Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
Sccccrrreeeecccchhhhh to a hault: Roadblock #s 1, 2, 3, &4
Well, everything was smooth sailing - almost too smooth in fact - until now. It started this weekend when we thought we were going to put up some walls in the store. It was an easy thought, but is turning out to be much more difficult than anticipated.
Caution Flag #1. We went to Home Depot and loaded up a rental truck with 120 2×4s. The employees who couldn’t wait to get off their shift to go out to the bars were laughing at us as they fumbled the lumber into the truck. We drove to the store and in the freezing cold, unloaded the lumber into the store - me looking pretty in my white wool coat. It happened to be my hubby’s birthday that day and being such a sweetheart, he donated his day to me by running around doing errands for the store and buying lumber. Note to self - don’t go to Home Depot and attempt to buy 120 pieces of lumber, 12 boxes of track lighting, 12 boxes of marble tile, and miscellaneous other items while dressed up - not only will you get strange looks when you whip out your work gloves to start loading up lumber, but you’ll also feel really silly at the same time.
Meanwhile…I knew that we had to get a builder’s permit for this work. My memory told me that when I was younger and work was done on our deck back home, that it was an easy thing to get. So, because I didn’t have all of the correct information, I waited until I was handed a key to the store to look into it. WRONG MOVE! When I did finally march into City Hall to apply, I was told that if I was doing any work myself, I needed a contractor’s license, which required workman’s comp and insurance. Ok, no problem….
Orange Cone #2 Instead of putting up walls over the weekend, we painted. We didn’t want to break any laws by not having a building permit, so spray away we did. I had put in a call to an insurance agent and was awaiting quotes for insurance anyway. Well, a few days passed and still no word from the insurance agent. I finally decided to call and see what was up. I got the insurance for the business in general, no problem (at a much lower rate than I exected, may I add). However, my agent “wasn’t comfortable” providing me with a certificate of insurance for contracting work since that would be an entire different policy and his underwriters would ask too many questions. He suggested I ask a contractor friend to contract the job for me. Yeah right.
I happen to know that another business down the road from me did the same DIY craziness in his store. He shall remain nameless for reasons you’ll see in a bit. So, my gang of construction members and I marched into his store and traded secrets. Turns out that he was able to obtain a contractor’s license and corresponding builder’s permit from the city no problem. He even got an insurance certificate from his agent. WOW, he must have magic powers!
Stop Sign #3 Today brings what I hope is the climax to my story; I could only be so lucky that the trouble will end today. After I was told by my insurance agent that I couldn’t get a certificate of insurance for my construction needs (which is rediculous! I’m paying for the insurance, let me give a certificate to someone who wants it). I decided to march into City Hall again to look for answers. I put on my brave “business” pose and confidently walked up to the counter. I was greeted and my story explanation began….”see, my agent won’t give me a certificate, but that’s all you need right?” “UmHumm,” said the man behind the counter. “He HAS to give it to you, call him and yell at him.” “Darn,” I thought. I was hoping that my luck would bring me a “I’ll make an exception and let you use this photocopy of your policy” pass. I would quickly find out that the insurance certificate was no longer going to be a concern because another BIG concern was about to come up.
Road Crew Jumping In Front Of Me Yelling STOP with flashing lights Sign#4 The large man behind the counter, whom I can only guess was an inspector (my bad, his card reads Chief Building Official) notices my drawing of my construction plans and grabs it to start looking at it. He whips out a pen and starts scribbling all over it. “You need to add doors and take out this….put this in, change this……Wait a second, how big is this store?” I started to feel like a cartoon - you know how they start to shrink down real small when they’re getting in trouble staring up at the person yelling at them. “2800 square feet.” I cautiously replied. “I think you’re over the limit.” He walks away. I’m left confused and worried….He comes back with a binder and flashes it in front of my face with the number 2500 staring at me, “Yup, you’re over the limit.” “Limit for what?” I asked. “Size,” he replied. Ok. What does this mean? Well, if a store is over a certain size and one plans to do the work themselves, an architectural drawing is required to obtain a builder’s permit. My heart sank. I pleaded, “All I’m going to do is add a couple of studs and drywall. Why would an architect need to sign off on that?” No mercy from the city man. In fact, he made things worse, “I don’t even know if you can use wood.” Ha ha! I’ve already looked into that. (I THINK). According to the man down the road from me, wood is ok. Now, I question his ability to follow procedure.
So, as I realize this story is getting longer and longer, the moral is that I am not stuck because I can’t build walls without a permit and I can’t get a permit for DIY work without a contractor’s license. I can’t get a license without an insurance certificate and I can’t get a certificate because my agent won’t give one to me. On top of it all, even if I did have all of these things, I’d have to hire an architect to create drawings for me that we already created.
I pouted the whole way home and called the contractor who did the building. I’m having him write up a quote for me to see how much they would charge to take this headache away. We’ll see what happens. Here I sit and wait…….