"Return to The City; The Stamp of the Approver"

Our "back check" appointment with the City for the revised truss plan was a bit sooner than I had expected it to be--it was yesterday. It all went fine and we got the new stamp of approval (really.  It says "Approved") and now we can proceed.  We next need to have the roof framing contractor install the truss he should have in the first place and then get the framing job inspected and approved (there's that word again).  We're not sure yet when that will be.  Hopefully sometime this week or early next week.

Also on our agenda for yesterday was a new site plan revising the parking situation. The original site plan (which was approved) showed 19 spaces including two accessible stalls.  We had to show a "path of travel" from the accessible stalls to the main entrance.  There are rules about where that path of travel can go (which I've now become reasonably well-versed in).  Since we showed two accessible stalls, the "path of travel" had to be in front of the two spaces which put them 5 feet further out into the parking lot than the non-accessible stalls and that was just, well, weird.  (And probably would have caused some minor accidents in the parking lot.)

But, I learned after reading various parts of the building code that for the number of spaces we have in the lot, we only need one accessible stall and that the "path of travel" can be behind a person's own vehicle but not someone else's.  So, we reduced the number of accessible stalls to one, moved it back in line with the rest of the parking spaces, moved the "path of travel", reduced the total number of indicated spaces to 13 and all is right in the world.

(In practical matters, the amount of parking has actually increased from what you may remember from The Den.  The storage units are no longer sitting in the parking lot and the stage has been removed so that space is now available again.)

...Often Work Out Just Fine

Yesterday, we got the revised plans from the engineering folks.  We'll have to do some strapping to the south wall of the building to help prevent the roof from being ripped off in a tornado or hurricane (!?) but it's pretty easy.  It involves knocking off some of the stucco (but not all of it, Phew!) and having the contractor do what he was supposed to have done in the first place--demolish the old south truss and install the new one.  We'll have to add some metal strapping that is similar to the earthquake strap around your water heater tank only thicker.

On Monday, we have an appointment with The City to get the revised plans approved.  (The "Back Check" appointment.)  The correct truss should be installed sometime next week.  Should.  ("Shouldn't it have been installed weeks ago??")

I'm not sure if I should be but I'm kind of happy that Demo Guy is getting annoyed at this job.  He should have done it right in the first place, don't ya think?  Maybe he'll learn.  ("Why hasn't he learned already??")

The Best Laid Plans

If I were baking a cake and left out flour, it would not turn out to be a cake. And if I did, I could not go back later and add flour to the mess and call it cake. This is the type of problem I was facing yesterday. One ingredient was left out of our plans and since then many solutions have been put forth about how to fix the problem. "We could put this here, and that there, and then these could go here, and you would only need a few of these..."

Some of them sound like feats of engineering. Consider that the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, The Hindenburg, and the Chevy Vega were also feats of engineering. Others sound very "rednecks with duct tape". Before anyone objects, I know that NASCAR has made great strides with duct tape, but it hasn't yet been approved for new construction. If it was, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be selling it on TV.

But after careful consideration Bryan and I have reached the exact solution to this problem. READ THE PLANS.

Wow that sounds simple. Now let's see if we can get them to do it. Your favorite soap operas may be going off the air,... but stay tuned for Crisis with the Contractor!

Correcting the Corrections

We got the revised plans back from the resubmission (or whatever the real thing it's called) to the city yesterday.  There's a list of corrections.  It's a short list, but a list nonetheless.

And this whole thing is just $%@! annoying.  We were told we could get any truss company to build the trusses for us; so we did.  We found a company that would do the trusses cheaper than the company the engineering firm had recommended.  What nobody told us, though, was that we had to inform our engineering firm that a different company was making the trusses.   (If they're made to match the approved truss sheet, why does it matter who makes them???).  That omission of information is costing us time and money.

Now, we have to wait through this ridiculous and slow back check bull$#!& to have corrections made that, quite frankly, make no sense to me.

And I question the thoroughness of some of the people doing work at various places.  We were asked to move the insulation from on top of the ceiling to directly below the roof.  Why wasn't this requested during plan check and back check two to three months ago?  Why do we have to pay for this?  Who the #*&! dropped the ball two months ago??  And how many more times are we going to have to go through revisions and spending more and more money to get new things approved that should have been caught in the first place?

I'm sure I'm just ranting and raving out of sheer frustration with dealing with something I have no experience in.  But, fuck! Make it logical!

The Rest of the Story

Ack!  I forgot to mention a few details about Monday's visit to Fresno.

Over the weekend, I received a letter from the Health Department requesting a little more information that we had on the plans.  It didn't seem like much of a problem; just where the sinks were, the location of the floor drain, and hand sink, etc.  But I wanted to find out from them how they wanted the information.  So, Monday morning, I talked to them and they just needed the stuff either hand drawn onto the plans or on a 8.5 x 11 paper.

I expected to have to make an appointment later in the week to go over the information but the nice woman was available that afternoon.  So we, get into the car and drive down for the appointment at 2:00.

And, 45 minutes later, we walk out of there with their stamp of approval.  So we head to City Hall.  The Health Department was all we were needed so I figured we'd be able to get a building permit.

The Planning and Development Department of the City was fairly slow when we got there about 3:00 so that was good.  But, the sets of plans we had were, well, kinda mixed up.  Approval stamps from one agency on one set and only on some of the sheets in the other sets and things like that.  But, we got it all straightened out and got the City the two sets of plans with all the appropriate approval stamps they needed.

After a visit to the cashier, we walked out with our permit.

And now you know.....................................
................the rest of the story.

The $10,000 Piece of Construction Paper

Phew!

Three months and four days after we started the process with The City of Fresno to get the building permit and after spending darn close to $10,000 on various services, government fees, and probably a few other things I've completely forgotten, we have our building permit.

I feel like I can finally relax for a bit.  I can't.  But I feel like I can.

Both Karl and I have been waiting until we had a permit in our grubby little hands before we made any real construction plans.  And he's been on the phone today with the contractors that will be working first.  A/C guy, demolition guy, and the truss guy.  (No, not the truss your grandfather wore.)

As early as next week you'll begin to see some actual physical work on the bar as you drive by.

It's a great relief to finally be at this point.

Here, Karl is holding the $10,000 sheet of construction paper.

Reflections Upon a Successful but Surprising Electrical Plan Back Check on the Day of Saint Patrick

I'm not a contractor. I've never dealt with The City of Fresno from the perspective of a developer. I've never even carted so many large sheets of paper around. So the entire process of getting this building permit is, shall we say, "different" from everything else I've experienced. (And I'm told that even in the world of plan checks the Fresno ones are an anomaly for being so plodding.)

Anyway, I get to the Development department receptionist ("Hi, Joyce!") not really knowing what to expect. I don't know if I need to resubmit the electrical plans or what. I figured it was going to be a resubmission and having to deal with the front desk again. I had questions prepared about the parking situation and related things. I didn't even know what to ask of or say to Joyce. She and I talk for a bit about what I'm actually doing and she says I needed to have made a "back check" appointment. I thought to myself, "Oops" and figured I'd just go ahead and make the appointment while standing there and have to come back. No real problem. (I have learned a higher level of patience through all of this.)

But, Joyce called the guy who I would have to do the back check with and asks if he can come up for a back check. And he can and does.

So I take this huge bundle of plans into the "back check room" and meet with the guy.

Five minutes or so later, I walk out with stamped and approved electrical plans.

For a few short seconds with the guy, I thought I might be getting a building permit, too! But, I still have to wait for the Health Department's approval. Again, no big deal. (They are supposed to be done by Monday, March 21, 2011.) Even if it were later than the 21st they were supposed to be done, what's a few more days at this point, eh?

So, that's where we are now. I'll have to get in touch with the nice folks at the Health Department to find out what's going on some time today.

Plan Check Done!!

I'll post more later, but just finished with the city and our plan check is complete.  Only waiting for health deptartment now.

I Sing The Paddy's Day Electric!

Ok, so my post title is a bit of a stretch.

But, Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  (Explains the green text, eh?)

Good news on the electrical plans front.  The redone drawings are ready to pick up and I'm about to head out to Fresno to pick them up and drag them to The City.  It's just a requested-revision so I don't expect to have too much of a problem with them at the City.  The initial submission took only about three days to get returned to us so I expect about the same with this.

We'll see what happens, though...

The Lights are On....

...but nobody's home.  At least in the bar, anyway.

Over the weekend, decided on what we're gonna have for lighting in the bar.  It took a trip to Fresno to the hardware store but we got it figured.  And we'll be well below the Title 24 requirements for wattage used for lighting.  Picked out some nice LED lights along with some immensely flattering fluorescent lights.  Got a few new track lights, too.

Overall, the shopping wasn't nearly as awful as I thought it might be.  It's not that I dislike shopping it's that I didn't relish the figuring of wattages and locations and a bunch of other stuff.  But it's done.  And our electric bill will thank us, I'm sure.

So, we've sent the list to the engineer guy who should have them implemented sometime today (if not yesterday; we'll have to check on that) and then it's back to City Hall where the second-to-last Magical Hoop™ can be cleared.

(Hmmm...  If all goes well, construction may commence the week of March 28.  Cross your fingers and hope I didn't just put myself too far out on the limb there...)

Time to go Shopping!

I'm not as thrilled about this as the exclamation point in the post title might lead you to believe.

The solution to the electrical plans, uh, issue I mentioned yesterday is for Karl and I to go shopping for specific light fixtures that will fit in with the Title 24 requirements.  For us, that apparently means we can't have more than 1,115 watts being used for lighting for the entire bar.

Our engineer guy originally specified 35w low voltage halogens for some of the fixtures.  But, when he tried to find the fixures online, he, too, found that 35w low voltage halogen light fixtures of that type don't exist.  So, we go shopping.  Yay.

We have to come up with a lighting plan that will not use more than 1,115 watts for the entire bar.  Shouldn't be too dififcult but will probably involve some calculus-type calculations.  (Ok, that might be a bit of a stretch but should work out alright.)

In every construction project, there is probably something that should have been done much differently than it was done.  (It was that way for us when we got our house; though, I now forget what that was.)  The electrical plans and design are probably that aspect for this project.  But, no worries.  It'll all work out in the end.

Lighting Lacking

Well, here's a great annoyance....

Turns out some of the fixtures our electrical plans called for may not exist.  (Or, if they do exist, they're so far out of our budget it's not worth even thinking about them.)

We were originally told to just to to a home improvement store and pick out some fixtures and write down the model numbers and such.  When Karl got to the store, he was told by the store's "electrical specialist" (or whatever he was called) that several of the fixtures don't exist. 

Karl is meeting (right now) with the guy who drew them to try to figure out what to do about this problem.

Is It In?

Yep.

The electrical plans were submitted for approval yesterday.  The receptionist said it could take up to two weeks but I'm not expecting it to take nearly that long.  It's two damn pages the guy will be looking at.

I'd expect to hear back from him by say Friday, March 11.

Yep. Jinxed.

Yep.  I jinxed it yesterday.

Plans weren't submitted.  There was a bit of a, shall we say, scheduling issue.  Karl has left the house and is currently on his way to pick up plans, get confused, get things straighted out, get confuddled, get that straightened out and spend more money.

I'll either post an update later today or over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the liquor license transfer is about to be complete.  It should be ours by Tuesday of next week.  (Not that it'll do us much good at this point but it's good to have that nearly done.)

JINX!

I'm hesitant to say this.

But, <heavy, anticipatory sigh> it looks like we'll get our Electrical drawings complete and approved later today.  That leaves only the Health Department's stamp before we can get our building permit.  <crossing fingers>  I don't expect the Heath Department to have much to say other than adding a few notations about stuff they want to see.  <other fingers crossed>

Healthy Plans, Part Two

Plans submitted to the Health Department yesterday.  They'll probably have them for about a week or so before they get back to us on what changes (if any) need to be made.  From what they're saying, they'll probably want the completed electrical drawing page as well so we'll probably be delayed by that.  (That should have been started today by the guy doing that.)

Well, what's another week or two of delay at this point?

Healthy Plans Day

Progress continues.  Later today, we're heading to the Health Department to get their stamp of approval on our plans.  Shouldn't take too long.  I'm hoping to just have them look at them for about five minutes and then go *KA-CHUNK!* with their little stamp.  But, they could require to hold them for up to two weeks.

Considering that they only thing they've asked for is either unbreakable bulbs or enclosed fixtures over the bar and semi-gloss paint on the ceiling in the bathrooms I think it'll go fast.

Hopefully, this Magical Hoop™ doesn't move too far from where it is today.

The Shrouded Meeting

The shroud of winter night was descending over the city like a drunken blanket sodden with sunlight and poked through by pins that would become the stars shining through.  The silver Ford F-150 with the dented tailgate and evidence of various birds that have roosted on the sides of its bed stuck sickenly to the bed rails sat at the left turn lane in the center of Blackstone Avenue its left turn indicator light blinking like the on-again, off-again progress of the building project undertaken by the truck's driver.

On the north-west corner of the intersection, a young man in his early twenties stood.  He wore a black fedora and a black suit and white spats over his black penny loafers.  The light from the street light formed a pool of warm, unflattering amber light around him; his face hidden in the shadow of his fedora.  From his gleaming brass saxophone he soulfully sent a haunting melody reminiscent of warmer, sultrier summer days in New York City lilting into the darkening streets of the city.

A gap opened up in the oncoming traffic and the driver inched his truck forward and stopped abruptly--the gap was moving slower and wasn't going to reach him in time.  A bead of sweat formed at his hairline about an inch to the left of the midpoint between his right eye and right ear and then slowly, inexorably crept down his temple toward the beard at his jaw.  It provided an unnecessarily refreshing cooling effect; it was winter after all.

The gap in traffic finally arrived and the driver gunned the accelerator and the truck, tires screeching a banshee cry like a drag queen who has just had her wig snatched off her head in the middle of her big, show-stopping number by a jealous underling with a mole the size of a dime on the left side of her nose, bolted across Blackstone and onto University Avenue.

Ahead, at the sad and lonely grey parking lot between the street and the railroad tracks that occasionally carry passengers on Amtrak to and fro going from and to the Amtrak station in Downtown Fresno and the occasional freight train going from and to places not quite understood the agent eagerly awaited to complete his task of passing the plans.

The truck barreled into the parking lot bouncing over the driveway access ramp like a giddy child on Christmas morning, turned left at the corner like a politician that has suddenly found herself in the middle of a scandal, and stopped next to the agents car with the broken windshield like a wild party at 2:00am.

The driver of the truck exited the vehicle into the chilly evening.  He could faintly hear the saxophonist's lamentations in the distance.

The agent said conspiratorially, "I want to explain a few things to you."

"Okay."

The two men slinked to the rear of the truck.  The tailgate was dropped and the agent spread the plans on the tailgate like a banquet on a budget.  Explanations were given.  "These are for your records," and "These are for the planning department," and "Take this to the Health Department," and "This is where they will sign off when you get your building permit."

The clandestine meeting concluded nearly as quickly as it had begun but not exactly, the plans were handed over to the driver of the truck, and the agent climbed back into his car and with a wave of his hand that said "See ya!" he fired up his engine and squealed off into the darkening night toward Blackstone Avenue where he turned right toward McKinley and disappeared out of sight but not quite out of mind and onto places unknown.

The other man opened the driver's side door to his truck, placed the plans and assorted paperwork onto the passenger seat, sighed a heavy sigh of unmitigated relief, and climbed back into the cab.  He closed the door with an air of finality and fired up his own engine and drove away.

And, as the last plaintive notes echoed forth from the saxophone, the shroud of darkness swallowed the day bringing the night and covered the only evidence -- some tire tracks, a few faint footprints, some shed skin cells and maybe a dog hair or two -- that the two men were ever there.

Phoenix Feathers Flying

Holy Flaming Bird on a Stick!

Lots of news came our way yesterday.  (Which is probably why there was no blog post yesterday.)

First off, we got a call to come to Fresno to sign escrow paperwork for the liquor license.  (The ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) and Escrow companies got into bed with each other and decided to make a racket out of buying and selling liquor licenses; you must use an escrow company.  I suppose that's okay; it does protect both parties from bad things.)  So, we did that.  There's one bit of paperwork the ABC is waiting for from the state and then it should be all good.  It could be transferred as early as next week.  But it's not going to be much good without a building to serve drinks in.

And that's the next bit of news.

Our plans have nearly been approved and our building permit is nearly issued.  And we're back to needing to have eletrical plans submitted before the building permit can be issued.  And, as best I understand, it's not even "real" plans that we need.  From what the engineering firm wrote it sounds like all we need to do is indicate with the appropriate symbols on the plans where the new outlets and switches will be.  That may add some to the cost of the electrical but I don't think it'll be too much.  And it's a lot better than having to provide an entirely new electrical plan.  (Our chosen electrician gave the ball-park estimate of about $3,500 for that.  YIKES!)

If all this works out right, we could be ready to start tearing off the roof next week!

.....right when it's supposed to start raining.  Oh, well....

(Realistically, we probably won't be ready to start with the roof for about two weeks even if we get the building permit next week.)

To Plan Check!

After a month of wondering when it would happen, I received a message on Friday from the engineering firm.

Despite being previously told that before we can even begin demolition we need to have an electrician selected and draw up plans for the electrical work he (or she) that's not true.

We hadn't yet found an electrician we wanted to do the work for us so that was kinda gonna be the bottleneck for a while.  And that was frustrating because I'm trying desperately to make sure everything goes smoothly, in line, right after another, and with minimal delay.  And then everything was suddenly on hold waiting for electricians to get back to us with bids.

Turns out, that's not the case.  Our engineer wrote, "I think we have everything that we need for now" and that he would let us know early this week how Plan Check goes.

Having never gone through this process, I have no earthly idea what could go wrong but I'm prepared for the worst.  Maybe they'll want detailed drawings of the fence we just got in last week.  Maybe they want everything re-done in a slightly different special shade of blue.  Who knows.  (And why is Dealing With The City™ such a crap-shoot anyway?)

And I wonder how much more money the City is going to want from me...