All new buildings and all buildings that undergo extensive changes must obtain a certificate of occupancy, and we finally got ours! I was under the impression that we would have gotten ours about two years ago, but as with many things during this project, it came right down to the wire—as in, “we got the C of O the day we moved out of our apartment in the city” down to the wire. In fact, John was driving the cats and the gerbils to their new shoreline home while the inspectors were giving their final stamp of approval!
The contractor had a difficult time drilling into the ledge, this is about the time that the Branford building department alerted me to a problem
The house rested on wooden cradles in order to drill into the rock to create the metal posts which cement is poured over
House finally on cement and steel piers and OK’s by our inspector
The front porch went beyond the lot line and we had to have town approval to build the front porch.
Thank goodness that the town of Branford building department and inspectors were helpful, knowledgeable and fair from the get-go because it has made a world of difference in our renovation. They made sure that we stayed up to code every step of the way and even alerted me directly when they felt something wasn’t right—like our house lift, which, in turn led to us firing our project manager.
The porch railings are highly regulated by the building department.
In order to expedite a COO we decided to put connecting the wood stove on hold until the Spring
So, my strong advice to you is to get to know your building inspectors and town officials when undergoing any type of renovation; it’s a key component to a successful project.