Why this is such a big deal...

I am fantastically euphoric right this minute for several reasons

1. The Health Deaprtment is the largest hurdle to get over. Most of the other county and city agencies will rubber stamp your project (more or less) as long as you have all of your ducks in a row with the Health Department (meaning the Health Department stamps each page of your plan so you can go submit it to the other authorities for approval)


2. I'd given the process to the end of the month, then added two weeks on top of that to answer any questions or attend to any of the comments the Health Dept might have had on my plans... but since the plans will come to me STAMPED on Friday... I can go apply for a building and demo permit NEXT WEEK! YAY for pleasant surprises!


3. This is one of the few things that has come in on time and for the expected cost. I am not sure why, but this gives me some hope that maybe not EVERYTHING will take twice as long and cost twice as much as expected.


4. Please kiss your government worker. Because the person reviewing my plans was on vacation this week, the manager of the Health Department called me himself to let me know, a day early, that my plans had been approved and make sure I was ok with getting the stamped paperwork on Friday instead of tomorrow. I swear every day I am blown away by how hard these people work and how much they try to make things easier for us with almost NO budget and forced furlows.

So all I can say is Wow. This thing has made it thru yet another hoop. Every time, it feels like a miracle. I know it seems strange to be so exstatic about 2 weeks. I had planned for the HD to get back to me about any comments and needed changes by tomorrow, then a week to figure it all out and get them what they needed and then another week to process... IF there was nothing major I needed to do... which was my worst fear.

Then a week to get my building permit, plus fire and sewer approval. That would have put me around the end of April to get started tearing the place up. But now... I can go to the building Dept on MONDAY! Even if there are other delays (and there will be, knock on wood, it just is how it is right now with the budget crisis at all levels of government), I just scored two weeks! I feel like I won the lottery.

I am going to just go do more happy dance around my house...