From what I've seen, policies regarding the length of open building permits really varies according to location. We completed our retirement house a little over a year ago- after 4 long complicated years of building, and our contractor managed to keep our building permit open for the entire 4 years. In that county ( in southwest Florida), a building permit was good for six months, but it could be renewed either by scheduling and going through an inspection, or by paying the county for another six month extension. At the time, there was no limit on the length of time the permit was open ( I think they may have changed things and there is a one year limit now). As long as the building permit was open, the building codes in effect when it was first issued applied to the building. If the permit was allowed to expire, the builder had to apply for a new one, resubmit the plans for approval one more time, and the codes in effect at this later time would apply. I think it's pretty standard policy that any item approved by the county under an existing permit cannot be "unapproved" later on in the event of building code changes. So I'd imagine an evaporation pond approved under a previous permit is safe regardless of how much current inspectors might hate it or how environmentally "unfriendly" county bureaucrats might regard such a device, LOL. That is, hopefully, if there was a final inspection to "close out" the permit for that project. The final inspection "closes out" the permit, ie, the inspector/county signing off that the work has been completed in a workmanship-like manner, meets current standards and codes, etc. Without that final inspection, the permit remains open, expires sooner or later, and the work done under this permit is considered uncompleted. THIS type of scenario is what subjects a homeowner to problems sooner or later, ie, fines, additional inspections and the possibility to being required to tear down the construction, and rebuild according to building codes in effect that the time the open permit is discovered. This situation has occurred in our area where county building and zoning employees discovered that several townhouse and condo developments built after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 were built without the additional hurricane protection ( no hurricane straps on trusses, rebar reinforcement in the outside walls, attachment of tie beam to outside walls) required by more stringent building codes put into effect after 1992. Apparently these dwellings also had open permits that had never been completed, this was discovered about 10 years after the building was finished. The homeowners living in these places at the time this was discovered had no idea these problems existed, but they were still held responsible by the county to make the required fixes. Most of these folks didn't have the money to make these fixes, had their homeowners' insurance policies canceled, couldn't get new insurance and couldn't sell their homes either. The last I heard, they were suing the builder ( well known mass production builder I won't name), the owners at the time of said company ( a large theme park whose name I won't mention either), and maybe the county for not catching these deficiencies during the building process. The builder and theme park both disavowed responsibility for these problems, but I don't know what the outcome finally was. I wouldn't skip a final inspection, and getting that CEO....

Hi, juniork, thanks for your compliments about our "sites"! We actually were referred to our home/plan designer by a general contractor who was an acquaintance of ours. What we liked about our designer was his laid-back personality and the fact that he was very easy to work with. We also really wanted someone who would let us design the home ourselves and who had the experience and knowledge to provide us with input and guidance on layout and flow, so he fit our needs perfectly. I know what you mean about the *cost* of building in the Bay Area, but one thing that has helped us with our budget is that we don't limit our bids to contractors/vendors that are located in the immediate vicinity of where we're building. You can see where our team members are from on the "team" page on our site, but I'd say so far it's 50/50 between local and out-of-area. Anyway, I'd love to share my resources with you, so please feel free to contact me either through my GW page or through my website: Here is a link that might be useful: Send me an instant message through VineyardAvenue.com

Thanks everyone! Now the fun begins. Digging starts today. It is a race against winter. Babies are definately exciting. My wife has not been feeling well at all, which is not fun. It also leaves me with a ton on my plate. I get a 2.5 yr old to take care, trying to keep the house decent, we just started a new year of school and my class is almost double what it was last year, and now I am building a house. I think I can see the hair turning gray daily. We are pretty far north of the moonlight fire (75 miles), but are feeling the effects smoke wise. Yesterday was a lot better than the last three days. It was like it was overcast, but you could taste the smoke. kats - it is amazing the power the FD can have. Our fire board hired a chief 2 yrs ago that had been fired from his last three chief's jobs. Smart huh! His practices pretty much halted growth. He made regulations that were much stricter than county code, such as needing 20ft wide driveways, super high flow looped hydrants, paved drives, ect. He also tried to implement a mello-roos district. The board backed him the whole way. It was ugly but we fought it and won. We now have a new chief and a reeling board (who will most likely be recalled). thanks again for the encouragement. I had some family and friends who have not made it up here request a video tour of our property. I now just need to edit it small enough to get it online. I will share when I am finished.

It's a great feelling....hold on tight though....won't be long til you're topping off your foundation....I got out to the lot this morning to see us all stocked sand block brick and mortar for our crawl space.....foreman says they'll be done next Wednesday!