Patching, landing and paperwork

Not a bad week so far... on Monday, the contractor's crew was here patching the drywall inside and the stucco outside. I am amazed at what a good drywaller can do. In two coats, the place looks better than my prior contractor was able to achieve in 5-6 coats. Having only seen it done once, I assumed it took that many coats (and the contractor told me that as well). Now I realize that he used unskilled guys who had never done drywall and did some himself (he's not very good at it).

On Tuesday, the contractor sent a guy to build the door landing, a critical part of this project. The new back door opens out onto a walkway that is down about 2 feet - a major safety hazard and inconvenient too! I am not thrilled with it, but it's not a big deal. It slopes down slightly from the level of the threshold to the level of the top of the retaining wall. It had to be done this way because to make it level with the top of the retaining wall would have meant a step down from the threshold of about 1/2". This would not pass inspection due to being a tripping hazard. I think a step has to be at least 2" or 3" inches in order not to be a tripping hazard. This landing will be torn out soon and replaced with a ground level deck so we have a place to hang out back there. I can't wait!

Here is the door with the landing built. The board on the ground in front of the row of bricks covers a hole we'll need to fill in before inspection. Technically, they shouldn't care about something like that, but pretty much your whole house is fair game at final inspection. My friend was remodeling an upstairs bedroom and bathroom and couldn't pass inspection because her stairs had no railing. Keep in mind she bought the place that way, and intended to put a railing in but it had nothing to do with the bedroom/bathroom project. The railing itself had to meet certain criteria as well - e.g. width between rungs, height, etc.




Here is a side view of the new landing. You can see it slopes sightly down. You can also see the walkway it bridges. It is much nicer having the landing! I feels like another big improvement.




The contractor instructed me to call for final inspection on Thursday. I tried, and found that I am unable to schedule final until I have completed my business license form. Ugh. The reason I was able to have a try at passing final already is that one of the nicer inspectors offered to do it since he was here. I am glad he did because having to do all this work (windows, door and landing) after doing that form would have added complications.

On the form, I have to list everyone who worked on the house, the dates they were here and their city business license number. It is so the city can make sure that anyone earning money here is paying license fees and taxes to the city. What I think sucks is that it is MY responsibility to enforce this. How did I become a revenue officer? By virtue of getting a permit.

How big a deal is this? Well the form is 10 pages long, and lists every possible type of work you can think of. They even include window coverings! A friend of mine got snagged up on this trying to close her permit..... she had 3 days left on it and was trying to prepare the form. It turns out that the person who delivers your windows must have a city business license. In her case, she purchased her windows from a company located about an hour north of here. That company put the windows on a truck, drove them here and put them inside her front door. Her contractor (who had proper licensing) then installed them. So, with 3 days left, she had to scramble to get the window company to take out a retroactive business license with the city. In addition, while they were cooperative with the paperwork, they refused to pay for it and she had to. Unbelievable, but trust me, I couldn't make this stuff up.

Armed with this information, I was diligent about everyone having a business license. I didn't let anyone begin work without one because I could hear it the conversation: "Oh, I just didn't get around to it..... I'll go ahead and get started today like I planned and I'll do it on my way in tomorrow." Followed by: "Oh, traffic was really bad and I had to get materials. I'll do it tomorrow." Etc, etc.

I was sure I would have no problem with the form. I was a little bummed to not even be able to schedule final inspection until the form was done and approved but there was nothing to do about it at this point. I thought you did the form after final inspection, otherwise I would have had it ready to go. It would make more sense that way - if you end up having to do work on corrections you got at final inspection, it's too late to get that person on the form. As I was filling out the form, I realized I "lost" the license number of my electrician. I "knew" he had once because I remember talking to him about it. Turns out somehow I missed this one! I don't know how it happened, but I suspect he thought I meant his business license in the city where he lives because I did ask him about it. He said he would look into it and get back to me. Yikes! I hope this doesn't delay things too long! I only have until July 20th for this permit. That's it - no more extensions.