The kitchen planning is pretty much done. If I could move forward all would be good but it’s not that easy. The building inspector has to approve permits first.

Talk about nitpicking.

First he recommends I look at another design. I don’t want another design. I like my design.

Then he wants all sorts of drawings that are completely unnecessary. How will the cabinet faces look? Give me a break. How does that have anything to do with structural changes to the house? What’s next, wanting to approve my color of paint?

So I went back to Lowes and got the drawings I believe he wanted — 1/4 inch to 1 foot scale.

Then I ran back to the inspector with them but he wasn’t in. I called and he wasn’t in again. I went back in and he was in but he had to run so he couldn’t approve anything.

Then I called and he was in but the carpenter couldn’t get me the specs on the header in time for me to catch the inspector while he was in.

I’ve got a carpenter that can do the work for the price I want to pay but he’s only available this weekend at that price because he’s squeezing me in the way it is.

I had a ton of contractors tell me I shouldn’t bother with inspections and permits but I don’t want to do it that way.

He’s making it really hard to do the right thing.

I guess this is why so many people hand a project like this over to a general contractor. The general deals with the headaches and the delays. By finding my own subs and acting as my own general, I’ll save about $10,000 so I suppose I shouldn’t complain to loudly.

The problem is that I live in a fairly small municipality (12,000 people) so they only have one building inspector. I would just think that this time of year that he would not be so busy.

UPDATE: Permit Issued. An interesting thing was that I found out that my carpenter didn’t have a Contractor Certification Certificate number. That’s not a good thing because if bad things happen I could be held liable. I’m going to use a work-around which is to require him to bring an insurance certificate from his insurance company issued for this job in my name.

UPDATE 2: My carpenter recommended I de-insulated the attic prior to the electrician coming in. The electrician was supposed to be giving me his bid last night but hasn’t provided that info yet. It turns out that he can’t start until Thursday though.