(To mix metaphors in games of chance)
After having a seemingly unnecessarily long period of big fat NOTHING from the City of Chicago Department of Buildings, and looking at the extended forecast for Chicago on a daily basis, I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I was crawling out of my skin.
’Don’t grip too hard’ I kept telling myself. Relax your frame, while not turning into spaghetti, let the music take you, I would remind myself.
Well, in terms of getting my building permit, the odds were in my favor, as we had passed everything except the final ‘Arch & Fire’, and were waiting to resubmit our certified corrections to the structural department, and then only had to offer our contractors (who had been researched and found to be in-line with the DOB needs) for the final approval, and it was less than 2 weeks from Christmas. We were looking down the barrel of a few weeks with mild weather, and I was feeling lucky.
I made some necessary calls to get some of the team on deck for the first moves, just hoping that my bet would pay off.
Demo (independently permitted) was scheduled for Wednesday, December 15. The steel guys were told to pull stock, the bricks were researched, decided upon and ordered, the brick guy was told to get his team ready for some coveted ~winter work~.
I was going to WILL this permit into being, after nearing 8 months of it sitting in inboxes with the DOB. December 13 Arch & Fire were approved, opening the door for the submission of our structural revisions to be approved and the submission of our contractors. 11 days till Christmas eve.
Contractors were submitted after having been located and their requirements verified. But wait! One came back- the project manager couldn’t find him in the system. He WAS IN the system, and I had a picture of his tradesman card to prove that he was who he was and had what it took. It’s 4:45pm on Tuesday December 14. T-minus 20 hours before the project was breaking ground. Demo is arriving at 1:30pm the following day. This HAD to go through.
I lit a candle.
7:30am on Wednesday December 15 we got word that the permit had been approved and issued. THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN’ ABOUT!
See Honky Tonk Diggers for what happened next.
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