going legit.

Once the decision was made to go and do the work legitimately it meant that we had a fair amount of work to complete before we ever even broke ground on repairs.

this was back in... hrmmm have to think about this for a second and do some research.... yeah March of 2010. That was when we encountered the biggest hurdle to this DIY reno, and what ultimately made us decide that we were in-over-our-heads.

That being said we'd been in a sort of a holding pattern, as renovations are notorious for going in cycles. Incidentally if you let it get away from you the "holding pattern" can turn into a work-stoppage, which is what happened to us. Demo had gone as far as it could go with a meager staff of my husband and my then pregnant self, and we were forced to face the fact that we could not accomplish what we wanted without both professional and financial help.

OMG!!! Finally a permit!

It only took 4 times longer than expected, but we finally got a design permit approval.

Turns out that the piece of paper was literally sitting on the desk of an 'administrator' waiting to get signed. All I had to do was pester and cajole, and literally become a nuisance to the point of obnoxiousness to get some motion on the permit process. Had I known this before I might not have been so passive.

Looking at the photo, you might not be able to see it, but its there is solid black and white... APPROVED! It feels so good to be validated. Even if it was never really in question, it still feels good.