Week 60: Permits you say?

We have been trying to find out what is going on with the city and our Development Permit for the last few weeks. If you recall we got a project coordinator (PC) assigned last summer for a pre-assessment of our plans. They suggested a few changes then we officially filed and paid for our DP at the end of September. A few weeks ago our architect raised the issue with the manager of the department and we finally got an apology and permission to proceed. It might have been COVID, it might have been Christmas holidays, it could have been both, but whatever the case it took over 20 weeks (!!!!) to get this first of two steps done. We have been told that the building permit should go much quicker but with a 20 week wait, what is quicker?! I don’t understand how this industry works if this is the case with most projects. Our architect thinks that now that we have their attention we might have permits by mid April. You heard it here first folks. I’ll make a note and see how accurate that is.

So now with a deadline looming things are kicking into high gear and i am glad i have made the progress i have over the last year. All of the asbestos shingles are gone, the last single piece of drywall came down this weekend and while there is still a lot of work to do, i think we can manage it. We are now getting into general demolition and that can be done by the builder easily enough if we want to spend the money. Some, like taking down the addition and demoing the kitchen can’t be done until we are out of the house anyway. We now have to start looking for a place to live and Sarah is potting up plants every chance she gets. We are focusing on sentimental plants with a story (gifts from friends and family) and in the end a lot can just be re-purchased next spring if we need ot.

I called the Dial Before you Dig folks and got our site plans from Hydro and Gas. Turns out we planted a tree about six inches away from the gas line. Fun! Dean the builder reassured us that we can re-route the line if we have to. The call was free and we had the drawings back in a couple of days.

With the deadline looming i put off a visit to Victoria so i could spend the entire long weekend working on the demolition and I am glad i did. I messed up some more plumbing on friday (i really don’t want to talk about it) but got it sorted on Saturday. The setback got me in a bit of a mood and i made up for lost time by working myself to exhaustion and getting out the rest of the bathroom, a bunch of tiles, and the remainder of the floor. I managed to get done in time to make dinner and some strawberry souffles for Dorothy and Ian who were visiting from Chase. The souffle was ok but i’d rather have chocolate. I will make it again though.

Sunday i took a load to the dump first thing before it got busy and Mela came over for a trip to the market and tea so we could catch up. She was going hiking in the afternoon and i was jealous. I am itching to get back out there but need to focus for a few more weeks. It is funny that i think one trip to the dump with 250 kg of stuff from my basement is taking the morning off but it really seemed like it. I mention all of the non-reno things i do on weekends lest people get the impression that all i do is work work work. I am not saying i have a balanced life but it isn’t all work. After lunch i did some tidying downstairs, helped a bit in the garden and took a second load to the dump.

Monday was a big day and after getting groceries in the morning, Sarah and i emptied the shed and moved stuff into the newly cleaned and emptied basement. This is a huge milestone and means that we can take down the shed and back deck. The deck has been in poor shape and we haven’t used it in about 5 years because it isn’t safe. Maybe more than five years actually. Time has no meaning anymore. I likely could have resealed the deck when we noticed it was starting to leak to stop some of the rot but i didn’t. The leaking was just another nail in the coffin of a badly built deck. The rain poured off one corner so even when we bought the place there were signs of rot. I guess we could have added eavestrough as well. The two end posts were built on footings but the posts in the middle of each of the sides were just built onto the slab from the driveway. The sills of the walls were also built on the driveway so of course the posts and walls didn’t stand a chance in our weather. I rationalize that even if i had resealed the deck and put on some eavestrough the thing was doomed. Once we got it cleared out it was apparent just how bad it was. You could see sky through one corner of the deck and one of the posts on the side is so rotten when you kick it, it swings. I quickly grabbed a few 2×4’s from my salvage pile, turned them into a couple of 4×4’s and threw in a couple of posts. We got all of the vinyl siding and tar paper off it and in doing that a bunch of the OSB walls just fell apart leaving a gaping holes. That was enough to fill the trailer again so i headed off to the dump and had my all time worst backing up experience. Much like the plumbing, i did a great job (okay, maybe not great, but passable) yesterday on my two trips and i was overconfident. It was so bad that the dump attendant came over to chat about how hard it is to back a trailer up. I am sure i am now “that guy” at the transfer station.