we can move, can't we????

While halfway through our punch walk with the builder on Tuesday, the inspector appears for the final inspection, the one we need for the Certificate of Occupancy, what the cool kids call the CO. The builder was a little miffed because although we've had the same inspector through the entire build, the city sent a different guy for the final. And sure enough, there was trouble. In short, we failed the final inspection for the three reasons: (1) the porta-pottie was still on-site (like we would leave that there [even though the mailman asked {jokingly, we hope...} to leave it out there]) and (2) the gas line wasn't pressured up to show him it had no leaks (that actually seems important).

The third reason was goofy. It was the second inspector's opinion that the garage should have been built under a separate permit from the house, despite the fact the entire project was permitted together, the first inspector was cool with it, and the garage has been inspected along with the house. The second inspector said the city didn't realize the garage was not attached to the house. The builder pointed out that the permit clearly stated "house plus detached garage", but to no avail. The garage was the third ding.

The goofy part is that we needed to permit the garage and go through all the inspections with the hope the inspector didn't make us tear down the drywall and insulation for the inspections that already happened. Frustrating as heck. The city has a bad rep for stuff like this, where there's no final say or policy on anything: It's all up to each individual inspector.

Ultimately, this is a waste of time and money, and for what purpose? The big broad reason for these inspections is to ensure the safety of the folks that will ultimately live there. How does re-permitting a structure that has already gone through inspections achieve that goal? If there's a grey area and safety is not compromised, it seems the grey should be interpreted to benefit the consumer, not to earn a macho point or two. Sigh...

We could have fought the re-permit-the-garage conclusion but, as the builder pointed out, that would almost certainly take longer than simply re-permitting the garage. The builder said that as he went through the re-permitting process, a number of folks downtown were quizzical as to why he was re-permitting the garage.

When everything was addressed and the builder requested another final, we got word that we have a third inspector. The builder warned us: Who knows what this third guy will do. That guy showed up on Friday. While yapping about water in a Dallas high-rise, my phone buzzed in my pocket, but I wasn't able to see who was calling until a couple hours later. It was the builder. He had left a message. He sounded despondent. He said "I need you to call me."

I pressed his number. He answered. I said: "Give it to me straight. I can tell this is not good news." He seemed perplexed. "Have you seen my email?" he asked. "Nope." "We passed!" He had sent an email with the good news and was already onto the next challenge to wrap things up at the house.

Hallelujah!

So there you have it. We have CO! As well as big, big smiles!