Some years ago, perhaps 20, good friends of mine designed and built one of the most magnificent buildings I've ever seen. This was in a very remote and mountanous region in Western Washington. He, of "Her and Him", is an artist, as in wood sculpter. When he applied for the required building permit, the county building department just shook their heads and said something like: "It can't be done."

My friends perservered, WITHOUT having to hire an expensive structural engineer. They did several things, one of which was to build a scale model of the building, and they ALSO got to know their local building inspector. (this scale model itself was a piece of art).

When push came to shove, they got the permit BECAUSE the local inspector not only vouched for the safety of the proposed project, but he himself signed on as one of the volunteers to help build it. True story!

For many years I dreamed about owning that building some day, but it never happened. As I said earlier, there are inspectors, and then there are inspectors. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson