If this isn’t the classic Malibu tale,  then I don’t know what is....”  Steve  Yett cracks a wry smile and shakes  his head in disbelief.  “So two  sisters inherit their mother’s house.   They can’t agree on what to do with  it.  One sister starts a bootleg  remodel.  The other sister turns her  into the City.  They end up hiring a  local architect to come up with  plans for the remodel and clear the  violation.  By the time they’re done  with this exercise, they don’t have  enough money to do the remodel,  so they sell the property with  entitlements.  My client buys the  property for a song.  I don’t know if 
some of the crazy ideas that they came up with in  the original design were those of the previous  architect, or the two sisters.  At any rate, my client  didn’t like the City-Approved design, and hired me  to make adjustments and get the project re-  approved as a ‘Substantial Conformance’ which  enabled the project to be approved relatively  easily and quickly.” One of the first things that Steve Yett changed was the two large dormers that the previous design  had as integral design elements.  This was going  to require moment frames and grade beams. “I didn’t see any real benefit to having them. The  front door and stairs to the second floor were in  the center of the house.  If the Master Suite were  positioned to take advantage of the spectacular  view, I would’ve kept one of them.  It made much  more sense to me to break them down into three  smaller dormers that could be wood frame, and  require only minor underpinning to the existing  foundation.”  The proposed Master Bathroom was facing the  frontage street; not the spectacular ocean view.
“I think the only reason why they were keeping it there was to keep the plumbing lines in the same  place.  But it really didn’t make any sense, the old cast-iron piping that they kept should’ve been  replaced.  And where they did replace the plumbing, they were using PVC.  At any rate, we moved the  Master Bath to take full advantage on the ocean view, placing the new tub in one of the dormers.  It  really made a world of difference.” 
“My client wanted a deck off the  Master Suite, taking in the blue  water views and a trellis at the  Entry. The Planning Department  didn’t see how this work could be  considered part of the original  approval, so we made that part of  a second phase that we were  able to catch up with the rest of  the work during construction.”