Stop in the Name of the Law!

Everything was rockin’ along last week. 

The masons continued their work on the fireplaces,

the low voltage guys got things wound up for the inspection,

the framers continued putting up the fascia,

Builder Gary’s faithful sidekicks boxed in the gas fireplace in the living room,

the roofers came and put down a  layer of felt paper,

and the guys from Wolf Lightning protection brought out scads of thick copper rope:

which they fastened along the ridge poles,

with lightning rods going out through the roof.

They pulled the wire (rope) down the end walls and fastened along the eaves,

down the walls of the house,

and out at ground level

like a little pig tail in to the yard,

where it will be tied into a buried loop of copper wire.

Take that, lightning!

Anyway, this was the scene when the electrical inspector came out to inspect the rough in electrical and low voltage.  This was the scene that he tried to alter by dropping a stop work order on us.

I was off at the flower show and came back just as the dust cloud was dissipating.

Apparently, the electrical inspector wasn’t aware that the electrician had pulled a low voltage permit.  Then when he saw the lightning protection going on, he demanded to see the Georgia license of the lightning guy.  The lightning guy does work all over the world and has an international license.  Therefore he doesn’t need a Georgia license, right?

Not according to the electrical inspector.  The inspector’s supervisor told the lightning guy that the international license was fine, but at this point the inspector was on a roll.   He dropped a stop work order on the build and threatened to haul the lightning guy off to jail.

Gary talked him into letting the masons and the framers continue their work and just stopping the lightning protection and any further low or high voltage wiring.

So there we stood at 2 PM on a beautiful sunny Friday needing to finish the lightning protection.  I wanted them to keep working.  Builder Gary didn’t want to have to spend the evening collecting bail for the lightning guy.

I asked to see the inspector’s card.  Not much information there:

The flip side didn’t even show which inspector came out,

But my money’s on ol’ Colin.  Just sayin’….

One nugget of information that the card did reveal was the name and cell number of the supervisor inspector.  I called him.  Builder Gary ran away.  He doesn’t trust me to mind my manners.  I merely put on my blonde wig and asked the supervisor to explain what had happened.  He told me that it was a mistake. He was lifting the stop work order and we could keep on stringing copper cable.

Whew!   Back to work they went and finished up the lightning job.

Then on Saturday, the plumbers came out with little jackets.  You see the rough in plumbing failed its inspection, because the recirculating hot water pipes didn’t dress properly.  Apparently it was a black tie affair and a black jacket was de rigueur.

So, they came back down and dressed all the recirculating pipes according to code.   A dress code for plumbing pipes. Who knew?

I can’t wait for more fun with inspectors next week.

And just in case, does anyone know the name of a reliable bail bondman?