Wow.... movement! Fire and Building Departments

So whe I left the Building Dept on Friday I had been instructed to bring back

• 1 full set of plans


• 3 set of the bathroom ventilation blueprints


• Approval from the Fire District

So I sent FedEx my files so they could make the proper copies, when and grabbed them on Sunday and then headed out to the Fire District for Contra Costa County this morning (Which is like walking distance from my house). I'd ordered an extra set of plans from FedEx for my own files, so I had two full plan sets, plus the bllueprints of the bathroom ventilation plan.

I got into the Fire District office with all my blueprints, my business folder (which has all of my approvals, permits etc up to date) and a checkbook. There was an older lady at the counter who was clearly the receptionist and I explained the Building Dept had given me some paperwork they were supposed to fill out. The petite fire inspector was talking to another client and I waited patiently for her to be done and come check out my stuff.

She told me I had to submit two plan copies (YAY! I had two with me!), and she stamped them over the counter, keeping one and giving me a stamped copy. I paid $430.00 (which includes the inspection). I them went back to the Building Dept and turned in the stamped copy from the Fire Dept, and the paperwork they gave me (but I didn't make myself a copy... head, desk, thump).

Sooooo... now I don't have a copy again.

Then I ran upstairs to the City Offices to file for my buisness license. For this process I needed:

• Federal Tax ID #


• State Tax ID #


• Resellers Permit #


• Fictitious name file #


• Address


• LLC name


• $135.00

I cannot stress enough to people to carry ALL of these numbers and proof of your compliance whenever you are dealing with governmental offices. I had to run downstairs to get the Building Dept and Planning to sign off on my business lisence, then they processed it on the spot.

The very nice lady with long hair who works behind the glass looked at me over the top of her spectacles and said, "You filled this out correctly." (pregnant pause)

Me, "Thanks!" (pregnant pause)

Me, "Is that unusual?"

Her. "Extremely. Very few people have the proper permits and licenses, and fewer still have them on hand when they come to do the paperwork."

Me (Beaming like a 2nd grader who just got a gold star by her name on the "Good Student Chart"), "COOL!"

So then Dave called just as I was leaving and said I should try to get my demolition permit, which I tried to do, but Don from Building Dept said it had to be done by the contractor or the building owner. Phooey on that! Oh well, things have been going so well, I can really only be enourmusly grateful this was my biggest hiccup today.

Then I met Mary for some Sushi and now I am just hanging out thinking... what is next?

Building Dept will be about two weeks, putting me around April 20th (but this can come back sooner), then... wow. Give a month (give or take a week or so) for the build out and a few weeks for food prep. Wow.

I also ordered the jerseys for Stein and I today, so hopefully they will be available in plenty of time. And my primary investor plans to fund this week (keeping fingers crossed) so we can get the fire supression permit going, which should be about 3 weeks.

Once again, wow. I cannot believe I have come so far. I mean... really really... it seems like the most impossible process... it IS so hard. And yet, things are miraculously, even if slowly, going forward. YAY!