The first 8-10 paragraphs of this post are simply a rant about a petty county beauracracy; skip down to the heading "Other Stuff" if you don't need to read this...
Since my last blog post was several months ago, let me summarize: we submitted our building plans in late October. At that time, our agent told us the county was currently taking 8-10 weeks to review permits.
That was about right. We heard in late December that they had completed the initial plan review and had some questions and comments. That's when things started to unravel.
Our crack team that prepped the building plan - which is a very lengthy and complicated set of drawings, with pages and pages of mostly boilerplate notes - proceeded to take FIVE WEEKS to begin to gather the response to take back to the county. It appears that the various parties involved in the preparation all sat back and assumed that someone else would take charge of gathering the information and organizing a response.
In the perfect clarity of hindsight, we should have taken a more active part at this point. Our sales agent, who doesn't get too involved in technical details, told us in very general terms what the county was asking for. We didn't delve into these details, nor did we ask who was doing the work or when it might be done; we simply assumed that the "team" knew what it was doing.
Long story short, finally our contractor took charge. He's the guy who's responsible for putting in the foundation and septic tank, doing all of the trenching for plumbing and electrical, and arranging with PG&E to tie in the electricity. As such, he's the guy who we're paying the most money to... aside from the house, of course.
He's been dealing with the Planning and Building Department regularly as part of his job. He has been telling just how screwed up things are there. Using COVID as a shield, these people have thoroughly bollixed up the building permit process. One has to make an appointment to appear in person simply to drop off or pick up documents. Right now, appointments can only be made for TWO WEEKS in the future... that's just to transfer documents.
In ordinary times, we have been told that revisions to a plan application go to the top of the review queue. We do now know if that's the case now; further, we have been told that it is typically taking 3-4 weeks for review of plan revisions.
We are roughly halfway in this 3-4 week time period. Assuming it holds true - no guarantee, that! - we are looking at having our plans approved some time around the end of March. That would be FIVE MONTHS since submission!
Clayton Homes, the manufacturer, had already made it very clear that they won't make and ship the home until it has a place to be set. Because of the delays in the permit process, the ship date on our home has been pushed back to May 30! It's being made in Sacramento, so it should be delivered on or around June 1. It typically takes 45-60 days to get it assembled, plumbed and wired for occupancy. That means we might be in the house by August 1.
Other Stuff
We keep reminding ourselves that in the grand scheme of things our frustrations aren't all that important. We are safe and healthy, as is everyone in our immediate family, which places us well above the 500,000+ Americans who have lost their lives in this dreadful pandemic. We have received our first COVID vaccination, with the second one scheduled for next week (3/9). Daughters Sherry and Jill, both teachers, received their first vaccine last week; daughter-in-law Sara, a health care provider, has already been vaccinated.
The biggest issue for us is boredom. We don't want to go anywhere, at least until we've been vaccinated. We keep hoping the building plans will issue and we'll be busy "supervising" things onsite. Also, the local Clayton dealer is getting a model home in identical to ours. Once that's here we intend to descend on it, taking pictures and measurements. With that info in hand, we plan on getting serious about identifying furniture we want to buy - we've got a whole house to furnish!
By the end of the month, we'll have completed the two weeks after the second vaccine shot and will be fully protected. Right now, we are planning road trips to see the grandchildren - and their parents, of course. We haven't seen Parker in Seattle since Thanksgiving; she is long overdue for some spoiling. We did have Christmas with Madeline and Teddy in SoCal, but they are overdue, as well.
Once we start construction, blog posts will be a little more regular... I promise.
