The Glen Avenue project was a really challenging one, but extremely enjoyable. The owners acquired it out of foreclosure in 2010, and it had an approved, but expired, set of building plans from 2006. The project had sat up on steel beams and cribbing with no foundation for almost 5 years. The city building official was eager to see something happen and allowed the owners to reactivate the permit for $170, and start construction the day they closed. This was miraculous in a town like Berkeley!

Challenges abounded with this project, which was part of the fun! The first thing was getting down the mat slab in this hillside slide area. That was no easy task, as there was some shoring work to do on a 5 year old 10' unprotected excavation cut on the north side of the building, which was making the uphill neighbor quite nervous.

The next big item was keeping the roof, and roof only, of the original structure. Cribbing, bracing and framing in small sections while remaining on layout, while dealing with a racked roof structure was nerve racking but made for a good time. Due to zoning code, and the building's nonconformance with setbacks in 3 directions, the roof had to stay in order to remain a "remodel" and grandfather the building footprint, and existing set of plans. Once framed, the project proceeded normally.