Dilemma to buy…need your opinions

[LuckyInOC]

Trojan4Life,

Here’s another option:

Until you get your transfer, rent a home in OC for a year just before LA County line, such as, Seal Beach, Rossmore, Los Alomitos, Cypress, La Palma, La Habra. You can find some very nice homes and freway close. Travel to RB (5 to 78 to 15) should be about 1 hr without heavy traffic.

My wife has relatives in east SD that we go see every so often. We take the 5-78-15-8 route. We have been considering a 2nd home condo purchase in RB for a few years.

I live in Buena Park (next to Knott’s) and commute to Torrance everyday. Takes about 1 hr with traffic between 6am-8am, 40 mins without. Downtown LA would be a bit more. There actually is a house down our street trying to sell/rent (4b,3b, 2500+sf). I don’t know how much they are asking for rent, was $729K sell, much too high.

Those school districts above are pretty good to very good. Buena Park Elementary is ok, Middle and High schools are not. I send 2 of 3 to privite school. Last one starts next year. My kids are 11, 8, 5.

West or South Torrance may be another rent option, but the drive to RB would kill you. I will take 20-30 mins to get to any freeway.

I like La Habra area on Beach (Hawk’s Point). Some very nice new homes. All the shopping centers in the area are very new. My wife drives up there to do most of her shopping (Cosco, Sam’s, etc). And no LA sales taxes.

Hope this helps, good luck.

LuckyInOC

[gn]

[quote=AN]Regarding remodel, I just redid the entire kitchen, 1 bath, 1 wet bar, for about ~$22-25k total. This is w/ maple cabinets w/ cherry stained, full extension drawers, lazy susan in the corner cabinet, 6″ back splash and full height back splash where the stove is, marble floor. I think you can save a lot by doing a lot of the general contractor job yourself. It took me ~2 weeks from start to finish. Marble floor takes about 5 days to do, cabinets took about 3 days, demo took 2 days. If you want reference, I can refer you to the general contractor I use.[/quote]

AN, thanks for sharing your experience. I’d like to ask you some questions about your remodeling:

– Did you basically go to a general contractor, told him about your preferences for the materials/colors & then let the contractor handle everything ? Did you find your contractor from the advertisements in the magazines ?
– If you had gone to Home Depot, pick out the cabinet & marble/granite & let Home Depot do the work for you, would it have cost more ? How would the quality of the product & the workmanship compare to using a general contractor ?

[gn]

[quote=AN]Regarding remodel, I just redid the entire kitchen, 1 bath, 1 wet bar, for about ~$22-25k total. This is w/ maple cabinets w/ cherry stained, full extension drawers, lazy susan in the corner cabinet, 6″ back splash and full height back splash where the stove is, marble floor. I think you can save a lot by doing a lot of the general contractor job yourself. It took me ~2 weeks from start to finish. Marble floor takes about 5 days to do, cabinets took about 3 days, demo took 2 days. If you want reference, I can refer you to the general contractor I use.[/quote]

AN, thanks for sharing your experience. I’d like to ask you some questions about your remodeling:

– Did you basically go to a general contractor, told him about your preferences for the materials/colors & then let the contractor handle everything ? Did you find your contractor from the advertisements in the magazines ?
– If you had gone to Home Depot, pick out the cabinet & marble/granite & let Home Depot do the work for you, would it have cost more ? How would the quality of the product & the workmanship compare to using a general contractor ?

[gn]

[quote=AN]Regarding remodel, I just redid the entire kitchen, 1 bath, 1 wet bar, for about ~$22-25k total. This is w/ maple cabinets w/ cherry stained, full extension drawers, lazy susan in the corner cabinet, 6″ back splash and full height back splash where the stove is, marble floor. I think you can save a lot by doing a lot of the general contractor job yourself. It took me ~2 weeks from start to finish. Marble floor takes about 5 days to do, cabinets took about 3 days, demo took 2 days. If you want reference, I can refer you to the general contractor I use.[/quote]

AN, thanks for sharing your experience. I’d like to ask you some questions about your remodeling:

– Did you basically go to a general contractor, told him about your preferences for the materials/colors & then let the contractor handle everything ? Did you find your contractor from the advertisements in the magazines ?
– If you had gone to Home Depot, pick out the cabinet & marble/granite & let Home Depot do the work for you, would it have cost more ? How would the quality of the product & the workmanship compare to using a general contractor ?

[gn]

[quote=AN]Regarding remodel, I just redid the entire kitchen, 1 bath, 1 wet bar, for about ~$22-25k total. This is w/ maple cabinets w/ cherry stained, full extension drawers, lazy susan in the corner cabinet, 6″ back splash and full height back splash where the stove is, marble floor. I think you can save a lot by doing a lot of the general contractor job yourself. It took me ~2 weeks from start to finish. Marble floor takes about 5 days to do, cabinets took about 3 days, demo took 2 days. If you want reference, I can refer you to the general contractor I use.[/quote]

AN, thanks for sharing your experience. I’d like to ask you some questions about your remodeling:

– Did you basically go to a general contractor, told him about your preferences for the materials/colors & then let the contractor handle everything ? Did you find your contractor from the advertisements in the magazines ?
– If you had gone to Home Depot, pick out the cabinet & marble/granite & let Home Depot do the work for you, would it have cost more ? How would the quality of the product & the workmanship compare to using a general contractor ?

[gn]

[quote=AN]Regarding remodel, I just redid the entire kitchen, 1 bath, 1 wet bar, for about ~$22-25k total. This is w/ maple cabinets w/ cherry stained, full extension drawers, lazy susan in the corner cabinet, 6″ back splash and full height back splash where the stove is, marble floor. I think you can save a lot by doing a lot of the general contractor job yourself. It took me ~2 weeks from start to finish. Marble floor takes about 5 days to do, cabinets took about 3 days, demo took 2 days. If you want reference, I can refer you to the general contractor I use.[/quote]

AN, thanks for sharing your experience. I’d like to ask you some questions about your remodeling:

– Did you basically go to a general contractor, told him about your preferences for the materials/colors & then let the contractor handle everything ? Did you find your contractor from the advertisements in the magazines ?
– If you had gone to Home Depot, pick out the cabinet & marble/granite & let Home Depot do the work for you, would it have cost more ? How would the quality of the product & the workmanship compare to using a general contractor ?

[an]

gn, although the person that did my work is a general contractor, I basically did 1/2 of his work. I bought most of the materials myself. I shop around and get vendors to price match to get the best price. I got bids from several people and this is the best price with the best quality for the price. I actually found him on craigslist. I was only going to use him to do the demo. However, after finding out he’s a general contractor, I got him to bid on the other projects.

If I went to HD and have them do everything, I can easily pay 50-75% more. I did a lot of price matching for everything from materials to labor. Workmanship was great too. They really took their time to do it right. They spent 3 days just to get my floor level so that the bamboo wouldn’t bounce since I had it floated. Same with the marble, they really took their time to do it right. I can’t speak for a HD contractor, but I suspect I wouldn’t get the same treatment.

[an]

gn, although the person that did my work is a general contractor, I basically did 1/2 of his work. I bought most of the materials myself. I shop around and get vendors to price match to get the best price. I got bids from several people and this is the best price with the best quality for the price. I actually found him on craigslist. I was only going to use him to do the demo. However, after finding out he’s a general contractor, I got him to bid on the other projects.

If I went to HD and have them do everything, I can easily pay 50-75% more. I did a lot of price matching for everything from materials to labor. Workmanship was great too. They really took their time to do it right. They spent 3 days just to get my floor level so that the bamboo wouldn’t bounce since I had it floated. Same with the marble, they really took their time to do it right. I can’t speak for a HD contractor, but I suspect I wouldn’t get the same treatment.

[an]

gn, although the person that did my work is a general contractor, I basically did 1/2 of his work. I bought most of the materials myself. I shop around and get vendors to price match to get the best price. I got bids from several people and this is the best price with the best quality for the price. I actually found him on craigslist. I was only going to use him to do the demo. However, after finding out he’s a general contractor, I got him to bid on the other projects.

If I went to HD and have them do everything, I can easily pay 50-75% more. I did a lot of price matching for everything from materials to labor. Workmanship was great too. They really took their time to do it right. They spent 3 days just to get my floor level so that the bamboo wouldn’t bounce since I had it floated. Same with the marble, they really took their time to do it right. I can’t speak for a HD contractor, but I suspect I wouldn’t get the same treatment.

[an]

gn, although the person that did my work is a general contractor, I basically did 1/2 of his work. I bought most of the materials myself. I shop around and get vendors to price match to get the best price. I got bids from several people and this is the best price with the best quality for the price. I actually found him on craigslist. I was only going to use him to do the demo. However, after finding out he’s a general contractor, I got him to bid on the other projects.

If I went to HD and have them do everything, I can easily pay 50-75% more. I did a lot of price matching for everything from materials to labor. Workmanship was great too. They really took their time to do it right. They spent 3 days just to get my floor level so that the bamboo wouldn’t bounce since I had it floated. Same with the marble, they really took their time to do it right. I can’t speak for a HD contractor, but I suspect I wouldn’t get the same treatment.

[an]

gn, although the person that did my work is a general contractor, I basically did 1/2 of his work. I bought most of the materials myself. I shop around and get vendors to price match to get the best price. I got bids from several people and this is the best price with the best quality for the price. I actually found him on craigslist. I was only going to use him to do the demo. However, after finding out he’s a general contractor, I got him to bid on the other projects.

If I went to HD and have them do everything, I can easily pay 50-75% more. I did a lot of price matching for everything from materials to labor. Workmanship was great too. They really took their time to do it right. They spent 3 days just to get my floor level so that the bamboo wouldn’t bounce since I had it floated. Same with the marble, they really took their time to do it right. I can’t speak for a HD contractor, but I suspect I wouldn’t get the same treatment.

[Author]

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