Patience Required

Sorry, I have been so quite lately.  It has been a challenging week as I work through some major hurdles in my permit process.  I also was off line Mon/Tues while I attended a THERM course at UBC.

As part of the permit application process I need a Schedule B from each ‘professional’ involved with the project and then I need one individual to act as the Structural Engineer on Record (SER) and also sign a Schedule A.  These duties would include overseeing site inspections and checking the other involved professional’s calcs and shop drawings.  My structural engineer is the obvious choice to act as the SER as they have been responsible for 90%+ of the structural design that has fallen outside of Part 9.  Their concern was related to determining what structural design scope was applicable under the Schedule B.

A call into the District North Vancouver (DNV) by my engineer seemed to indicate that ALL of the structure would become the responsibility of the Structural Engineer should ANY structural component fall outside of Part 9.  As this was quite different than my interpretation of the code, I reached out to Murray Frank, a friend and instructor.  Murray is quite well versed on the BC Building Code and also has great contacts in high places.  He reached out to several high ranking code officials for an interpretation.  The initial response is looking hopeful and I am now waiting  to hear back from the DNV as to what my next step should be.  It has always been my intent to build as much of this dwelling under BCBC Part 9 as possible because quite frankly, I cannot afford to build any other way.  SO I am crossing my fingers that this will sort itself out by the end of the day and I can go ahead with my Building Permit application tomorrow.

On the progress side, I was able to complete the tree retention protection fencing on Saturday (in the rain and heavy mud).  The arborist report arrived today, and the DNV will inspect the fencing this afternoon.  The gas is scheduled to be disconnected sometime this week as well as the water/sani/storm connections (they were there today mapping the work out).  I have ordered my ICF and by tomorrow should have the Floor Joists ordered.  These are long lead times as they are coming by train from Eastern Canada.

This afternoon, I hope to start installing the temp electrical service so that I can call for inspection and schedule the Hydro swing over to the temporary service.

One final request.  I would really like to hear from the visitors as to the functionality of the video streams.  I suspect a lot of visitors are met with a blank screen and would like to get a handle on how bad the problem is.  So please drop me a quick line and give me an update.

Thanks for visiting.