Orange Sticker Day

Yesterday  was an orange sticker day. Last Thursday our structural  engineering plans arrived in a long triangular box via overnight mail. These plans were the key to continuing  our project. The town building inspector requires 2 sets of plans signed and stamped by the architect in order to get a building permit.   We also had to turn in a foundation certification stamped by the civil engineers.  Ah,  that meant another trip to Yarmouthport and a stop at our new favorite spot, Captain Frosty's. We can't believe we have been driving past this Cape Cod restaurant for 38 years without ever stopping.   Now we can't go by the place without getting a Yoberry cone. Yum!

As required in a flood zone, the foundation guys were aiming for 11.5 ft. above mean high tide with the pouring of all that concrete.   The finished walls came in at 11.55.  How's that for perfection.

While we have been waiting for the foundation to completely harden, we've set up a card table and chairs in the cleaned out garage for an office.  On Monday we spread out the 20 pages and Paul reviewed them.  Then he asked if we could get 3 sets of these oversized 2 ft. x 3 ft. pages copied. No problem, off to the Cape Cod Business Center and $100.00 later we had accomplished the task. Two sets go to the inspector, one set to Paul, another to the framer and a set to be kept on location.   The plans are so detailed that they even included a nail schedule.  Sometime soon Chris and I plan to sit down and try to make some sense of it. But they seemed like "apple pie and vanilla ice cream" to Paul.

The next morning Paul turned all the required documents in at the building department.  The law requires an onsite inspection within 72 hours.  This would be a quick turn around compared to the 30 days we waited for the foundation plans to be approved.  Ahead of schedule Paul called  and asked if Chris could go over to Ladd Neck and check  to see if the building inspector had been there. Driving down the dirt road he could see a very small orange sticker  affixed to the garage window. He walked up and looked at it and was pleased to see it read APPROVED.  After all the challenges we have had to overcome, we had expected some sort of impressive official notification in very large letters blazing through the fog. But we aren't complaining! We're just grateful for all the help we have had getting us to this orange sticker day.