Mission Accomplished!

Controlled chaos. Maybe...

Another visit to the city's Buildings Department offices at hustling and bustling City Hall. Ahhh, the corridors of power have quite an odor to them---largely from the homeless guys that a contractor had popping in and out to give him updates on a project.

Seriously, I was trying to get a permit through the city's Easy Permit Program...and it wasn't that bad...once I figured out what the heck was going on.

The EPP office is situated around a work space where three (actually today, mostly just two) city workers interact with a myriad of permit seekers in various stages of the process. When you walk in, there is no line. No deli-style number tab machine. No doctor's office sign in sheet. Just a mass of folks who look at you with "WTF do you want?" in their eyes. To get the process started you have to either bust in on a conversation, or stand and loom until one of the city workers takes pity and acknowledges you. I learned this lesson last time and busted in on someone who was having a hard time understanding why in the world they would need an architect's drawings to build an addition (they were in for a world of hurt). The worker was glad to pause that conversation long enough to direct me to call "my guy" who had helped me on my previous visit.

Marty, my guy, came out and did, indeed, remember what we had discussed. He looked over my stuff, gave me the blessing and said that all I needed was to get a number in the system. That took about 90 minutes... After that, Marty popped back out, looked things over again and gave me and my paperwork another blessing. All that remained was the "final," which was another hour of waiting. $205 to the cashier and I was on my way.

The waiting was a drag, but it was amazing watching the city folks work. It seemed to take about 15 to 20 minutes for the data entry on each permit/customer---but they were interrupted every 3 minutes by a new person wandering up confused as how to get the process rolling. So each time, they would stop with the data entry, glance at the new person's paperwork to see if they were actually supposed to be EPP clients (most were not) and then ushered them along. Throughout the process, the Buildings department staffers tracked the folks they had been working with over the last few hours and kept them moving between long waiting sessions. The process seems bad, but they do a pretty good job. Props.

So, now we can get our plumbing inspected and put toilets, sinks, and showers back in place (the master bath is the only one working in the entire house at the moment), as well as finishing up all the kitchen plumbing. Woo hoo.