home some day.  The opportunity seemed to present itself to me at that time.  We looked into it, and eventually made an offer to buy the house for $25,000.00.  I don't know how we managed, but we scraped together $2,500.00 for the down payment.

While working for Wimsatt Carpets before going back to school, I had collected scraps of carpet that would have otherwise gone into the dumpster.  I brought the scraps of carpet up to Inglewood from San Diego and used them to carpet the living room.  Rather than use seam tape to put all those pieces together, I used an old carpet which I turned upside down, and with Multipurpose Adhesive, I glued the pieces to the back of the old carpet.  It was a patchwork of good quality carpet.  It served the purpose.  And it was cheap.  And it became a conversation piece.

Once we cleaned it up, we moved in.  The house was on a very deep lot, zoned R-3.  It was a two bedroom, one bathroom house with a kitchen and living room.  It had a shake shingle roof, which leaked, and there was a detached garage.

One of the early projects was to re-roof with Asphalt Composition Shingles.  I installed the new shingles directly over the old wood shingles, nailing them with a hammer and nails.  I didn't even know about roofing nail guns, if they even existed back then, nor would I have been able to afford one and a compressor.  So I did with what I had.  I'm sure I would not be proud of that job today, but at the time I was pretty proud of myself.  And it stopped the leaks.

The City of Inglewood had been through a period of blight, and was trying to rebuild itself.  So the City was offering low interest loans for home remodel projects.  We applied, and were granted a remodel loan.  So we set about to make some changes to the house.  We needed an additional bedroom because by then we had one boy and two girls, and Kathy was expecting our forth child.  So our plan included converting the back porch into an additional bedroom.  We put in a "laundry room" off the kitchen by making a 3' X 5' closet with the accordion doors. We also added a bathroom off the Master bedroom. My brother, Don came up and worked with me quite a bit, as we worked through this project together.  His major at BYU had exposed him to most aspects of home construction.  He had been involved in building several houses while in Provo, and later remodeled the house he purchased in Price, UT when he moved there to teach shop class in the local high school.  He taught me many aspects of construction while I worked with him.

When we had to open up some of the walls to begin the project, we discovered that the original walls were built the old fashion way, with actual slats of redwood lath which was covered with plaster (that's why it was called "lath and plaster.")  The studs were not planed smooth like they are today, so they actually measured 2" X 4".  Today, after being planed smooth, a 2X4 actually measures 1 1/2" X 3 1/2".

He taught me about working with concrete when we put in a concrete driveway.

He taught me plumbing, as we had to hook up the drain and water supply lines to the "laundry room" and the new bathroom.  And he taught me electrical wiring, as we had to install additional outlets, switches, and light fixtures.

He taught me framing as we put in a ceiling, walls and a door for the additional bedroom.  He taught me how to hang drywall, tape it, and texture after we insulated the new work.

Then we turned our attention to the kitchen, where we tore out the old counter top, and I installed new sheet vinyl flooring.  Kathy remembers well this aspect of the job, as it took way longer than any of us anticipated, and she had to wash the dishes in the bathtub and prepare meals with no counters.  She was a true pioneer.

We had a picture window in the living room.  It must have been cracked, because I remember the adventure we had replacing it.  It was about 4' X 6'.  I found a piece of glass from an old sliding door for sale for about $10, and purchased it.  A friend in our ward knew how to cut glass (he made stained glass windows for a hobby), so I talked him into cutting it for me.  He came over and we set up two saw horses in the living room to support the glass.  The front door was open.  The old glass may have already been out of the window.  He marked the glass, dipped his glass cutting wheel in oil, and with the use of a straight edge, he pulled it along the edge of the glass where it needed to be cut.  Then he attempted to snap the glass along the new score line.  But it was stubborn.  He tried again, but the glass resisted.  Then he began tapping along the score, to weaken the glass so it would break more easily.  All of a sudden the full sheet of glass exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces of glass.  It was so forceful we found pieces of glass way up the sidewalk in the front yard.  He then apologized to me that he had forgotten that tempered glass cannot be cut.  Fortunately no one was hurt.

Eventually I completed my MBA degree.  And eventually we complete the remodel project.  It was time to move on.  We decided to move back to San Diego and open up a carpet store.  So we began looking into selling the house.  We were talking to Realtors and looking at "comps" (comparable houses that had sold in the neighborhood), and were about to list the house for $74,000.00.  But then we found a new real estate agent who was energetic and did her research.  Since our lot was zoned R-3, that meant that apartments or condominiums could be built there, and the land was worth more than the house that was on the land.  So we listed it for $125,000.00.  It eventually sold for $115,000.00 and we carried back a second on the transaction of about $25,000.00.  Unfortunately, a year or so later the buyer became delinquent and the bank foreclosed.  We were not in a position to pick up the payments to the loan so we lost the second.  But we were fortunate that after all our loans were paid off, we had about $30,000.00 for a down payment on the house we purchased in Spring Valley (Rancho San Diego area) for $71,000.00.

We were thankful for the good fortune in selling the property for a price higher that we might have, but in hind sight, we probably would have made as much with out the expense, time, and effort of the remodel project.  But we enjoyed the experience and the feeling of accomplishment and creativity as we completed it.  The house was later torn down and a condominium project was built on the land.