We have been trying for six months to get our building permit to begin construction on our new kitchen/den area. Hubby drew up the plans in AutoCAD, sent them to an architect, then sent them to the engineering firm, and then to the county building inspector. The building inspector, of course, had to find something wrong, so it was back to the drawing board, so to speak. The engineering firm assigned one of the engineers to our project. Hubby made the changes that the building inspector wanted and we sent it back to the engineers for their signatures. During that time, the engineer assigned to our project, left the firm for another job. We had no clue why it was taking so long and finally called the owner of the engineering firm. He told us the first engineer had quit, blah, blah, blah. They re-assigned our project to someone else, and we are finally seeing some movement!!! We hope to get approval this week, but the county building inspector is notorious for finding lots of things wrong that he tells you about "piece-meal." He sometimes does things differently from the codes, too, like requiring a certain fuse box (normally more expensive) when the code calls for a different one (less expensive). I think his lack of experience is making him more "strict" than he needs to be. Also, he is a "my way or the highway" kind of guy. Hubby is no slouch in the inspection business. He was an inspector for the US Forest Service for the last few years on the job, prior to retirement. When you ask the county guy to show you the specific requirement in the code book he gets ticked off at you and then things start slowing down, if you know what I mean, like "how dare you question me." In addition, the money we have to pay just to get the needed permits is close to $5,000. The square footage for the addition and screened-in patio is 1,320 square feet. Because of this, we have to pay a school tax up front of close to $1,000. It seems like it is "always something, never nothing." Hopefully, things will get into high gear this week or the next. We have to worry about the weather: Hubby is doing the work by himself (my oldest son will be helping with the trusses and a little bit of the initial construction), and because of the delays so far, we have to worry about fall/winter because of the rain that we normally get.
Okay, enough of my whining! I have to go to the dentist's office sometime today to get the insurance info to the front office. What fun. Not! So, I will look at some more posts and read more email and TTYL.
It's funny to see most of you just starting your morning and it is already after 4pm here!
