Archive for the 'Building Permits' Category
Following Building Code
The New Haven Register recently reported that a West Haven home owner was arrested for allegedly violated building codes, illegally altering a multi-family home from a 2-family to a 3-family without city approval. This arrest comes in the wake of the recent deaths of two firefighters who were responding to a fire at a multi-family home in Bridgeport. That home was altered from a 2-family to a 3-family but public records show that Bridgeport officials never approved plans and no permits were ever issued to add an apartment on the third floor where the firefighters perished.
City and town building codes are in place for a reason. They keep us safe. Period. The purpose is to make sure that workmanship was performed in the proper manner and corners were not cut. Additionally, there must be appropriate egress points in all homes and going through the permit process ensures this.
When buyers are looking at properties and thinking about making modifications they often ask us if they need to pull permits for the work that they’d like to do. This question is typically asked because in many cases people are afraid their property taxes will increase if the town or city knows they’ve made improvements to their home. The majority of people seem to want to live in as nice a home as possible, or get as much rent as possible in a multi-family conversion, but pay as little in taxes as possible.
This reality causes some people to cut corners. They don’t pull the building permits themselves or tell their contractor not to pull the permits because they don’t want the town to find out about the work they’ve done. In cases where a home is increasing the number of apartments, there is typically a zoning approval process that should be followed as well. This also does not happen in certain cases because their plan would potentially not be approved for various reasons (improper egress points, neighborhood opposes, etc.) so they just circumvent the system and ignore the legal process they should follow.
The tragedy in this case is that it has to get to the point of people dying before a city or town chooses to take more aggressive actions to enforce their building and zoning codes. Municipalities are typically short staffed in these areas and efforts are focused on inspecting the jobs where people actually did pull permits and follow the law, rather than hunting down those that have chosen to evade it. It is frustrating, to say the least.
There are many folks out there that do follow the law and go through the necessary steps that need to be taken when doing renovations or trying to increase the number of units in a dwelling. These people should be applauded. They understand the system is there for a reason and go along with it even though it may cost them some more money or time down the line. Purposely ignoring building code and laws is just asking for trouble, whether it’s when you go to resell or if some type of tragedy occurs. In the end, will it really be worth it if something horrible happens?
Our Kitchen Remodel – A Progress Update
Our kitchen remodel has been underway for two weeks now. Well, really three if you count the week we spent dismantling our previous kitchen.
We seem to be right on schedule, which is nice. The electrical and plumbing were laid out in their new locations and we passed our City permit inspections. Drywalling started shortly thereafter. That should be finished early this week. From there, we’ll paint the walls and ceilings.
Sadly the hardwood floors we discovered and were so excited about were not able to be salvaged. Years of wear and previous refinishing made them marginal for another refinishing. Given the information that they would not be able to be refinished any additional times, we made the long range decision to go with new floors. Some of the boards were salvageable though and our contractor will use them as patch pieces for future jobs he has that need them.
Our temporary kitchen is working out okay. By okay I mean that we are getting take out or eating cereal for dinner. Work has also been extremely busy lately, so cooking is near the bottom of our priority list. It actually seems like we planned the timing perfectly for the remodel. No time to cook now, so we might as well destroy the kitchen. We look forward to spending lots of time using it this summer during the slow real estate season.
Here are the previous posts about our adventure:
Remodeling Our Kitchen
Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel
Designing a Kitchen
Our Before Kitchen
Our Temporary Kitchen
A Remodeling Surprise
Designing a Kitchen
We thought that designing a new kitchen would be relatively straightforward. Really, how hard could it be? Pick a cabinet design, choose the appliances, then the finish details, and away we’d go. We already had a good idea of what we wanted in a kitchen, so we thought the design part would be easy.
As it turned out, there were a number of challenges that we did not foresee. The shape of the room was the first we encountered. We wanted to consider alternative layouts, but after doing some quick sketches it was clear that the room was not quite wide enough for many of the ideas. In addition, the many windows and doors also made alternative layouts tricky. Our current kitchen has more of a modern feel, and we forgot to consider the details, like moldings, when thinking about a traditional remodel. Designing a space that met our needs, while remaining within our budget, proved to be the final hurdle.
Fortunately, we’re not trying to do this project on our own. We know Christian Winkley of Oxford Builders quite well and have been impressed with the work he has done in the neighborhood. Christian introduced us to his brother, Josh Winkley, who designs and builds custom cabinetry as Maple Tree Cabinetmakers. Together they have guided us through the design process to make sure the remodeled room will be functional, look great, and come together smoothly.
Here are some of the specific issues that we’ve discussed in detail:
Changing the traffic flow through the three rooms in question will make a big difference in how the space feels and is used. Currently, we enter the home through the mudroom and then proceed directly to the butler’s pantry, where we can continue on to the dining room or turn into the kitchen. The butler’s pantry is essentially a pass-through with a shelf and drawers that collect random stuff. It isn’t integrated into either the kitchen or the dining room. After looking at the home’s original blueprints, Christian suggested that we restore the original doorway from the mudroom to the kitchen, and remove the door from the mudroom to the butler’s pantry. This will allow the butler’s pantry to be used in a more traditional manner with numerous cabinets and as a natural connection between the kitchen and dining room.
We were interested in a much larger opening between the kitchen and the butler’s pantry than the current standard door, and had convinced ourselves that removing the wall entirely would be the best solution. Josh was initially fine with the decision, since it made the cabinet layout easier, but quickly realized that it didn’t feel right to him. He mocked up a version that contained a framed door and asked if he could come back to talk about it. We went over the pros and cons, but at that point still kept the unframed opening in the plan. Fortunately, Josh didn’t give up. He consulted with Christian about the decision and came back a second time with both a stronger argument and a more refined mockup that addressed many of our concerns. We’re now planning to do a framed door to provide a distinct transition between the two rooms.
Josh has also been influential in numerous other design details, helping to make sure that the project will all come together at the end. We’ve talked about how the cabinets should look in the butler’s pantry, and how to do the chair rail in the kitchen. He’s figured out how to make the oversized sink we planning to get work from both a logistical and an aesthetic standpoint. And we’ve debated at length about where best to put the trash can in the finished room.
Our kitchen remodel would turn out very differently if we had not gone through a detailed design process with Josh and Christian. We’re excited about the project and very glad that we’ve had them making suggestions about how to do things better, and in many cases simply handling details that we would otherwise not notice. Being able to rely on their experience makes us much more confident that the final result will be both functional and beautiful.