The inspection report from the city arrived last week. Nothing too surprising: permits for the unpermitted work in the kitchen and the bathroom are necessary. The kitchen needs about 6 more circuits pulled in from the breaker panel — this probably means needing a bigger panel. Also, and this is the kicker, at least half of a kitchen’s lighting (by wattage) has to be fluorescent. Right now there are 8 or 10 4″ low voltage halogens (on a dimmer) around the perimeter that look really great when dimmed — to add the same amount of wattage in fluorescent would be an enormous (enormous!) fixture above the island. So it’s back to the drawing board for the lighting in that room. I’ve heard good things about fluorescents these days, so I’m not too concerned.
The lighting in the bathroom can stay incandescent, as long as a motion sensor is installed. Some of these codes are getting a little wacky if you ask me. The bathroom will require opening a hole in the hallway for the plumbing inspector, and perhaps another hole down low in a different wall to show that the shower pan exists and is of the right material. Which isn’t too bad, because I needed to hack into that wall for something else already.
The standard water heater installed in the garage needs about 10 things done to it (bollards to protect it from cars, straps to keep it from falling over, spacers to keep it away from the wall, the list goes on …) so I think I might just replace it with a Tagaki tankless and be done with it. I keep hearing how tankless is the way to go, anyway. No running out of hot water!
Other items: many of the unit’s outlets are ungrounded and/or wired incorrectly. Nothing too major.
I got an estimate from a contractor who’s done lots of condo conversions, so I feel like I’m in good hands.
