Permit? Check. Handrail? Check.

I'm happy to report our upgraded plans which include the new family room were approved last Thursday. We had the inspector out (for the main house) last Friday and we'll see him again on Thursday to inspect the family room as well, thus freeing us to complete the roof and outside. Only the windows will hold us up now.
On another note, we're also gearing up for Hallowe'en as well.
A better wrap-around shot of the kitchen. We cleaned things up so the inspector could get around and I figured a clean pic was in order. It's all about plumbing and electric (and the missing window) in here now.

The (covered) furniture was moved back into the center of the family room. Sorry about the missing tile area (boring anyhow), but I think this panoramic does a good job showing just how great this room will be. It's cleverly tied to the kitchen with double french doors to separate, or tie these two living spaces together. Waiting on inspection for the roof and windows...

My crew put in the much-needed retaining wall in the side yard. This feature will permit us to improve the side yard drainage and plant some citrus bushes. Of course it's gonna make scaffolding in that area a bitch. Hmm.

Can you believe it??!! A handrail! On our house!! With this "small" deatail, we're only lacking a few small bits of trim and paint before the front of the house is done. Exciting.

Here's the view from the street. We cleared that last pile of dirt this weekend, so this is already out of date a little.

Waiting is Painful

So all we need in order to see the light at the end of the tunnel is an amended permit and some windows. I really hope the building department doesn't find this blog, but they were the ones who made it sound like "no big deal" so we just started. Now, we're ready for inspection, and they still haven't amended the permit. Sigh. If it weren't for the fact that the windows were holding us up until the second half of October, I'd be really frustrated.

The top window will be beveled - like a hexagon - to match the line of the roof - but most of those huge openings are, in fact windows.

Today they're finishing up as much of the soffit vent as they can without the permit. We went ahead and replaced the soffit around the entire house, as the labor to patch it was equal (or maybe more) than the labor to replace it, and the material was only about a grand. The new vent wraps around the entire building, providing far better venting than the two, tiny, clogged screens we removed. The architect called for this vent on the addition, we just figured to roll with it around the whole house. Once painted, I think it'll be less noticeable (though what's someone going to think? "They really vented that attic up there!"