With rare exceptions, the "finished" basements I'd run into when I was a real estate broker were abominably done and with no permits. The Vendor would place a statement in the offer that there was no warranty of legal status for use or construction. Practices will vary by jurisdiction. But I would try for a waiver on the height and correct the other violations. This post was edited by worthy on Wed, Apr 24, 13 at 9:46

Thanks y'all. There are two issues with proper slab installation. One is that silly flange in the back that was supposed to be closer to the wall. I suppose a good fabricator could rout out a chunk of slab so it could sit in front of it without adding too much depth to the slab. There's a difference between floating out a slab and totally flooding it out...or it could probably be removed with lots of smoke and mess. The other issue is that the hood is mounted from the underside of the cabinet, not the front, so if I ever want to get it out, I can't slab up to the base of it. It goes all the way to the wall, and even if I decide to make it a permanent unremovable feature which would probably be OK, slab-to-the-top would cover functional hood parts. A little bit of not measuring stuff very well there! I have 3 things in the kitchen that need the stone, and since it's a small kitchen, I want to do them with the same material: baking counter, backsplash on one side (the entire area in the picture above--originally planned full height but I think it's gonna have to shrink), and a windowsill/apron. I could do a marble tile behind the cooktop, or a combination slab/tile, and just do slab on the counter. It seems like marble tiles can be found to go with the more common slabs. That might be the way to go, although I'll have grout lines (eek). (Am I allowed to put up marble and complain about...GROUT?) Tiles of course are much thinner than slabs. Or...I see why it might be bad to dangle a slab stud-to-stud, but maybe I could replace the drywall with thinner drywall? I think I'm making this too hard. Pink Corian rocks!

What the "architect" meant was that without a bank involved it is more likely that you would be able to get away without getting a building permit. Of course, the GC and his subs would have to perform work without a permit too and you would also be assuming your neighbors were OK with it. In my experience they will be out at first light looking for the permit. I would be looking up the "architect" in the online state database to see if her license was active. Ironically, she doesn't need to be licensed to design a house but a suspended license is a big red flag. She might also be pretending to be an architect because, after all, if you don't have to stamp the drawings, who would know?" The upside of a fake architect is that they usually can't use the courts to collect their fees after you fire them.

Leave sleeping dogs lie. Garages are not habitable space. The municipality you live in will have required minimum standards for covered off-street parking. Should the wall impede that, do you really want to remove it. Creating a separate enclosed space has required light and ventilation requirements, do you meet them.