Life's problems wouldn't be called hurdles if there wasn't a way to get over them.

It finally happened, we have our building permit!


Cue the trumpet, we are singing halleujah!


Grab your sweetheart and kiss them, victory has come.

With all approvals in, we can finally get some rest. (Yes, our dog Isabel gets on the bed, doesn't yours?)

Pick up a shovel or a hammer and come over to help us actually make a 2-dimensional dream into a 3-dimensional reality.


After many delays and getting caught up in the ugliness of Sage Homebuilders going out of business in a most ungentlemanly fashion, we are finally proud owners of a building permit.  Sometimes it felt like we were too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet, but after more than a year of planning we have only to wait for the weather to break.


City Hall offices can be dreary places to visit on a gray rainy day.  Plus I forgot to bring the checkbook to pay for our permit and had to return later.  But even though I was alone in the dark cave of bureaucracy, when the very nice people handed me our permit I felt spotlights come on.  Nobody seemed too thrilled, but I was ecstatic.  I wanted to cry like a starlet in pink chiffon with her first Oscar (by the way will someone please give Meryl Streep an Oscar for her role as Julia Child?)


In keeping with an award ceremony I will be brief, but must thank a large group of people and organizations who helped us make this possible.


Thanks go to:


The Lafayette Square Development Committee for being our partners and neighbors.


Jeff Day and Associates Architects for having excellent drawing skills and an even better eraser.


The Cultural Resources Office of the City of St. Louis who were the right people to put us on the right path.


Kacie Starr Triplett our 6th ward alderwoman, who personifies the best actions government can achieve, helpfulness to its citizens.


And finally, but most certainly not least, we want to thank someone whom we will be thanking many times more in the future, a man who was willing to wait for us, our new builder, Jason Walters of Stylecraft Homes.

Now we just have to relax and remember that the only thing which has to be done by next Tuesday is next Monday.




Onward and upward,
Mark, Mark and Isabel