Permit Granted

Today we got word that our plans have been approved (finally) after much work on behalf of Brian from Sustainable Design Group. He really deserves a big applause for all the hoop-jumping he did to secure the approval. It was not an easy or pleasant process (see the last post). But we made it through the process in about 5 weeks, which is remarkably fast, even with the many revisions that were required. So thank you, Arlington County, for being so speedy. At some point, we will be writing a letter to recommend some ways to make the process more efficient. I'm pretty sure I needlessly sprouted some grey hairs over this process....

Our contractor, Justin, is going out of town between Christmas and New Year's so it's unlikely that demolition will begin before Jan. 1. We're just thankful that all the ducks are now officially in a row and we can start the new year off with a bang...er...bulldozer?? If the project is completed on schedule (big IF), we should be done by May. The bank says we HAVE to be done by June 30 so we should be in our new house by the end of the summer. Now the real fun begins!

PS- We picked up the permit this morning and we'll let our readers guess how much an Arlington County building permit costs:

A) Ski weekend in West Virginia
B) A new macbook pro.
C) A 50 in. flat screen plasma TV.
D) A used car.