Tuesday morning, two months and twenty-six days after filing our application, we received word that our building permit was approved. It was entering the final stage of issuance—processing the last of the paperwork by dotting all the ‘t’s and crossing all the ‘i’s, then printing out the official piece of paper. By noon, I was sitting in the county offices waiting on the packet. Having dealt with the county in June, I walked in with a cashier’s check as payment. A half-hour later, I left with everything we needed to get moving on to our new home.

I should be ecstatic. Instead, I’m simmering. The county has an ongoing dispute with our homebuilder, which caught us (and our modular sales rep, it turns out) in the middle. The building department has been quibbling over the math on a difference of 16 MPH (26 KPH). We spent the previous two weeks in an email exchange with the county, our builder, our contractor, and the state housing authority. On Wednesday, the 24th, the housing authority approved the plans, contingent on the builder providing the information—which they did on Thursday, the 25th. The county waited for further approval from the local engineer and the state housing authority. On Tuesday, the state rep chimed in with, “I gave you that approval last week.” 🙄

With the ball rolling, we have a bunch of events to coordinate, starting with a Port-a-Potty for our work crew. Luckily, I know someone who works for a local trash company. (That turned out to be a bust, I guess we’re too high in the foothills for them. (😕 OK, start over.) We also contacted our escrow agent and the well technician.

Now comes more aggravation as our contractor and modular folks try to round up construction and set crews, equipment, and materials. (Oh, joy, several more months of pushing that farking rock up the hill.) We are still waiting to hear back on a prospective start date, but I’ll have more info on that by next week. We’ll persevere, not without some whining and complaining, but we’ll make it through the next few months.

Days since the fire: 686 days (1 year, 10 months, 17 days)