Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Dodging a Bullet

Yesterday we managed to dodge a huge bullet, thanks to my hubby's persistence with a worker over at our town's building department.

If you need a refresher, last week we called the town to schedule our electrical inspection.  They kindly informed us that they were so very swamped, and the earliest they could get to our house would be today, Tuesday morning.  We accepted the appointment, and impatiently waited for inspection time to roll around.

Fast-forward to yesterday morning.  Since my hubby and I like to stay on top of things, we made a phone call to the building department to confirm our appointment for Tuesday.  We got the green light and breathed a very short sigh of relief...because two minutes later Pete received a phone call from our contractor. 

He informed us that the inspector showed up a day early, only to be greeted by the electrician's crew, who was clearly not ready for the inspection.  {Our job was a lot bigger than the electricians first realized...so thanks to our inspection being scheduled on Tuesday, the crew took each and every day to work on the house, rather than working a couple very long and frustrating days.  More on that here.}

Not only was the inspector a day early, but he also told us that we did not have the correct information on the permit.  Since our original electrician was no longer responsible for our job {more on that here and here}, we needed our new electrician to go to the municipal building, fill out some paperwork and show his seal.

And because the inspector made his own schedule, and our contractor/electrician dropped the ball on the permit filings, we were told that the next time the inspector could come back to our house was Thursday.

Now I know this may seem like just a couple days, but to me and my hubby, a couple days feels like an eternity.  When you are unable to live in your own house, that you are paying for, that you have been waiting a year for...it's the worst.

So Pete called the building department back and asked what was going on.  He said he had just confirmed our appointment, and then gets a call that the inspector showed at our house.  The building department's response was simply..."yea, he does that sometimes and throws us for a loop." 

Ummm, seriously?!?! 

After some "coaxing" from my hubby, we got them to agree that if we could get our electrician down there to fill out the proper paperwork and show his seal, that they'd keep our appointment for tomorrow and  make sure the inspector showed up.

CRISIS AVERTED.

And now, this little sticker can be found on our hideous kitchen countertop!  Woohooo!

7 comments:

  1. Wow you guys are super patient! If I was in your situation I would totally be sitting in a corner rocking back and forth.

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  2. Yay! I'm glad you got an electrician that shows up and were able to get approved!

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  3. @Brandi - Hahaha! Believe me, there have been quite a few meltdown moments! We've been trying to keep our eye on the prize and realize that, in the end, it will all be worth it...but sometimes these situations just get the better of you haha.

    @Debbie - Thanks so much! We couldn't be more relieved to cross that hurdle.

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  4. Hi! I've been reading your blog for a week or so now and I just wanted to let you know that I'm really enjoying it! As we are about to start a major renovation ourselves it's nice to get a glimpse in to our future issues! Glad you passed your inspection!
    - Diana

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  5. Aw, thank you so much Diana!! Good luck on your future reno and if you ever have any questions, just let me know...chances are, we've gone through it ourselves haha! :)

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  6. So happy I stumbled upon your blog! We have the same story - 1956 ranch, stayed with the in-laws before moving in, complete fixer upper, newlyweds :) Contractors can be SO frustrating! We had a window guy no-show on us twice. Hang in there!

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  7. I'm happy you stumbled upon my blog too!! I love hearing about other couples going through the same things as us! Yea, they definitely can be. No-shows are the absolute worst! Thanks for the encouragement! :)

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