Building permit attempt #1

I received the septic permit on April 3rd. I was waiting to file for the building permit until I knew I could get septic, figuring I didn't make sense to incur the costs for with the water issues potentially holding everything up.

I took the day off work on April 6th to drive the 120 miles over to the building office in Chelan County to submit the building permit.  In advance of that, I had to fill out the building permit application, get duplicate copies of most of my documents, and also have "wet-stamped" copies of the building plans and the engeineering.

Katie and I had a nice drive over, arriving about 11:30 am.  I went in to a courthouse looking place to ask for a bathroom, and also ask where I could find a business copying center.  The woman pointed down the hall, and then asked how many copies I needed.  I showed her the 68 page building permit, and she offered to make one set of copies for me right there.  Now that's service.

I found the building department in the building across the street on the 3rd floor, and waited only for about 10 minutes until someone was free to help me. Brad went through all my documents and plans right there at the counter.

He took out his trusty ruler that converts to-scale plans into feet and to measurements on various pages in the plan. Although he gave me a B+ because I wasn't missing any documents and they were all complete, he sent me packing with the following things to correct:

• Setback: According to his measurment of the plans, the house is less than 150' from Nason Creek's "ordinary high". He measured about 135'. So, we need to move the house 15' more back to meet the requirement. 
• Overhangs: Roof overhangs that exceed 2' have to be included in the calculation of "porch square footage." I asked my planner/designer to recalc those measurements. 
• Elevation labels: Existing and new elevations need to be labeled more clearly on the plans.
• Building height: His measurement of total building height on the plan is 38'6", not 35'. I guess even though the house will be set down in the existing grade, he measures from the bottom of the garage door (lowest point at the front) to the maximum peak height.
  
  This last one is problematic to solve. I could shave the roof overhang on the high side, but it wouldn't reduce height by 3.5 feet. My other option is to get rid of the garage door so the front of the building is burried.

So Brad sent me packing with all the copies and plans and a list of changes. Katie and I stopped at Taco Time on our way out and got soft bean burritos and mexi-fries.