End of Week 9: Another Delay By the City.

The most common questions that people ask me about building the house are how long it will takes and whether the winter raining season will cause any delays. It's natural to think that nature or unexpected difficulties in construction might be the main causes of delays, but two months into the project the real cause of delays is the local government. Any problems that might arise from the actual construction of the building can be solved by an experienced builder quickly, but he can't solve city hall.

This was one those weeks where the crew had to work on some other things instead of the scheduled the wall and roof. The city decided that my sky lights (newer and likely more efficient but not "certified" yet) isn't more efficient so in issuing the papers they changed our plans to a sky light that 1) doesn't fit my roof, 2) is darker so lets less light through, 3) less efficient and 4) doesn't spread the light around the room. Basically, they wanted me to install a sky light that doesn't let in much light. What's the point of a sky light if it doesn't let in light?

This also impacts some other things that the city requires which could mean that I have to install things that the house don't need to get some the points needed for the house. The irony is that these requirements is to make people build greener and more energy efficient houses but the result is that I might have to pay more and install less green and less energy efficient sky lights.

The city is preaching to the choir here about installing more money saving items. Hey, I'd love to install the things that makes the house better, more energy efficient and better for the world. So why does the city make me install more expensive, less energy efficient and possibly have a higher carbon footprint in order to do that. Does that make any sense?!?

Fortunately, it looks like my GC and Architect is dealing with it and will be able to come up with some good solutions.

Standing on the base floor of the house: