Final Inspection

[Thalassamania]

Along with everything else in our lives we have been building a house for the last year. The Building Inspector just left and our final inspection is DONE!

Not that all of our trials and tribulations are over, we still have to get a HELCO hookup, put a second and third coat of mud on the drywall, texture and paint, take out the temporary railings, banister and kitchen cabinets and replace them with the permanent ones ... but that's all stuff that's under our control.

 

[muddiver]

Sweet! Good job. Out here most people don't bother getting a permit, thus no inspection.

What's a HELCO?

 

[Thalassamania]

HELCO = local electric co.

No permit = no inspection = no mortgage or no equity line of credit.

We built the place with money pulled out of our ever dwindling retirement funds (good thing too, the stock market dropped faster than house prices), but we need some financing to finsh the place (it's 3,600 sq. ft. with 24 ft ceiling in the "great room" and 10 foot ceilings every where else ... that's a lot of wall to be mudded, tetured and painted and lot of tile and hardwood floor to be laid, not to mention the custom koa cabinets, railings, banisters, stair treads, moldings, etc. and 1,100 feet of outside concrete, and the electric hookup (which is 400 feet away) and ...

I really can't wait for it to be over, six months ago we were living in a tent on the property.

 

[Al Burt]

Thats a lot faster than our friends "next door "in Haiku --It took over two years to get the building permit. Your house sounds like it should be on a HGTV show --Kona or Hilo side ?

 

[Thalassamania]

South end of things ... the infamous Ocean View. It's a metal truss, metal skin structure from Miracle Truss that we refer to as the "Were House."

We started off looking for something that was 30 by 24 one and a half stories (one plus enough for a good size sleeping loft and they sold us a building (for $4,000 less) that someone else had ordered and then backed out of that is 44 x 36 and two stories tall.

It's been quite a process, we learned a lot of lessons and I've become a pretty good electrician in the process.

 

[fisheater]

Congrats!

It's GOT to be a better investment than the stock market, even though you live in one of the few places in the world that defies the old adage that one should buy real estate "because they ain't making any more."

 

[ChimChim75]

You mean HECO. And congrats!

 

[Thalassamania]

You mean HECO. And congrats!

Actually, on the Big Island it's HELCO, it's HECO on Oahu and MECO on Maui.

 

[TSandM]

This thread is worthless without pictures . . .

 

[Thalassamania]

Naw, it's kinda like an unpermitted house ... worth something ... just not as much.

I'll try and take some today.