Friday, February 18, 2011

They Want To Look At Everything

I went to pay my money to renew my building permit that had expired last June. It has been a while. I was fussed at. Anything out of the ordinary that doesn't follow procedure on schedule sends these regimented rules people into a tizzy.

"This permit isn't expired. We haven't been there since May of 2009 (wrong). This permit is dead. The governor is making us......"

I'm thinking the governor sure as hell better not be thinking I am going to pay for a whole new permit.

"I need to call Bruce and find out what to do." "Ok, fifty dollars to renew."

"You haven't even had your final environmental inspection. You may have to dig up the septic lines. There needs to be gutters on the roof."

What in the hell are you talking about lady? It can't be legal code requiring me to have rain gutters on the roof. My God you are going to make me turn into a government hating Rebublican.

It seems I forgot the septic man wanted to come back after the finish grading work was done. There was a possibly long period of time between the septic system and the finish grading. I found the form. It's not as scary as she was making it sound. Still I think I need to hide the tire tracks over my drain field from my neighbor's gathering of firewood.

I got the garbage disposal almost installed. I need a cable connector for the electric cord. So I put in the faucets. There wasn't a whole lot of enthusiasm in me today for plumbing and wiring.



"He just needs to see the line from the house to the tank." "You haven't had your final environmental inspection." 'Aack, aack, gutters, gutters, aack."

Fine. That is a very short distance. I didn't cover anything until I was told I could cover it. The form says roof and surface water must be directed away from the system. It doesn't say how. My roof water don't flow towards the system at any point and the surface water drainage is fine.

I do however want to raise the soil level over the main sewer line as it heads to the turdbox. I don't feel it is near deep enough to be safe from freezing. Moving rocks would be more entertaining than wiring and plumbing.

The stepping stone landing at the service entrance was prepped for two more stones and another round of base beneath. Some settling of contents has occurred over the winter. The rubble rock wall, not my best work, is being raised to accommodate more soil. Just think of this bed as a berm with a fancy rock skirting. You can see that without even trying, junk - ahem - yard art finds its way to me.



The turdbox has not been covered and won't be until I get my final environmental inspection. Take that lady! Really it's because the plan is to cover it with landscape fabric and a layer of decorative pea gravel that can be raked Japanese. Zen like lake of the floating turd blossoms. I just haven't gotten around to that little detail yet.



Ohmm. It is my quest to make the inspector men happy.

8 comments:

sweetbay said...

I had to laugh when I read about your possibly being turned into a government hating Republican. I have felt a little of your pain. We moved our house 4 years ago. Like going through a very slow assembly line with hitches every step of the way.

Hopefully those rocks will help to put the inspector in a more tranquil state of mind.

Lola said...

Oh my word. What do they want, blood out of a turnip? I've never heard of such. Yeah, cover those tire tracks. Shhhhhhh,there weren't no vehicles there.
I like your facet. It all is coming together so nice.
Only downfall of the mtns is things seem to go away either from settling or torrid rain fall. If it's from rain just chunk another rock into it & cover it up.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Good luck with the inspectors. I think all is coming along beautifully.

Les said...

Best of luck with battling the bureaucracy. I haven't checked in with your progress in a while, but iIt's amazing and looks like you are ready to move in.

Cheryl K. said...

We did not personally have to deal with the people you were talking to since we had a general contractor, but we do know the Certificate of Occupancy was delayed while they took care of stupid nonsense annoyances. What these items had to do with the safety and habitability of the dwelling we could not understand - we just knew our landlord had changed his mind about how long we could be in the rented house and we needed to get our furniture out and we were about to have to pay to store it and live in a motel. Eventually, all the little ruffled feathers were smoothed out, and the landlord changed his mind back again anyway. Congratulations: Your place is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Christopher, I started laughing in the first sentence of your post and didn't stop till the last! That lady really got your dander up. Lordy, that's how they exert their little bit of power in the world. The inspector man will be more reasonable and all will be well. I am just fascinated how you turn everything around you into beauty - what an imagination.

bev

Christopher C. NC said...

Sweetbay not being a contractor they know and not knowing their procedure it can be a bit like two people talking past each other. My tactic is to remain calm with them at all times.

Lola I sure hope they aren't going to demand rain gutters. I have drains in place to gather the water and send it away from the cabin. I hope that will suffice.

Lisa I hope when I am ready it gets approved on the first try.

Les I am so very close now. When I think I am ready for inspection, I'll take a day or two to be sure I am ready.

Cheryl every county is slightly different because they can make their own peculiar building codes. Then there are the personalities and sometimes it is who you know. I will be prepared for stupid nonsense annoyances in order to get my certificate of occupancy. They are bound to happen.

Bev that woman had me worked up all day. The first thing I did when I got home was search for the septic system form to see what it really said. I had forgotten about it that is true. I do make an effort at pretty. I am going to be looking at it for the rest of my life.

Randy Emmitt said...

Clyde,

I have to get a building permit next week, needs a zoning compliance permit first. When we did our house they would not let us have a garbage disposal, Meg did not want one anyway.

Good luck and get that final!!!