Monday, November 26, 2007
Success!!
As hard as it is for us to believe, we have permits!! After another insane conversation with the city planners, Brian went to the head of the department and said "I'm not leaving here without my permits, if I have to stay all day!" Finally, they gave us "conditional" permits, meaning we still have to jump through a couple of hoops, but we can get work scheduled. The relief is so sweet!!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Elephant is Winning
We STILL don't have building permits! We are now becoming convinced that for some reason the city doesn't want us to save the Caton
House. We discussed suing the city, but that would just take more time
& money. We seem to be at a dead-end. The city keeps demanding more
paperwork; stuff they could have told us about months ago. One person
says they're ready to issue permits, then the next person says "no, you
need to give us a notarized letter stating...". It's insane. Every time
we think we're close to getting permits they throw up more bizarre
restrictions and demands. We're thoroughly demoralized. Our
documentation is now well over 200 pages for ONE REMODEL JOB!
Ok, I'm done venting for now.
House. We discussed suing the city, but that would just take more time
& money. We seem to be at a dead-end. The city keeps demanding more
paperwork; stuff they could have told us about months ago. One person
says they're ready to issue permits, then the next person says "no, you
need to give us a notarized letter stating...". It's insane. Every time
we think we're close to getting permits they throw up more bizarre
restrictions and demands. We're thoroughly demoralized. Our
documentation is now well over 200 pages for ONE REMODEL JOB!
Ok, I'm done venting for now.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Waltzing With The Elephant
I'm so behind on my posts, I apologize! We managed a 2 week vacation, spending a week in Provence and a week in Tuscany. We really needed a break, and came back much rested.
Our biggest problem with Caton House is dealing with the City. Early on we requested a meeting of city staffers to review requirements. Several staffers didn't show up even given weeks of notice. So requirements that fell under their purview weren't addressed and are now jumping up to bite us. Plus the fact that we paid a sizeable fee for the meeting!
Another issue we've had is that we never know who to talk to at the city. Last week Brian stopped by the planning department and asked "Fred" a question. He was told to go downstairs and ask "Jeff". So he did, only to have "Jeff" tell him to go upstairs and ask "Fred"!! That's a typical interaction with the city, unfortunately.
We have generated an appaling amount of paperwork on this project. As of a month ago we were up to 79 pages, and I know it has grown to over 100 pages since then. There's one application that's so complicated that we've had to hire another engineer to fill it out. Plus the number of times city staffers have contradicted and reversed themselves has made this project truely frustrating.
We've given the city staffers feedback on these and other issues, and can only hope that things improve. We've requested that the code books be put on reserve at the local library so we can access the info we need. We hope to have our permits soon as we have a "carved in stone" moving date.
On the positive side, we have gutters! So we're inching forward as much as we can without permits. I'm meeting with a graphics artist to make a business sign for us. He has some really good ideas!
I'm attaching a photo from Google Earth of the house. The bottom of the photo is the southeast corner of our property.
Our biggest problem with Caton House is dealing with the City. Early on we requested a meeting of city staffers to review requirements. Several staffers didn't show up even given weeks of notice. So requirements that fell under their purview weren't addressed and are now jumping up to bite us. Plus the fact that we paid a sizeable fee for the meeting!
Another issue we've had is that we never know who to talk to at the city. Last week Brian stopped by the planning department and asked "Fred" a question. He was told to go downstairs and ask "Jeff". So he did, only to have "Jeff" tell him to go upstairs and ask "Fred"!! That's a typical interaction with the city, unfortunately.
We have generated an appaling amount of paperwork on this project. As of a month ago we were up to 79 pages, and I know it has grown to over 100 pages since then. There's one application that's so complicated that we've had to hire another engineer to fill it out. Plus the number of times city staffers have contradicted and reversed themselves has made this project truely frustrating.
We've given the city staffers feedback on these and other issues, and can only hope that things improve. We've requested that the code books be put on reserve at the local library so we can access the info we need. We hope to have our permits soon as we have a "carved in stone" moving date.
On the positive side, we have gutters! So we're inching forward as much as we can without permits. I'm meeting with a graphics artist to make a business sign for us. He has some really good ideas!
I'm attaching a photo from Google Earth of the house. The bottom of the photo is the southeast corner of our property.
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