Friday, July 29, 2011

prayer for something dumb that’s stressing me out… =)

Hey, all. I figured I’d put a prayer request out there because extra people praying certainly can’t hurt, right? =)

Ok, so, our lovely new screened in porch is now being inspected. When we contracted with a local guy to build it, we didn’t realize (a) that it would need to be inspected because we’re ignorant buffoons that haven’t owned a house before, or (b) that we’d need to figure anything like that out because the guy building it would know, and he would take care of whatever was needed. After being asked by a couple of friends how much the permits were, etc., we then casually asked our guy if he had gotten permitting done. We found out that he had not. Problem. He had neglected to ask us to get a homeowner permit if we wanted one. And permits are required for new porches and decks in our city.

What to do? We felt like, as Christians, we couldn’t ignore this now that we knew about it. And so began the process of me waddling into a city inspections office with my two little boys, filling out paperwork, etc. A building inspector came out, and an electrical inspector (he’d put in a ceiling fan.) The building inspector immediately demanded that a bunch of boards be taken up and large holes be dug so that he could see the porch footing and how the porch was attached to the house. He also wanted some extra, different bolts attaching the porch to the house.

Our guy, realizing that he had screwed up, kindly came here and did what he requested. It took him a day and part of another. And I had to watch him unscrew boards from our beautiful porch and deck and put them in a pile to the side. This stresses me out, as you might imagine.

In the meantime, our guy discovered that there is a lot of water in our heating and cooling ductwork under the house. Soooo, I called about that, and we got more news. Our ductwork is over 20 years old, it wasn’t insulated right to start with, and now it’s filled with debris and water. It all probably needs to be replaced. I see more dollar signs.

I have scheduled an estimate for the ductwork for Monday, and I have an electrical guy coming to fix the minor things the electrical inspector wanted fixed on Monday…. and I have the inspection with the building inspector on, you guessed it, Monday.

It’s the building inspector that has me worried. The heating and cooling guys had nothing good to say about inspectors in our city. And this one seems like he could be on a power trip, depending on his mood on a particular day. I also confirmed what I’d thought…. we are completely at his mercy. If he tells us to completely dismantle our deck and porch and start from scratch, we either do it, or we face a yearly fine and a black mark on our house if we decide to sell it. This would all be over whether particular bolts are used that aren’t in code now but were 5 years ago, other nitpicky stuff, etc. I am not concerned about the porch not being built well and strong.

Pointless, government bureaucracy at its finest, folks. Oh, how I wish I didn’t believe in being ethical sometimes….

I’m trying not to let this really stress me out because I can’t do anything about it at this point. But it’s been hard on me the last few days, and I just want it all over. So PLEASE pray for me and for mercy on Monday.

3 comments:

Brandy Vencel said...

Does your husband work for the same branch of government? The reason I ask is because our county inspectors were especially nice to us when they learned that my husband...worked for the county. It might help!

I'll definitely be praying for you...

Ellen said...

No, unfortunately, they don't work for the same branch. He did ask me what my husband did, and I told them he was a federal prosecutor, but that hasn't seemed to help so far. We'll see...

Amy said...

On Monday make lots of cookies...lots and lots of cookies. ; )