Oh my goodness you have no idea how happy I am to report this….

Spent 3 very difficult hours down at the records office at the city, where it took 2 people to eventually help me find all the records on this house. They werent where they were supposed to be and if it werent for the second woman helping me I may never have found them. Turns out the original owner got permits for just about everything, including the addition! My contractor and I met with the inspector this morning and he actually approved most of the permit documentation I presented! His interpretation is allowing the addition AND the patio as permitted…the only sticking point is the wall that was put up in the kitchen to create the back third bedroom, so we’re modifying our current project plans to permit that wall…but since it’s not load bearing he doesnt think it’ll be an issue, just poking a hole to make sure the electricity in it is ok. He said he wouldnt even make us insulate any of it because it was previously approved without insulation (although of course he recommends insulating anyway, which we may do in the future when we have more money). He’s still making us lower the master bedroom window by an inch so it’s to code, which is just ridiculous, but we don’t have a choice on that. After that we should be free of all this mess. Thanks for all your help and comments! I had Ian the Permit Pro over and he was actually very helpful and knowledgeable, but I’m not sad to say that I didnt need his full services of re-building the entire back half of my house! Maybe now we can get some sleep and stop crying, ugh.