I left the office today at 5:45 to make it home a bit before 7 to go to the Community Preservation Panel meeting and request approval of my plans for the summer, which include taking probably every weekend that's not already booked and dedicating it to adding a half-bath off the kitchen and laying a patio four times the size of the one I did last year (as well as smaller projects like re-shingling the front and back porch roofs with the help of MB, his brother, and SBJ, and painting the kitchen cabinets...but soapstone countertops are going to have to wait until next summer, I think). Whenever you make an exterior change, you have to go through the CPP to get a Certificate of Appropriateness, because the whole village, including even the newer homes, is designated as a historic area. Since the bathroom project requires removing a window, it has to go before the CPP.
Turns out that since the window I'm removing is on the back of the house and not visible from the road, they don't really have to rule on it, but they gave me a certificate for everything anyway. Next, I have to go to the Planning Board and do the whole shebang all over again...except the meeting is on Wednesday night, when I will be in Denver. So I'm going to call the chair of the planning board and see if we can't get together beforehand, and hopefully mommasnarx or poppasnarx can go stand up at the meeting for me.
I got home and texted SBJ (who has graciously volunteered his electrical and drywall services) about how the meeting went, and was complaining that village life can be a PITA. He replied that he was sorry it was a hassle, and that kind of stopped me in my tracks. I texted him back that hassle is the price of having achieved, and then surpassed, a personal goal. I'd always wanted to own my own house, and I have it. Now I'm improving it with renovations. I felt very small about complaining about having to observe the established process to do something that so many people now can't...make changes to their home. Not only are people losing their homes, but they're also losing their jobs, and here I am whining. Nice.
You pulled permits? I'm impressed! I've never pulled...
Wait, did I just say that out loud?
Posted by: the idiot | June 04, 2009 at 11:31 AM