The Building Permit
We now had the container on the knoll, with the kitchen cabinets, french doors and the windows all inside for safe keeping.
Next comes the building permit and, if you remember where I left off, the draftsperson who couldn't? I will call him O.R. and I have a craftier name for him which I will not divulge in this writ, but please feel free to use your imagination - in copious amounts!
I was so disgusted with this person that I didn't want to deal with him again, for anything related to my house plans. In that vein, I pursued another draftsperson to make the necessary changes.
Remember the points that Debbie and I had debated over for months? I drafted the plans myself in a very simple CAD (Computer Assisted Design) software program which I purchased from Staples for under fifty dollars. Initially I had sent O.R down a full set of particulars for my house, the floor plans and elevation plans in 1/8" = 1-0" scale, I even had notes about the methods and materials we were planning to use, plumbing specifications, roofing material detail, cistern plans, everything! I tried to cover all the bases of the design and tried to convey as much as possible to him, in the hope he could "weave" my needs into his thought process - fat chance! But I'll move on....
When we came down in June of 2005, we weren't even sure that the plans were completed until we met our builder that morning in The Golden Rail, a small eatery on the St. Croix harbor waterfront. Right next to the restaurant is St. Croix Marine, as you can guess from the name, a marina for the many boats that ply the azure blue Caribbean waters. I looked over the plan set as Arnold Jeffers and I were conversing about the project. When I first looked at the plans I noticed a porch running the length of the north wall. The porch, or gallery as they call them here, wasn't specified on my plans! I looked at the elevation plans, where the roof pitch was lowered to 4" in twelve instead of the 6' in twelve I had specified. The bathroom closet was so long in the master suite you couldn't get around the vanity sink, which was now six inches away. I notice the french door that was supposed to be installed in the east wall of the best guest bedroom, to provide a private entrance for guests. He moved it to the laundry area, and gave us a back door, not eleven feet from the front door! The elevation of the house was raised by two feet, this was clearly not the house I had designed and fretted over, this was his house. I asked Arnold if O.R. would like this as his own house, since it didn't look at all like my house!
After I left the DPNR desk that afternoon in November, just three days on the Island, I went to several people asking for help getting these plans changed for a new building permit application.
I spoke with Marshall Walker, owner and President of St. Croix Surveying & Engineering, Marshall helped us out by doing a topographical study of our plot for the building permitting department a year earlier. Marshall also offered design help from a colleague of his, which I refused since Arnold Jeffers had been so sure that he could get O.R. to do the drafting for us and get it done for less money.
Marshall offered the services of another former employee of his, one person whom I shall call simply "S.C.", and I do mean simply. Marshall offered that S.C. could talk to O.R. and get back the original vellums, or onion sheets as they are sometimes called. Vellum is a draftperson's medium or drawing surface choice for doing architectural pencil drawings the old fashioned way (compared to CAD). S.C. would then alter the drawings, with an eraser on the vellums, make the necessary changes and send them to the printer for production of construction drawings for permitting as well as to provide details for actually building the house. I would prefer to have a full set of correct drawings instead of a the old set with changes marked in red ink on the jobsite planset. His solution was not acceptable to me. I wanted a set of correct drawings for everyone to use that were exactly what was being built instead of a set of incorrect drawings that weren't even close to the end product!
While waiting for S.C. to respond to an all-Island search (mouth to mouth) Marshall Walker had a visitor in his office looking at some other work, in which the two of them were involved. Enter John Boucher of C.A.P.E. Associates (Caribbean Architects Planners and Engineers) John and his colleague Peter Roka would later save the day for the Harrisons, but I was still listening to hear a peep out of S.C..
Peter and John were both professionals, engineer and architect, and as a result of this were considerably more expensive than S.C.. John Boucher told Marshall a figure which is one he gives out only occasionally, but since they were idle and looking for new clients.. ..they were offering their services at a cut rate. I should mention here that although some will simply draw the plans for you and then disappear, most architects work on commission basis, or a percentage of the job cost. Some demand 10% - 20 % for their services when in good times, and for the extra dollars they will oversee the construction phase of your home and be there to make crucial decisions (read: make changes) when necessary. Imagine if they screw up, and the builder is forced to charge extra to make a change or to alter the elements of a design, the architect gets a percentage of that too! Some deal, eh?
Anyway, S.C. returns from hibernation, or whereever he has been, and finally responds to Marshall Walker's messages. Sean says he will speak with O.R., whom he knows personally, get the vellums, make the erasures and changes and get them back to me. He is off to talk to O.R., I sit and wait for his reply. I hear nothing for a week or so and I call S.C. back. He says the best way to go about this is to let O.R. make the changes and re-submit the permit application. I calmly respond ( my quavering voice barely detectable) that the reason for his (S.C.) involvement is that I didn't want to deal with O.R., but this falls on deaf ears. I hang up the phone, still weeks behind already... and I am frustrated.
I call John Boucher of CAPE Associates, he agrees to meet me and look things over. He had given a price to me earlier, through Marshall Walker, and I wanted to know if his offer was still good and on the table; his reply was in the affirmative. I quickly put another package together, with my scale drawings, my elevations, the three dimensional drawings, the ideas for the different spaces, choices, etc.. This package was identical to the one I had given to O.R. eighteen months earlier, and the same one I had (inadvertently) given S.C. to use when he made the changes on O.R.'s plans! Not!
In the meantime, in the middle of a senior week (not to be confused with senior moment) I discover that I had left that 2nd package of material with Marshall Walker who in turn had given it to S.C.. You won't believe what I found out when I called S.C. to get my "package" back, he had left the refusal letter, the plans, my notes, everything, with O.R.. Back in the enemy camp; hmmmm I thought to myself "you don't suppose?". The next morning I went to the DPNR again, in Fredricksted, just to quell a feeling that I had about the plans. I inquired if my plans had been approved, which as far as I knew at that point, hadn't even been resubmitted; certainly not by S.C.! She disppeared around the corner and I didn't see her for a few moments, when she returned, she motioned that I should go out back and speak to Mr. Thomas, the Authority Having Jurisiciton, or staff engineer. Mr Thomas, much to my amazement, had a new set of drawings, from O.R., which had been resubmitted for his OK, by O.R. himself! Problem was, these plans weren't going to get approved either. O.R. hadn't made a single change to the prints, he had scribbled some notes in the margins and sent them back into the flames. Worthless Mr. Thomas said, worhtless! He seemed befuddled as to O.R.'s behavior, but I wasn't surprised in the least.
I told Mt. Thomas that I had hired CAPE Associates to redraw the plans and that when they were ready, I would resubmit them. He mentioned that he had spoken with John Boucher earlier and was now "in the loop" with what I was intending to do. The old plans were to be destroyed; this dictate imposed upon myself.
So we waited for John Boucher and Peter Roka, over the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend, where Peter Roka was getting married on the Friday after the feast, and John Boucher off to the "Continent" generally, Florida in-particular, for the holiday.
We endured the weekend and the week following, when Peter Roka took his new bride on a cruise, out of San Juan I think, for a one week honeymoon! I sent John an email on the Friday preceding Peter's return, asking him for an update on the condition of our plans. By the next Thursday, one month after giving the package over to them, Peter and John had our plans engineered, drawn and quartered (actually I will leave the quartering for O.R.) in less than four weeks time. I turned them in as soon as the DPNR office opened on Friday morning. Ms. Guadaloupe was there, as was Mr. Thomas, when I pushed the plans and application under the glass partition. That was at eight in the morning, in the middle of the afternoon, around 2:30 I think, when Debbie and I had just returned from the beach and we took a message off the answering machine, our plans had been approved and we could pick the Building Permit up anytime. You should have heard the applause!
Next comes the building permit and, if you remember where I left off, the draftsperson who couldn't? I will call him O.R. and I have a craftier name for him which I will not divulge in this writ, but please feel free to use your imagination - in copious amounts!
I was so disgusted with this person that I didn't want to deal with him again, for anything related to my house plans. In that vein, I pursued another draftsperson to make the necessary changes.
Remember the points that Debbie and I had debated over for months? I drafted the plans myself in a very simple CAD (Computer Assisted Design) software program which I purchased from Staples for under fifty dollars. Initially I had sent O.R down a full set of particulars for my house, the floor plans and elevation plans in 1/8" = 1-0" scale, I even had notes about the methods and materials we were planning to use, plumbing specifications, roofing material detail, cistern plans, everything! I tried to cover all the bases of the design and tried to convey as much as possible to him, in the hope he could "weave" my needs into his thought process - fat chance! But I'll move on....
When we came down in June of 2005, we weren't even sure that the plans were completed until we met our builder that morning in The Golden Rail, a small eatery on the St. Croix harbor waterfront. Right next to the restaurant is St. Croix Marine, as you can guess from the name, a marina for the many boats that ply the azure blue Caribbean waters. I looked over the plan set as Arnold Jeffers and I were conversing about the project. When I first looked at the plans I noticed a porch running the length of the north wall. The porch, or gallery as they call them here, wasn't specified on my plans! I looked at the elevation plans, where the roof pitch was lowered to 4" in twelve instead of the 6' in twelve I had specified. The bathroom closet was so long in the master suite you couldn't get around the vanity sink, which was now six inches away. I notice the french door that was supposed to be installed in the east wall of the best guest bedroom, to provide a private entrance for guests. He moved it to the laundry area, and gave us a back door, not eleven feet from the front door! The elevation of the house was raised by two feet, this was clearly not the house I had designed and fretted over, this was his house. I asked Arnold if O.R. would like this as his own house, since it didn't look at all like my house!
After I left the DPNR desk that afternoon in November, just three days on the Island, I went to several people asking for help getting these plans changed for a new building permit application.
I spoke with Marshall Walker, owner and President of St. Croix Surveying & Engineering, Marshall helped us out by doing a topographical study of our plot for the building permitting department a year earlier. Marshall also offered design help from a colleague of his, which I refused since Arnold Jeffers had been so sure that he could get O.R. to do the drafting for us and get it done for less money.
Marshall offered the services of another former employee of his, one person whom I shall call simply "S.C.", and I do mean simply. Marshall offered that S.C. could talk to O.R. and get back the original vellums, or onion sheets as they are sometimes called. Vellum is a draftperson's medium or drawing surface choice for doing architectural pencil drawings the old fashioned way (compared to CAD). S.C. would then alter the drawings, with an eraser on the vellums, make the necessary changes and send them to the printer for production of construction drawings for permitting as well as to provide details for actually building the house. I would prefer to have a full set of correct drawings instead of a the old set with changes marked in red ink on the jobsite planset. His solution was not acceptable to me. I wanted a set of correct drawings for everyone to use that were exactly what was being built instead of a set of incorrect drawings that weren't even close to the end product!
While waiting for S.C. to respond to an all-Island search (mouth to mouth) Marshall Walker had a visitor in his office looking at some other work, in which the two of them were involved. Enter John Boucher of C.A.P.E. Associates (Caribbean Architects Planners and Engineers) John and his colleague Peter Roka would later save the day for the Harrisons, but I was still listening to hear a peep out of S.C..
Peter and John were both professionals, engineer and architect, and as a result of this were considerably more expensive than S.C.. John Boucher told Marshall a figure which is one he gives out only occasionally, but since they were idle and looking for new clients.. ..they were offering their services at a cut rate. I should mention here that although some will simply draw the plans for you and then disappear, most architects work on commission basis, or a percentage of the job cost. Some demand 10% - 20 % for their services when in good times, and for the extra dollars they will oversee the construction phase of your home and be there to make crucial decisions (read: make changes) when necessary. Imagine if they screw up, and the builder is forced to charge extra to make a change or to alter the elements of a design, the architect gets a percentage of that too! Some deal, eh?
Anyway, S.C. returns from hibernation, or whereever he has been, and finally responds to Marshall Walker's messages. Sean says he will speak with O.R., whom he knows personally, get the vellums, make the erasures and changes and get them back to me. He is off to talk to O.R., I sit and wait for his reply. I hear nothing for a week or so and I call S.C. back. He says the best way to go about this is to let O.R. make the changes and re-submit the permit application. I calmly respond ( my quavering voice barely detectable) that the reason for his (S.C.) involvement is that I didn't want to deal with O.R., but this falls on deaf ears. I hang up the phone, still weeks behind already... and I am frustrated.
I call John Boucher of CAPE Associates, he agrees to meet me and look things over. He had given a price to me earlier, through Marshall Walker, and I wanted to know if his offer was still good and on the table; his reply was in the affirmative. I quickly put another package together, with my scale drawings, my elevations, the three dimensional drawings, the ideas for the different spaces, choices, etc.. This package was identical to the one I had given to O.R. eighteen months earlier, and the same one I had (inadvertently) given S.C. to use when he made the changes on O.R.'s plans! Not!
In the meantime, in the middle of a senior week (not to be confused with senior moment) I discover that I had left that 2nd package of material with Marshall Walker who in turn had given it to S.C.. You won't believe what I found out when I called S.C. to get my "package" back, he had left the refusal letter, the plans, my notes, everything, with O.R.. Back in the enemy camp; hmmmm I thought to myself "you don't suppose?". The next morning I went to the DPNR again, in Fredricksted, just to quell a feeling that I had about the plans. I inquired if my plans had been approved, which as far as I knew at that point, hadn't even been resubmitted; certainly not by S.C.! She disppeared around the corner and I didn't see her for a few moments, when she returned, she motioned that I should go out back and speak to Mr. Thomas, the Authority Having Jurisiciton, or staff engineer. Mr Thomas, much to my amazement, had a new set of drawings, from O.R., which had been resubmitted for his OK, by O.R. himself! Problem was, these plans weren't going to get approved either. O.R. hadn't made a single change to the prints, he had scribbled some notes in the margins and sent them back into the flames. Worthless Mr. Thomas said, worhtless! He seemed befuddled as to O.R.'s behavior, but I wasn't surprised in the least.
I told Mt. Thomas that I had hired CAPE Associates to redraw the plans and that when they were ready, I would resubmit them. He mentioned that he had spoken with John Boucher earlier and was now "in the loop" with what I was intending to do. The old plans were to be destroyed; this dictate imposed upon myself.
So we waited for John Boucher and Peter Roka, over the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend, where Peter Roka was getting married on the Friday after the feast, and John Boucher off to the "Continent" generally, Florida in-particular, for the holiday.
We endured the weekend and the week following, when Peter Roka took his new bride on a cruise, out of San Juan I think, for a one week honeymoon! I sent John an email on the Friday preceding Peter's return, asking him for an update on the condition of our plans. By the next Thursday, one month after giving the package over to them, Peter and John had our plans engineered, drawn and quartered (actually I will leave the quartering for O.R.) in less than four weeks time. I turned them in as soon as the DPNR office opened on Friday morning. Ms. Guadaloupe was there, as was Mr. Thomas, when I pushed the plans and application under the glass partition. That was at eight in the morning, in the middle of the afternoon, around 2:30 I think, when Debbie and I had just returned from the beach and we took a message off the answering machine, our plans had been approved and we could pick the Building Permit up anytime. You should have heard the applause!
posted by David at 12:32 PM
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