[Cob] professional builders and permits

[Mary Lou McFarland]

I've spent the last couple of days re-reading Rob Roy's book "Mortgage Free" 
and there's an interesting appendix in back that does a comparison of the 
families who were examples in the book.  Different building methods were 
used, different financial strategies but it struck me that not one of the 
families said that they had had trouble with permits.  One guy said he had 
not had trouble because he had declared himself an "owner-builder" which 
apparently they aren't  as hard on as they are for commercial  building or 
if the bank is going to be involved.  You also have to remember that these 
county guys are at the bottom of the barrel.  They went to engineering 
school and they aren't building sky scrapers.  One county engineer that I 
visited with talked with gave me a list of septic system contractors and 
told me that they usually run $6,000 to $10,000. depending on site 
difficulties.....OR.....I could install it myself if he came out and visited 
several times to make sure everything was going together okay.  We can 
forego a lot of the "professional" builders if we make the co. engineer our 
buddy.  He is also a wealth of information for local resources.  He might of 
grown up in the area.  He can tell you what guy in the area does hauling , 
who has straw for sale etc.  Now getting past their secretaries is another 
matter.  Those women are real pills.  Perhaps we will have to put together a 
united front and the guys will have to handle the secretaries and the gals 
will have to handle the engineers.  Besides the engineers can let us know if 
we are proceeding safely, for those who are concerned on that score, and we 
can avoid being ripped off by  the professional who thinks he knows 
everything by virtue of having hung out a shingle.

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