Building Commences with permit

After it’s already started 😊

Contra Costa County Building permit obtained

Last week when we were visiting North Carolina, I did a lot of calling at the County to attempt to push my permit forward. They lost 1 of my 3 sets of plans :(. The lost plans are to go to the assessor. Because the county lost it, the Building inspector asked me to come in on Tuesday. If I did, he would give me a set of plans to take to Kinkos to get it copied. If I returned with it, he would take all my money the predetermined fees (my loan had a budget for fees) and write get me a permit the same day! Here are the copies of my plans that I made (it cost about $20 and I had to go to 1 UPS store, and two FEDEX office stores, this was the best one)

This is a picture of my fees that I paid. Less about $30000 because the traffic impact fees were mitigated

Once done… the county issued the building permit!!

However, it was 3 building permits because of a fine. I was flagged for doing work without a permit a week ago. They created extra permits to add the charges to it. It took 5 months to find out that work had been done out there…. Oh well, $500 wasn’t too bad for a fee

Hurry up and finish

Now that I have permits in hand, I and my contractor are working in earnest. First, I started by finishing the wiring of the septic system. It was a lot of wires. There is a wire in every terminal and two grounds (total of 14 wires).  Wish I’d gotten a before picture. But here is the after picture:

After I finished I found the directions and there was a “less wires” way to do it. Oh well.

After that, the county came out for inspection a couple times. One time for my home’s foundation. My favorite inspection was the foundation. He was not versed in manufactured homes or their foundations. When shown the plans, He didn’t understand them either. In the end he looked under the home, looked back at the plans a number of times and then summed it up by saying “Looks good”.

I didn’t tell him I nearly paid $30000 for an engineered foundation because I was required to do a geotechnical study, and I have geotechnical inspection papers that recommend expensive foundations. However, the Geotech also reported “nothing in this report precludes the use of the land as designed.” A ridiculous waste of 8 months, other people’s time, and my money. But it’s over! My foundation is “approved”!!!

Items remaining

The county will not release my meter (electricity to PGE) till there is a final inspection on my home. They are worried I might live in it I had power. Now, it’s a rush to the final inspection. Here’s what’s left:

1. Letter from surveyor
2. Plumb the septic to the home
3. Plumb the main water to the home
4. Build stairs to all doors
5. Wire from panel to home with sub panel
6. Skirting around home
7. Finish interior (drywall / carpet / flooring)

I’m going to take care of items #1-#4. In fact, I took care of #1 on Friday. Here is a letter that cost $300 that the county required

I’m paying an electrician to take care of #5 and my contractor is handling #6 and #7

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Other exciting news

I received my certificate in the mail from my Aquaponics design course (100% worth it)

Here is how Hannah travels without me. She is a champ! Look at all those bags loaded on that stroller.