After months of planning, and months and months of waiting, the construction process has begun.

Well, almost.

I went down to the municipality offices this week and secured our various permits. We can officially put shovel into earth anytime we're ready to start.

There's just the matter of choosing our builder ...

True, I did say last week that we would have that figured out by now, but we were hamstrung by the D-word ... delay.

One builder finalist managed to get us a quote rather quickly -- last week, in fact. We're waiting for the other two to finish up so we have something to compare with.

While we were waiting for the other two, I went ahead and called five of the first finalist's references. All were glowing, so that was encouraging. Once we've met with the last two finalists, we'll be able to make our decision.

And now that we have our permits in hand, we can kick it up a notch once we decide.

The permits outline exactly what must be done in order to pass inspection. And the people from the municipality will be checking our house out often.

They will be making frequent visits to the work-site to ensure proper construction practices are being used from start to finish.

In fact, they will actually be coming to the site 10 times during construction.

In short, they will be inspecting the:

• Footings, pile excavation and forming before concrete placement;
• Basement wall steel and forming before concrete placement;\\
• Grade beam steel and forming before concrete placement;
• Outside drain tile, stone and sump kit;
• Inside drain tile and damp-proofing prior to backfill;
• Radon seal before concrete placement;
• Framing and insulation/vapour barrier prior to drywall;
• Rough plumbing including water lines, which may require testing;
• Heating installation;
• And final inspection prior to occupancy.

That inspector will be kept hopping.

Another part of the permit process is putting a deposit down for grading.

Basically, we give the municipality $1,000 to ensure we complete the proper grading after construction. Once the building inspector is satisfied with construction and grading, we get our money back. Call it the construction-practice insurance policy.

The municipality also made some notes on our construction drawings, things that must be done during construction in order to pass inspection.

BUILDING CODE

They want us to do a half-dozen things not specified on our drawings to ensure we cover the building code. The last thing they want is for us to have to go back and do something over again (actually, that's probably the last thing we want, as well ...).

We also have to provide a ventilation design summary before the heating and cooling system is installed so they know we will meet code.

It may seem like a lot of red tape to cut through, but doing things by the book likely means we will not have any serious problems to deal with down the road.

I'm thinking it's a reasonable price to pay for long-term peace of mind.

I almost forgot the most important part of our permit package -- the permit itself.

It's a thick piece of cardboard with our permit number and names on it, and it says that our plan has been approved. Interestingly, it also says that itmust be posted in a conspicuous place on the premises before work is commenced and so maintained until work is completed ... While not one to thumb my nose at authority, I did chuckle over that line. Until we have some measure of construction, where will the builder display it?

For fear of poking the Jinx beast with a pointed stick, I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that, by this time next week, we'll have the stakes in the ground and the trees cleared from the construction area.

There, I said it ... what are you going to do about it, Jinxy?