Too much stuff!

  

So what do you do when you have too much stuff?  Goodwill and Craigslist!  I previously blogged about organizing the basement, but for me that generally means taking everything in the room and throwing it into the center.  It lets me survey the damage.  And once the center starts to clear out, then its time to grab all the "scraps" and throw 'em into the center.  I'm a little strange, eh?

And if you are thinking about throwing something out, don't!  Post it on the craigslist "free" listings. Seriously, within a couple hours I had about 8 emails asking to pick up 6 panes of glass (who knew?) and a semi-operational sewing machine. Great stuff.

I'm also happy to give old cloths and household items to the Goodwill.  It feels so good after it is all packed up and in the car!  If you itemize on your taxes, don't forget to record what you gave...otherwise you might be missing out on reclaiming a good chunk of change back from the government.  I bet that this pile of clothes will help us reclaim $100-$150!

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Lowes Tax Refund Card

Today I got my first Lowe's Tax Refund Card in the mail.  I say "first" because I definitely plan to get a few more of these.  And I was happy it came today because I wanted to pick up a couple hopper windows.  Field trip to Lowe's!

So here's the deal: First you buy one of these gift cards from now until March 14th.  It will come in the mail in a couple days and you can use it right away.  On March 18th, regardless of how much of the card you have used, Lowe's will automatically add another 10% of the original purchase price back on the card.  Sweet deal, right?!  I look at it as a way to cover the taxes...and a little bit more.

The only "catch"...if you consider it a catch...is that Lowe's requires you to put at least $500 onto one of these cards.  That doesn't stop me because this is project is definitely going to cost more than that.

Now the trick will be to figure out how much to put on these cards.  I guess I'll need to get friendly with the budget spreadsheet again.  I'll also need to determine if there are items that Lowe's doesn't carry or that I would rather buy at another place.  For instance, Lowe's doesn't carry 1.5" extruded polystyrene insulation board, which I need.  Or maybe I would like to get my lumber from a lumber yard instead of Lowe's.

Either way, I'm happy to save a few bucks!

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Permit Process (3 of ??)

Ugh.

So that meeting on Friday didn't exactly go as I hoped.  If you recall from the last blog entry, I needed to talk to an inspector about the head clearance in my stairwell.  Before the inspector came, I started to worry that I should have a half dozen donuts and some coffee from Dunkin' Donuts on the counter.  So I brewed a pot.  I guess it wasn't enough.

It wasn't a good sign when he stared at the ceiling above the base of the steps for about 5-10 minutes and said things like "hmm..." and "oh!" and "I'm not too sure about this".

Ugh.

When it became clear that it wasn't going the way that I hoped, I decided to pull out some last ditch ideas...ideas like, "What if I put some warning tape or lights above the stairs?"

I don't think he responded to my question.

In fact, in addition to telling me that I would need to make some structural adjustments to pass code, he also told me that he wasn't comfortable with the way the support beams were currently configured.  Let's not dwell on that conversation...

So in light of  the circumstances, I think I am left with 3 options:

1. Call the structural engineers that he recommended and rearrange the steel beams that are holding up our house.  Do this so people can have an extra 6-8 inches as they walk down the steps.  Since it costs $350 just to have a "consultation", this option isn't very appealing.  
2. Forget the permit process.  (is there anything else to say about this one?)
3. The "Hybrid Approach".  Continue with the permit process, submit drawings and have way-point inspections, but don't apply for a Use and Occupancy permit at the end of it all.  Why would I do this option?  For one, I would appreciate the reviews along the way.  Second, when we sell our house, I want to tell the Realtor that everything is "up to code", except for the fact that the codes department likes tall people on my stairwell.  I'm guessing that prospective buyers would feel more comfortable if they knew that.  

I think I need to talk to a Realtor...

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Permit Process (2 of ??)

Well, that wasn't so bad.

I knew I was off to a great start when the receptionist replied, "Permit questions??  Well, you won't have any of those left after you leave here. Come 'on in!".

And then I met Rose.  Have you ever heard the phrase "Administrative Assistants rule the world"?  Well, that was definitely true of Rose.  I had thought that I needed to wear a flannel shirt and carry a free coffee from Home Depot in order talk to the Codes Department.  And maybe grow a beard.  Rose put all that to rest by simply saying, "You're going to do most of that yourself?  Well, we like people like you around here.  You are going to do alright."

I'm still not sure about all of the paperwork that she showed me, and after taking 3 long minutes to explain the fee schedule, I told her that I would come back with my checkbook in hand.  I asked her about submitting Floor Plans, and I'm not going to lie, the examples she pulled from the counter looked a little intimidating.  When they tell me to put "all detail" on the drawings, I don't think they know who they are talking to.  Should I attach all the iPhone photos I took of materials at Home Depot (and another round at Lowe's for comparative pricing)?

I'm not sure if the best part of the experience was that she told me that I don't need an egress window (since I am not using the room as a bedroom), or that she made me feel like they were there to help.  She suggested that I call the inspector, Brian, early the next morning to get a few of my big concerns answered...and I did.  And now Brian will be visiting at 7:30 Friday morning to see what we can do about my 6'-1" stairway clearance.

Nervous about the conclusion of that conversation, but excited to be rollin'.

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Permit Process (1 of ??)

What's the scariest part of the entire remodeling effort?  Carrying large amounts of heavy material into the basement?  Sacrificing time and effort away from my young family?  Raiding the bank account?  Accidentally meeting the circular saw in an intimate setting?

No, none of these things scare me the most.

The scariest part is the Permit process.  Maybe it is my healthy respect for the law, or the fact that I've had one too many speeding tickets in my life, or that my job has granted me a government security clearance, but I'm most nervous of the folks with pencils at our township building.

I'm nervous that with a simple stroke of the pen they will cause great harm to my basement plans.  "You need an egress window here, and you need to tear down the basement steps in order to have proper head-clearance, and the ceiling is too short so'll you'll need to dig and pour a new foundation."

Lots of people say, "Do you even need a permit? Couldn't you just do it without anyone knowing?"  Honestly, I'm not sure.  At the end of the day, I'm happy to live in America.  I've been to Africa and I've seen how they run their electrical wire.  I view the township personnel as my allies.  Hopefully they'll be excited that the people who are paying their salaries are improving their homes and communities (and boosting their home assessments...comes full circle doesn't it?).  And when I sell my house in a few years, I want to have a powerful argument as to why I can list the new square footage on the MLS listing.

I tested the waters a few weeks ago with a short and polite email to my township's Safety & Codes Enforcement department with a few questions.  I was pleasantly surprised with the speed of their response.  Additionally, I'm lucky enough to live next door to a local builder who knows these folks by name.  Unfortunately the email response and my neighbor's comments don't agree...so I am more confused than before.  But I feel like I am headed in the right direction.

So tomorrow I head to the township building in the early afternoon.  I'm going to bring a couple of my Visio working diagrams (more on that in a future post), and a bunch of questions.  I don't want to overwhelm them with an overly eager and anal software engineer who thinks he is an armchair architect...I'm most interested in understanding the process.  Which forms do I fill out?  Will I have a sit down meeting with these folks?  Can I ask some questions and get a blessing before I get started?  How do I get inspectors to visit my basement?

Hopefully I'll feel a little more comfortable after tomorrow afternoon.

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What do I do first?

ORGANIZE!

If you are anything like my wife and me, having an unfinished basement means you have an "infinite" amount of extra storage.  At least that is how we've been treating it.  "Where should we put this?"  "Just stick it in the basement."  Extra scraps of wood from the last project?  Don't throw it out...you might be able to use it later.

I think I inherited this disease from my parents.  Since college, they've slowly jettisoned Eric-memorabilia preserved from over the years, sending it home with me in Rubbermaid containers.  Baseball cards, 4th grade writing assignments, and my favorite toy airplanes.  Ugh...how do I throw that stuff out??  I've been employing the "slow and painful" strategy, using successive sessions to select my least favorite items to throw out.

My new favorite date-night is to spend the evening in the basement with my wife, side-by-side, straightening, organizing and purging.  Oh sure, she rolls her eyes, but we end up having fun in the end (right girl?).  We've got the Goodwill/Salvation Army pile, the Craigslist pile, and the I-don't-know-what-to-with-this pile, and the what-on-earth-is-this? pile.  Valentines day is coming up...what better day for a last-hurrah grand finale?

The end goal is to have a clean slate.  The area that will be remodeled needs to be c-l-e-a-r.  Even if I never pick up a hammer, clearing out that area will be a victory...

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