Walter Gilbert, my hero

The past few weeks have included a brief scare, a surprisingly easy resolution, and attainment of our first big goal: a building permit from the city.

The scare happened when Nelson went in the first time to get a permit. He was shot down on several fronts, which I've heard is typical, but which was still unnerving to us novices.

The most worrisome situation was the inspector's comment that we couldn't add one step to the basement stairs, necessary to get the back entry up off ground level, without bringing all the stairs up to code. Also, we had to make sure there was a certain amount of headroom all along the stairs -- I believe the standard is 6' 6".

Can you imagine tearing out all the stairs from a finished basement with a very small landing at the bottom, and re-building them? (Where would you put them?) Or trying to find additional headroom for stairs that are situated under OTHER stairs? It sounded like a problem that would eventually unravel our entire house, like a giant sweater.

Fortunately, Cathee, our architect, swooped over with a tape measure and encouraging words. (There's a great deal to be said for an architect who's not only amazing at what she does, but also calls you "Hon" just when you need to hear it the most.)

She immediately confirmed her previous discovery that the stairs were ALREADY UP TO CODE, and there was ALREADY ENOUGH HEAD ROOM, something of a rarity for basement stairs in houses this age. And for that, we have Walter Gilbert to thank.

Walter was a homebuilder in Des Moines in the 1930s and 40s. In 1939, he built our house for his own family, and lived there with his wife, Hilda, until he sold it after her death in the 1950s. (What? Don't you read your abstract?)

Anyway, Walter used our basement family room (now home to Will's Beatles Rock Band parties) for his office. That explains why we have daylight windows, extra-nice knotty pine paneling (with dentil molding, believe it or not) and stairs that meet code, even in 2009. (It may also have something to do with the nifty automatic light in the front entry closet.)

So after Cathee did a whole lot of additional drawings and elevations and Nelson jumped through a few more hoops, we are now the proud owners of an official building permit. (Actually, it's our second permit -- we also got one for the basement kitchen.)

Next up: digging holes and pouring footings for two new foundations. The holes are underway, and I'll post a picture soon.

Meanwhile, the upstairs kitchen is still fully functional, and will be until the two additions are framed up and sealed. That's when we'll experience full-scale demolition inside the house--but not until then. As Nelson said, "I'm not going to ruin your life until I have to."

P.S. A special thank-you and shout-out to neighbor Kathy, who was most reassuring during the permit scare, and the several friends who prodded me to write another entry--I know it's been a while. As Lynn said, "I am tired of ogees!"