weep screed and inspection

During construction, you just never know what will come up and what you will learn. Weep screed. This is a metal piece that is installed at the base of an exterior stucco wall, as opposed to having the stucco go right down to the dirt. And, we learned last week, the City of Newport Beach requires 4" of dirt be removed below the weep screed, next to the house, in order to pass final inspection. Bringing our 1950's foundation up to code during this project has been something of a challenge (read here for foundation footings issue).

This is before, you can see concrete mixed into the dirt and
gravel shoveled back against the fence.

The weep screed rule was really a blessing in disguise. During construction, the dirt around the property essentially gets trashed. Concrete and stucco spill all over as does paint, tile grout and other chemicals. We previously had gravel around the back of the house which had been left in pretty poor shape from the construction. So one of the remaining steps in our project was to remove 4" of dirt in about a 2-3 foot wide path around the house, and remove all the piles of debris. The odd thing about remodeling is that you are only required to bring the house up to code in the parts you touch. So the back of our house now has property level lower than the rest of the house. Please, remodel gods, no heavy rains before we have a chance to fill in with gravel or something.

This is "after" with the dirt properly shoveled out from
under the foundation and the backyard cleaned up.

Closeup of the removal below the screed.
We added drains as well.

We are still waiting on a couple of little things before we can get past final inspection (hopefully in a couple of days). I think the plumbing has been more challenging than anticipated. The bathtub seems to be throwing the plumber and the contractor for a loop and it is not installed fully yet although I can tell they have been messing around with it all last week. I never thought about the challenges of building a drain right under a tub rather than towards the front of the tub near a wall and an access point. Right now there is a hole in the floor next to the tub. That can't be right.

Hole in the floor. It is near the window but STILL,
is this really how it is done? I seriously don't know
if that hole is going to remain after construction completes.

Note telling us to NOT jiggle the tub. The tub is a cheap knock off of
something much more expensive. Basically it came in on a container ship from China.
And it is light weight. Could it become unhinged from the drain? I am a little concerned
 and will have to keep an eye out.

Tub almost ready to go

Shower walls partially installed.
The contractor says the NPB city inspector hates
frameless showers. Who asked him?
But the contractor said this may not pass inspection. 

Me marking where the towel bars should go. Trying to
strategically hide an electric plate that shows where the old
electrical outlet was. For some reason you have
to provide access to these spots.

Close up of the pretty little shower. Our guests will love it!