Inspections Trial Run

The City of Raleigh inspections are like our final exams for the property. In order to get an occupancy permit, we need to be cleared by the electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire, landscaping, and building inspectors. All of these inspectors are in great demand. In fact, the city is in the process of equipping all their inspectors to work full-time out of their cars so they don't even need to be in an office.

The Inspections Director for the City of Raleigh, Gene Ellis, and the Inspections Administrator, Curt Willis, agreed to meet with us this past week. We explained our need to start school on September 9th and asked for their advice on what we could do to minimize the chance that a last-minute failed inspection would threaten that goal. Gene and Curt were very supportive and encouraging and gave us some good advice at that meeting. The following day, Curt arranged for us to meet with several of the head inspectors on site to give us advice on their inspections. This was a great help, because the fire inspector alone noticed a mistake in the smoke detector placements in several rooms that will take several days to fix. The manufacturer is already correcting the problem now, so it won't bite us when we have our real fire inspection next week. We also got some good advice from the plumbing and electrical inspectors that will save us valuable time. Having the support of Gene and Curt and their department is a huge blessing that is already bringing us much closer to meeting our September 9th target.