Day 6 - Tuesday (red tape)

You have got to be kidding me!

Shane told us that we could choose for him not to get permits for this project, but it was risky. Since we live on a big street, any neighbor or passerby could see the huge dumpster in our driveway and call the city to complain and ask if we have a permit. I didn't want to get Shane in trouble, and I didn't want to start a war with our neighbors, so we told Shane to go ahead and get permits.

He went in today, and they are "giving him a little bit of trouble." I guess a "little bit of trouble" means, in this case, that even though he is not touching anything near a bedroom, he has to hard-wire smoke detectors into every bedroom! He also has to hardwire a combination smoke detector/carbon monoxide detector into the hallway outside of every bedroom!! Does this seem like overkill to you? I mean, for sure, if he were remodeling a bedroom, or if there were even a bedroom on the way to the kitchen. I've heard of inspectors making you bring everything they will see even on the way to the project up to code. But every bedroom?? Really?? And just in case that wasn't enough, every hallway outside of every bedroom?? A hard-wired smoke detector?

I have 5 bedrooms! And 2 hallways outside of them! So that's 5 smoke detectors and 2 combination units, plus installation. I can't think that it would be cheap to hardwire these units in. The current going rate for anything "extra" I have asked for lately seems to be $200 - $300. Getting electricity to things is, of course, not easy. I'm thinking this permit is going to cost me at least an extra $1000, in addition to the actual cost of the permit! I guess I can rest easy now, knowing that I will have state-of-the-art smoke detectors attached to my ceilings (at least, for the next several years until this idea is obsolete or the smoke detectors break and I have to hire an electrician to put a new one in) But really, how idiot-proof do we have to get? It's not enough that I actually buy smoke detectors, or even smoke detectors that plug in? The government, during this recession, needs to spend a little more time saving me from myself and making sure that there's no way I'm stupid enough to not keep current batteries in a smoke alarm, or else plug one in. Ditto for carbon monoxide.

Really??