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....

My birthday is last day of March. Except it's not going to be a birthday, it's going to be the 21st Anniversary of my 39th birthday. My DD came up with the wish list thing a few years ago too, love that idea. No more things I don't want or buying same for rest of family. I can't wait for my first trip to Home Goods as part of my birthday present. Oh, Luvs, I just got the Christy Carter book! Of course got it myself but it's sure neat. Happy Weekend to all you DishNuts. Karen

Aznative (so am I), You pool design looks very nice. The entry area cofuses me, though. Now, please correct me if I'm interpreting your plan wrong. It looks like if you step off the right side of the top step, it's 12". Perfect. But, if you step off the left side, it's 18"? That's one big step and I'm not sure people would be expecting that. So, if that's the case your baja/sun shelf is actually deeper toward the shallow end of the pool than it is at the deep end. It also looks like you have 12" deep steps on each end of the shelf? And the one at 24" is then going into nearly 8' of water? Those are my concerns w/ that part of the pool. The second thing I noticed is that it's a long way from your entry to the shallowest part of the pool. I don't know how old the kids are that will be using the pool but that would not be something I would be comfortable w/. What I would consider doing (if it were my pool) is putting a set of entry steps at the shallow end where you would expect them to be. I know that would mean changing your 2' raised area. But, I wouldn't put that at the shallow end, anyway. It will just encourage the kids to jump from there. Then I would just make your sunshelf area just that. I like the 12-18" slope. Basically just cut off those exit steps. If you didn't want to get rid of the raised area -- I wouldn't want to -- maybe flip the pool and put the deep end down there. That would make a great jumping area into 8'. That's just my opinion on how I would change things. Only you know what will work for you. Oh, another thing, have you looked at Artistic Pavers? We just installed our over the weekend and I think they are going to be incredibly cool. Our high was 90 degrees yesterday and the pavers were still quite cool. After the sun went down they were cold. They were nowhere near as warm as our Kooldeck would have been at our last house. Mindy

I don't think the city has any way to grant a conditional variance though. So once they approve the window--if they hypothetically do--it's permanent and they have no authority to require you or any future owners to seal it up. At least that's what I would expect. I don't know about joining the two parcels. Some cities prefer lower density, others higher density. I think if you can join the two parcels into in one there would be no need for a variance? You could call the city to ask the procedure for joining parcels. Or consult an attorney. Joining the parcels would make it difficult or maybe impossible to ever re-split them, which might be a problem down the road. It would keep you from being able to sell that adjacent lot even if you find yourself in need of the cash. I don't know what it would do to your property taxes. I also don't know how it would effect your mortgage, assuming you have one. Before deciding to join the parcels, I think I'd talk to an attorney to make sure I understood all the ramifications.