cb, what is their commitment to you? If it’s to provide plans that get approved, then clearly they do have to make corrections. It it’s just to provide plans that might get approved – well, then I guess they’re off the hook.
Yesterday morning, when I was so frustrated that I could not find anyone from engineer’s office, I called my original old school draftsman that I have worked with for years. I explained the situation and begged him if he could look at the City’s comments and provide a 2nd set of eyes on the elevation drawings. This is because I know that he has worked on a lot of remodels/additions in Pt Loma and the coastal zone. He said he was going into their office at 11:30 anyway and he would try to help
Bless him, it turns out that he stopped by engineer’s office (because he had other jobs he was picking up there) and sat with the draftsman and made some marks on the plans to show height elevations correctly. I did not know that he had stopped by.
Last night about 6pm I finally got an email from engineer. He apologized for not answering emails because he has laryngitis. He asked when my appointment was with Zoning guy to return with corrected plans. I told him that I did not make an appointment yet because I had no idea when they were going to make corrections. Next thing I know I get another email “we are working on them right now, come on in”. Scramble over to engineer’s office at 7pm last night and worked with them until 10pm to review corrections and print out 2 new sets of plans. It takes forever to print out the new pages because they have a slow plotter.
So… I am now ready to go back in but I am at the mercy of the Zoning guy to reply to my appointment request. I sent an email last night to Zoning guy (per instructions) pretty much begging for an appointment today. We will see if he even responds.
I owe my old draftsman a big Starbucks gift card or something 
Yesterday my granite guy showed up and put in a beautiful carrerra marble vanity top in the hall bathroom. I loaded a fuzzy photo to Flickr
Our trenches are done and compacted. Today the concrete guys are coming to form out all the footings around the new garage area. Tommorrow the rebar guy comes and bends and sets all the rebar into the foundations. We are definitely moving along.
Built a new gate for the eastern side of the house and it will get installed today. I decided to build the gate to provide more security to the back area because of the dangerous construction zone full of trenches and holes and rebar sticking out everywhere and the stockpile of materials back there. Right now I can barely make it down into the basement to work with the guys on the engineering and footings because I have to leap across two trenches, step over all kinds of site lines and rebar. My rule is that a 2nd set of eyes has to analyze the plans and engineering before footings are dug, posts set, shear walls set, etc. That’s why I am spending a lot of time down in the basement lately.
Had to give up the basement bathroom because I just didn’t want to fight City Hall anymore. Now there is just a utility sink down in the basement. But, because I gave up the toilet in basement, I put the laundry sink back into the plans. This all has to do with juggling ‘water usage’. If I give up the toilet I get 2.5gpm points and I can gain back the laundry sink at 1gpm point.
The basement bathroom may mysteriously appear later after final inspection, but I may have to just sell it with ‘plumbing available’ for basement toilet
I’m confused…I thought upstream they gave the OK for the basement bathroom.
I’m a speech pathologist here…why would having laryngitis affect answering email??
I did not email him (my mistake). I just kept trying to call on the phone. I did finally get through to someone in the office about 11:30am (the draftsman). He was the one that was non commital and said he was really busy and didn’t know when they could get the changes done. He said they would get back to me
When I picked up the plans at City yesterday morning… the Zoning guy had crossed out the basement bathroom on the plans and marked ‘removed by owner 6/14’. So, I just don’t want to fight it any more so we removed toilet from the bathroom plan. When I go in for my appointment I am bringing my print out of the Municipal Code for a discussion… but I just don’t want to hold anything up anymore.
Yes, the Bertazonni range top is on my radar. If I cannot find a good clearance price I will order the Bertazonni range top
“Removed by owner”?
What else do the think YOU have removed or changed yourself that you actually didn’t change?
I know…it’s not a battle worth fighting. But you know what I mean!
When I went in and got a chance to talk to him we had a long discussion about the basement bath. Even though I tried to discuss the Municipal Code he said “I need to speak with my manager about it”. At that point I told him that I would just give up on the bathroom in order to move forward. So, he took the plans to his desk and marked them up that way.
I haven’t had a chance to go back in and state my case with the Municipal Code in my hands. I will try one more time whenever I get my next appointment (which I am sitting next to my computer stalking email to see if he ever responds to me) but right now there is no toilet in the plans.
Oh, @coralbrook: You deserve lots of {{{{{hugs}}}}} today. Not to mention a big ice cream sundae, or a big glass of Merlot, or whatever makes you happy.
So, to summarize: the City has signed off on everything now?? And you just want to go back in one for one more shot at getting the basement bathroom back, since it was there before?
No, I am not signed off. I have to go back in with the corrected plans for another review with Zoning. IF he is OK with corrections, he will be the final sign off. After he signs off and stamps the new set of plans I then get to go through a dance called ‘stamp transfer’. I have to go back to every other department that has signed off and they re-stamp the new set of plans. After that, I get to wait in another line for Permit Issuance. That step takes a long time because they go through everything, collect all kinds of forms (including a form that I sign guaranteeing that I am not obstructing the flight path). Then they do a final calculation of fees.
Then I have to go over to a cashier and pay all the permit fees. After getting a receipt I have to go back and wait in line at Permit Issuance and they will do a final stamp of the plans and update status to ‘Issued’. The minute I get that status with fees paid in the computer system, I can call for an inspection.
Unfortunately, because of the FAA height issue, I am required to have a Pre Construction Inspection. That means that inspector comes out, stands in yard and goes ‘Yep, no planes going to hit this house’. That has to be cleared in computer system before I can call for our foundation inspection. Days away from getting a chance to have a foundation inspection before we can pour concrete. Every day that goes by waiting for that is a danger to our trenches, rebar and forms.
It will be hilarious when the inspector shows up for the Pre Construction inspection. Miraculously the entire foundation will have been built in the 24 hours since permit was issued !!!
Oy.
That cracked me up! Was he going to YELL in the email??
I thought the same thing as jym626. I want a “super” like button for that comment:)
Oh, forgot to add, FWIW- I am completely flummoxed by all the high tech stuff on our new appliances. Its all digital and I had to download the manuals. I pushed something on the fridge that affected the “turbo cool” or something and its giving me some code I don’t understand and DH wasn’t home to look at it (and I cant find it in the manual). My suggestion- pick appliances that dont confuse the owner!!
My apologies typo about emails … I meant that he was not answering my phone calls because he had laryngitis
You gave us a good laugh, cb! You are so generous to share your flip stories with us that we will never fault you for a typo:) I don’t know how you keep it together with your experiences at city hall. I would be wanting to have a meltdown along the proportions of Shirley McLaine in Terms of Endearment.
About to have a world record melt down. I really should be at the project today because we have our big delivery of doors and windows and I wish I could be there to make sure everything is accurate. Had to leave the poor carpenter in charge of the delivery.
I have decided that if the Zoning guy does not return my email or any of my phone messages (I am an absolute pest… have been calling every half an hour but only left one voice message) by 12:30 then I am going to have to go down to the City and just sit there trying to ‘schedule an appointment’ at some future date and time.
Hasn’t your carpenter stepped up before and done a good job? He will handle the delivery just fine. You are smart to go to the City and be a pest so you can move forward with this project.
Oh Coralbrook. Congrats for not going completely postal by now.