Failed Inspection, Big Time

The city inspector was just here and, surprise surprise, we failed. But, we failed worse than I had thought. There was over 30 code violations! Ugh, 30! I knew it was going to be bad when the first thing he said was that the missing siding on the front porch was not acceptable. I had no idea. I thought the only things I needed to worry about were safety issues like railings, electrical, smoke detectors, etc. But, at least in Portland, you must have all framing and substructure covered. That includes sub siding, which you can clearly see on the front porch where the dining room window used to be. But, this also meant that every doorway upstairs that does not yet have a jam is a code violation. This also means the visible framing under both the main and sunroom stairs is a violation. He found a few others. Below is a complete list with pictures.

However, there is a bright spot. The inspector was very nice about the whole thing. I suppose he could have took one look at the siding, said "YOU FAIL" and walked away. Instead he spent about a half hour walking through the house pointing out everything that he said wouldn’t pass. This helped me make a complete list. He patiently answered every one of my stupid questions like "why?" and "WHY?". Instead of criticizing my work, he was actually very complimentary and seemed genuinely impressed with the work so far. When I explained that the permits expired in 2 days, he looked over the permits and found that the "mechanical" permit (for the furnace extension and the bathroom vents) had not been finalized. By okaying the mechanical permit, we automatically get another 6 months extension. Yippee! Plus, since the electrical also has not been finalized, we could get yet anther 6 months if we really need it. October of 2006?!? I hope not. I’m tired. Jenn is tired too. We’re both looking forward to just living in our house, rather than always working on it. But, looks like we’ll be working on it this winter.

Click here for a complete list of work that needs to be done with pictures.