R sweated it out at the BD today... he took our drawings around for mechanical plan check, structural check, etc...
And although I won't do it justice, I'll attempt to share the very unexpected good things that happened down there.
R was in a fix with a plan checker who was complaining about a cutout we have in our deck to provide light and air to a window below. The plan checker was calling for a larger cutout, which would have shifted our sliding glass door, and shortened a shear wall we needed for the structural calcs... definitely a problem.
But like a Fairy Godfather, a good friend of ours, who's an architect currently building his own house, appeared out of nowhere, stepped up, and started arguing in our favor with the plan checker! So cool.
The story gets better: this plan checker came upon his break time. As another plan checker stepped up, plan checker #1 asked him to take over. PC#2 said no way - we'll have to start over. He literally tore up PC#1's sheet of comments. This sounds like bad news; however, PC#2 said nothing about the any requirements for a larger deck cutout, was more lenient on a foundation question; AND... (here's where it gets good) actually told R that we don't need the fixed fire-rated windows our architect specified in three places (YaHoo!). And THEN he proceeded to tell us our deck could be closer to the property line than we thought.
Usually, a visit to the BD means reducing scope, taking things out, making accommodations you don't want to make. Instead, things got a little simpler and a little better. Now there are other comments we have to deal with that aren't necessarily good, but in the end this is way better than I had hoped!
R didn't walk out with a permit today, but things are moving along well, and we're feeling good about our progress.
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