We have permission to occupy

We passed the final inspection by the County building department and have permission to occupy. I was so excited I came straight home and got into my pajamas. Then I opened the wine.

For the past few days we've been preparing for this inspection making sure that every little thing was done. However, we knew our stair railing did not meet the 4" rule. You cannot have a space in the railing greater than 4" - we were told that some inspectors carry a 4" rubber ball that they use to check the spaces. We even changed out all the light bulbs to the new dim kind just in case they might spot this as a problem. 

When the inspector arrived, I dove into the grove, getting as lost as possible. Richard does a fine job with these people and as I burned out altogether during the permit stage, I don't have it in me to keep my trap shut . He has been successful with former inspections so I left it in his capable hands. Success!!

The inspector walked in, looked around and commented only on the GFI outlets in the kitchen. Other than that, he looked at little. We were prepared to fail the inspection on the basis for example, of the pool. The last time he visited he claimed we needed alarms on every door. Richard explained that the pool was built in 1988 and was merely an update, not a new pool therefore did not need to meet current code. The man was still insistent at last visit. Boy, was I happy that we didn't bother running around trying to get the alarms ahead of time. Apparently he changed his mind on the matter. 

We can start moving things now, although we'll take another week or so to do a final painting, get some small dry wall repairs finished and some floor moulding on, get mirrors in the bathrooms, the last closet done. Probably another couple of weeks realistically.

Finally the county is in our rear view mirror. After almost 4 years. Amen