Time To Start Kicking Things

Let me just say this. Following the rules is for chumps.

Despite the earlier annoyances with getting the permit from the city for our basement, things have been moving along at a brisk pace with this renovation. The plumbing inspector is visiting tomorrow to give us the ok on the rough-in for the toilet and sink and the pile of garbage is out of the basement. Yay!

That said, we've run into a snag with the electrician. He was here today and about to start the work to replace our fuse box with a breaker panel. He called in to the ESA to let them know he was starting the job and lo and behold, it turns out that his Master Electrician's Permit had lapsed. It seems that they changed the regulations last year so that instead of getting the permit renewed every 5 years, he has to do it every year.

Now, he's been a certified electrician for 30 some-odd years and everything, so he can probably get grandfathered in, but in the meantime we have to go find another electrician as the ESA won't even look at anything for 3-4 weeks... 3-4 weeks longer than we want to spend with a half-finished basement.

What cheeses me off is that I wouldn't have had to deal with any of this crap if I had just listened to everyone and not bothered to get a permit. I can't think of any reason why someone would voluntarily put themselves through this much hassle for a simple basement renovation if they knew what kind of roadblocks and barriers keep popping up along the way. It's no wonder everyone just gets the job done on the sly.

I think that's what is causing me the most stress right now. I'm not in a huge rush to get the basement done, though the sooner it gets done, the better. I'm just really frustrated with the fact that we're trying to do the right thing and follow the rules and we're getting screwed around by the people who imposed the rules.

Sigh.