Some good news to report. Finally past Zoning, our permit was approved by the remaining departments and our architect came by with the paper to put in the window. We are official, legal, and in a few weeks our stamped, approved plans will be delivered.
The process, from hiring the architect to receiving the piece of paper (not including time I spent designing the plans we gave to the architect), took approximately eight months. In yet another “best in show” accolade for our house to put with “worst cockroach infestation ever seen by our exterminator” we have added “longest permit approval ever seen by our architect” thanks in no small part to the two months of waiting around while the city decided whether we could have a green permit or not.
We gave up waiting for the permits back in August when we demoed the first floor, so at this point it doesn’t make a ton of difference, but it’s one more thing behind us and it clears the way for us to demo the foyer and front stairs and start making a proper mess of things without fear of some city official putting a stop work order on the front door and sticking us with a fine.
Looking forward, our immediate focus is still the beam project. Once we have our new beam, columns, and footings, we’ll get another dumpster to clean out the piles of scrap wood on the first floor and demo the foyer. Then we can start work on the LVL beam and columns in the first floor and the new first floor subfloor, followed (eventually) by new framing, windows, and the previously discussed first inch of spray foam. With Sarah going back to school in just a couple weeks, it’s hard to estimate how long any of this will take. I can’t plan anything past the structure work until I get a sense of our rate of progress.
December 31, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Do you need permits to work on your own house? I always did the inspections to make sure there weren’t any insurance hassles, but (unless it was a new building, like an external garage) I’ve never had to do permits for interior work.
December 31, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Yeah, in Chicago everything has to be built to code. They have some minor interior stuff that doesn’t require permits, and then easy permits for homeowners that cover basic things like building a fence, but when you’re redoing everything, especially new plumbing, electrical, porches, and garage, you need the full deal.