Diary of an Innkeeper

A couple of months ago George came to me with the idea of renovating our garage at the inn to include two more rooms. Our garage consisted of the front 2/3 as George's workshop and the back 1/3 as our Suite. George said he could take the empty space and make a small workshop, a storage room and two brand new rooms and it wouldn't cost us a crazy amount of money since the building is already there. Ok, I said, but I asked, "Is there anything that could go wrong?" What could go wrong? "Any chance that we would have to change the septic or the well??" No, of course not, it's just some 2x4's and some sheetrock. What could go wrong? "Are you sure?" Yeah, I'm sure. "Anything else that you could think of that the building inspector might say we would need? Anything?" Nope. "You sure?" Yes, I'm sure, as he grabbed his drill and nail gun and headed towards the garage.

Every year George seems to come up with a project. Last year was the baseball field. Yep, that was going to be an easy one too. And not cost a lot of money either. Well he was wrong on that one. After about two weeks of a bulldozer leveling and pushing dirt around, I finally just screamed, "Make them stop!! It's level enough! The Yankees aren't coming to play in our backyard!"

So back to the these two rooms....that weren't going to be a problem. He framed the rooms, installed the plumbing, installed the electricity, installed the doors/windows, renovated the exterior. It looked great. Now, at this point, he needs it to be inspected so he goes for the permit. This, he probably should have done first. After reviewing the permit application, the inspector informed George that all new temporary residence construction requires a sprinkler system. What? A sprinkler what? Really? This isn't the Best Western. Oh, that doesn't sound cheap!! And it's not!!! The estimated cost - $25,000 and likely to be much more because we would need a holding tank for the water since we are on a well. Just shoot me.

So now George can't continue working on the rooms until he gets a variance or a set of plans for the sprinkler system. Since we have to wait a month or so for the variance, George decides to also get the sprinkler plans. I immediately ran for my iPhone. George said, what are you doing? I said, "There's gotta be an app for that." But there wasn't. And plans aren't free! First estimate - $2500! Luckily, there's the internet. Chad, from Arizona, was willing to do it for $400.

Now think about these rooms - on the ground floor with an outside door on one side of the room and an escape window on the other side, no cooking capabilities, non-smoking, and the fire department is three buildings away from us. If there was a fire, the sprinkler system isn't what's going to save someone's life, walking the 10 ft. out the door is!

We've applied for a variance and are waiting to hear from the state to see what they decide. The local fire chief even wrote a letter stating that he thought the sprinkler system in these two rooms wasn't needed. So here we wait, with our fingers crossed, hoping, praying! For that letter that says we won the lottery. I mean, that our variance went through. And if it doesn't, maybe we will win the lottery. To help pay for this little tiny renovation that wasn't going to have any problems.

But, as the saying goes - What could possibly go wrong?