Current Permitting Process with Janyce Myrland

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Who is Janyce Myrland?

Janyce Myrland was originally from the East Coast and now a long time resident of Oahu. She is the President and Designer at Dream House Drafting, Inc. and has provided design and drafting services to Hawaii customers for over twenty years. She is a graduate of New York City College of Technology and holds a degree in Design and Drafting Technology.

She has since added Aging In Place and Green Design certifications to her academic achievements. Her local design projects have included numerous residential remodels and a number of brand new homes. She prides herself on her ability to translate a client’s wishes into construction documents and believes that each person’s should be their castle.

Dream House Drafting was incorporated in 2006. Prior to that, Janyce Myrland was doing drafting and design on a freelance basis for homeowners and contractors. Due to the high level of inquiries from homeowners and Realtors regarding how to handle unpermitted construction, a sister company was created in 2012 that provides permit compliance inspections.

To reach Janyce, you may contact her in the following ways:
Phone: (808)206-7107
Email: designer@dreamhousedrafting.com
Website: https://dreamhousedrafting.com

Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the team Lally real estate show home of the guaranteed sold program. Well buy it. I’m Adrian and I’m Attilio. And if you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596 or check us out online at Team lally.com. Our guest today was originally from the east coast and in now a longtime resident of Oahu. She’s the president and designer at Dream House drafting Incorporated has provided design drafting services to our customers for over 20 years. Janice is a graduate of the New York City College technology and holds a degree in design and drafting technology. She has since added aging in place and green design certifications her academic achievements, her local design projects have included numerous residential remodels and a number of brand new homes. She prides herself on the ability to translate a client’s wishes into construction documents and believes that each person should be their castle. All right. Hi, welcome, Janice.

ATTILIO: 
Hi. What do you got for us? Thanks for having me. You’re very welcome back Yeah, welcome back. And you’ve been busy got us over the you know, over the over the years has been our go to source for if you need to get something permitted after the fact. Yeah, I actually just gave her information out last night to an agent Nice. Someone who had an unpermitted pool unpermitted pool here.

JANYCE: 
Thank you. That’s gonna be quite an issue.

ATTILIO: 
You know, Janice, what percentage of properties? I don’t want to hold you to that because it’s not like, it’s like every like. It’s like saying, How many people have unpaid parking tickets on a wall who nobody wants to admit that they have it. But we know they have them. So unpermitted structures on a wall, who if you had to guess what do you think?

JANYCE: 
Well, we had this conversation years ago, yeah. And we pretty much came up based on comments from building inspectors, etc, we were in the high 70 percentile at that time. But I have to tell you, that the speed at which things have slowed down to

for processing of permit applications, I personally have seen a number of people decide to cancel after paying all the money that they paid for architectural design and drafting to cancel permit applications. Because they were concerned about what would the supply chain costs up of charge be, by the time things got out of DPP, or even in worse scenarios, they were concerned because the modification that they were applying for was to take care of a family member with declining health. And so it was an aging in place remodeled to accommodate declining mobility, decline, dementia, etc. And they came to the realization that, you know, this is going to be

the grandma or grandpa might not be with us by the time DPP approves the permits. And that’s in addition to the fact that whoever is helping to care for them, may become injured in the process of doing so. So, I suspect they weren’t going to tell me but I suspect the work has been done. And I know, they were adamant. I tried to suggest we’ll keep the application going. And then you know, when it finally makes its way through, but I think they fear that perhaps, you know, the inspector might have issues with why is the work ongoing already. So that is on the increase? For sure. You know, we talk about it in our business every day that our coaching is to reduce friction in our business and it just seems like we I mean, we can i You hate to be the or I would want not want to be one of those right? You know, you we typically when you’re listening to talk radio, is everybody complaining about something but not really coming up with solutions. So it’s a lot of rhetoric. So what are your solution? If no, I mean to Janice, you’re in the in the trenches every day working down, there will be some top suggestions. Let’s just, you never know.

Yeah, director of the DPP. Maybe I just wrote her yesterday, got a nice response I gave her I just had to be honest, I’ve never worked for DPP and although I have been a frequent user of the digital upload II plans permit application

system, I only get to see it from the user side. I don’t know what they see or how easy or difficult it is for them to work with. I know that we try to make everything as clear as possible, then specific as possible that we upload. And that oddly, prescreen only used to take three days or so back in the day. But now that everything is required to be digital upload, pre screen is taking over five months for types. And that’s even five months. Is that what you just said, three to five months, but I think that we will have to remember that even up until December of 2021. A lot of people were still functioning and drawings on paper and submitting them. And come January 1 2022. It’s like, Nope, none of that’s accepted anymore. Yes. So it is a system that you must learn to work properly. And I don’t know, different people have different learning curve. But my things that I’ve observed is

one of the things that I mentioned to them was that if someone submits a revision,

that revisions are going into pre screened. And a revision would be someone asking to change something in the design, their permit was already approved. So that means you’re only submitting, what changed? And the question is, well, why does that have to go into pre screened because I’ve heard from others. And it appears to be true, that the pre clerkship and pre screened, do not have any other option, but to just the system throws whatever shows up on Tuesday, at the bottom of the pile, and everything else ahead of it, whether it’s a revision, whether it is a pre screen submission of an application, where some clerk objected to something, and one is back to the change made, it goes back to the bottom. So those were my two things that I was questioning, do revisions really have to go there? Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
vacation to the to the existing person that’s working on the file. It sounds like a Russian DMV. Oh,

then you go to the other line? Oh, you must go back to the original line. And then you go back to the original line? No, we are close today.

JANYCE: 
So yeah, I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I also know that, you know, if you I did get something sent back this year, from the free scream process. And to me, it was so minor. I was like, well, one, maybe we should give people some discretionary power. Yeah. I mean, it happened to be, quite literally my sheet legend where you say, there’s this many pages in this drawing package. There was one sheet not listed. And now when I think back, it’s because the customer added some more work that I had to clarify. So I had already finished that page. And I never updated it. And that was the only thing that they questioned why does your legend only have five pages? When your drawing package has six pages to me? If they were given discretionary power, they could make an they could have passed that on to a building examiner with a note saying By the way, the sheet legend is missing one line of a recording of that situation. She legend does not have correct number of pages, send it back.

ADRIENNE: 
So but I don’t know, you know, evidently they’re not allowed to do that. So there we are. Well, hopefully they’re listening. And they will make some adjustments. Oh, they already have that in writing from yesterday. The director and yeah, so let’s let’s move on to some of the things that you specialize in. Janice, I know that you’ve added some additional certifications to your already vast amount of things that you help homeowners with. So let’s let’s touch on these things that you can you can help clients with?

JANYCE: 
Well, I haven’t had the time to continue the green certification. It’s something that is of interest to me, but I just have the first level of that. On the other hand, I have added Universal Design in addition to the aging in place and redid aging in place via zoom during the pandemic, to see what updates there were and so basically what aging in place and universal design

AR is a concept that you can make your home accommodate you, your older relatives.

As time goes by, you don’t have to make it look institutional, you can make it very attractive, but let it be accommodating to perhaps, you know,

older like grandparents, aunties, uncles, etc. In sometimes very simple ways. And sometimes, you know, it needs to be solving a problem, like someone’s had a stroke, well, that’s a little bit more urgent, and we’re not so much looking at being aesthetically pleasing, we have an issue that must be handled, the primary areas where these things usually take place are in bathroom, and kitchen, and then changing your doorknobs styles can also help. But if you’re starting from scratch, and doing this as an addition, in widening hallways, is prudent. Also, yeah, you know, give some more tips on that if people are doing this remodeling, this call it the long term play the long term vision of the remodeling. If I want to stay in this home,

ATTILIO:
and bring in a nice good looking attendant to take care of me till my dying days. What should I do with those? Well, you put her in the ad, you put her in the ad, if you’re not going to have like a like in the kitchen, like a glass window that slides left and right and then like a lady like a nurse ratchet, who has all my pills every day and the window? Well, most people usually do not have a connection between the adu in the main house. And we are usually required if they are attached to specify that there was a fire separation because you must have that between units. But, you know, having the attendant live in the adu is something that someone had suggested in the past. That’s why I mentioned it. However,

JANYCE: 
in terms of what like for example, you can do Yeah, wider ways. How many inches would you say would be standard hallway is 36 inches, okay.

The minimum door size that can accommodate the smallest wheelchair, ideally should be like two foot eight adu requirements require three feet across, but most residential homes do not have three foot wide doors into bedrooms. And in some layouts, you know we have a hallway and a bunch of rooms accessing it may not be able to actually widen the doors. So planning ahead if it’s going to be an addition or a new home and making that hallway at least three and a half, maybe even four feet wide. That’s a big help.

In addition to that there are things like microwave drawers.

So someone is in a wheelchair, there are microwaves that function as drawers. And I wanted one for my own kitchen when we were putting in new cabinets, and I just couldn’t seem to find what I was hoping for in terms of customer service reviews. And so when I did find one and I saw it at the International builders show, they said we don’t ship to Hawaii, I said non problem. I’ll get it out here. And they said well, would you like to be our rep and I said sure. Nice. So now I am putting these microwave drawers where people desire them in my aging in place designs and some regular designs to and also they have range hoods that are really, really nice. And

gas ranges, some electric ranges, counter depth, refrigerators, all stainless steel and

very

competitively priced compared to some other luxury band stuff that’s out there, which is how they are made. They’re not, you know, the regular. But in any case, those kinds of things help people you know, it’s nice.

ADRIENNE: 
Speaking of helping people, if any of our listeners, like want to have a consultation with you or get a hold of you like what does that look like? How would how, how would they do that? And do you charge a consultation fee?

JANYCE: 
So I have not been charging a consultation fee. For initial consultations over the phone. I try to take as

much time and make them as thorough as the client wishes. Even having my assistant go and research all the property information that we can find in the tax office in the building department so that I can speak intelligently to the client, if someone is looking to purchase a property, and they are bound and determined that whatever they buy is going to be remodeled. For $300, I’ll go and get them copies of everything I can find. Visit the site with them, discuss what they are hoping to achieve, and then make a report that will tell them look, you are going to have to deal with this issue here or

an easement there. Beware of the fire hydrant that Mitch is going to keep you from widening the driveway and getting your parking as big as whatever we happen to spot. And if this could happen to take place. Also, at the same time that a building a home inspector is there, so that I can kind of overhear some of the things that he might have found, like I did one last week where he said the roof had to be replaced. And I said to them that make sure you make a note of that. Because you say you want to do a large addition, but a roof being replaced is an expense that’s going to cut into your design and construction budget. And that too was noted in their report. What a great service to offer. You know, so you have existing home owners that may want to do the AGM place or out of adu. And then you have people that are looking to purchase and asking for your consultation to help decide like, is this the right home for what we want to do? And what would that look like? So what a what a great service and you said it’s $300 right for you to do like

going to the site and researching the property history, you know, because they also need to know like, what if all they want to do was an addition. But while visiting this property, I noticed that, hey, that’s not on the building permits, you know, then that’s an issue. So even if everything else was in perfect condition, people need to understand that building inspectors would be within their jurisdiction of driving down the road on the way to a job site. They noted that somebody’s construction equipment and trucks and supplies being delivered drywall, tile, etc. At your house on the way they’re within their rights to stop and say hi, I’m, you know, Mr. building inspector, and you’re not on my list of projects to inspect what’s going on here. So when you apply for a permit, because you’ve put in a set of plans, when they do come, they’re already going to be there. And they will be as persons who are not only physically looking at structures all day, but also looking at plans all day. And the plans are required to be there for their reference. People like us who are always either drawing or looking at plans, you know, we get a feeling when we walk into a place before we’ve even been there, we’ve looked at the plans of what it’s going to be like and when things are different. And you’re the building inspector, you have to do something about. So that’s something to look out for, as a buyer if you’re planning to do an addition or make some major renovations. If there’s other things in the home that have not been permitted in the past that could come up or will come up and you’ll get kind of Yeah, interview process for hiring for this position. They have them look at two pictures. And the question is what’s missing in this picture?

ATTILIO: 
That’s, you know, permits

ADRIENNE: 
here’s the plans and here’s what’s in real life what’s missing. And they do that all been added it’s normally the case. So I mean, so that’s a really valid point, Janice where especially during negotiations if that buyer has plans to you know, make additions or major renovations, this is something extra that maybe they didn’t think that they’d have to deal with. And that cost money permitting after the fact.

JANYCE: 
And part of permitting after the fact is getting your permit closed, which requires inspections by all the applicable building plumbing electrical inspectors. So if there’s this gorgeous bathroom, you know, and

we need to know Mr. Plumbing inspector needs to know Okay, is this drain the right size is everything vented?

appropriately, the only way to verify that is to open things up, which means now you have to pay someone to put them back together. And if you cannot find the matching tile, then the all of it has to come out and be done. It can be very pricey this and touch up paint, it never works. You just painted it yesterday and you go, you know, a week or two ago, the touch and you get new paint it I’ve never had the experience with that stuff matches, you got to do the whole wall.

ADRIENNE: 
So I just want to just give the website real quick, it’s Dream House  drafting.com, if any of our listeners want to go and check out what John has to offer, please note to your listeners that I am not the techie. So I have a fraction of the work that I’ve done some of some people’s choices, I would never want to share what they chose for their colors and tile. But I have a fraction of the work that I’ve actually done actually posted. And I don’t really have the time to be getting into the back of that website and changing it much. So yeah, you’ve got a portfolio dedicated introduction.

ATTILIO: 
Yes, that’s the main point. You are not a web page designer, you are home designer, Home Designer in the real world person. Do you do you help design anything for Minecraft? I’m just kidding.

The point being and for you realtors out there, I would encourage you to put Janyce as a contact in your phone as, as a resource out or to your website. Be able to pass it out. Because we always say in this business, don’t be the source be the source of the source. And Janice can be your source was an expert at finding and permitting. I don’t we don’t even comment on on say we do we have bracelets that say what would Janice say? That’s right, hand them out.

ADRIENNE: 
Well, Janice, we are nearing the end of our show, but just want to thank you for coming back and always offering such valuable information and we will have you on again. Yes. Thank you so much. Thanks, Janice. Hey, Aloha. Aloha. Well, we got about two minutes left again, you know, our show. We what do we do we live streaming we Oh, you got to review. You want to read that review. A quick review from Ryan Jones. Our experience with Team Lally was excellent to work with Deb and she listened to exactly what we wanted, and then helped us find it. She gave great advice and worked wonders for us. We’re so grateful to her and the support from Team Lally. Thank you. Yeah, check out our reviews don’t take our word for it. Well, maybe you should. We’re Yeah, well we say is good. And you know, I think you should check out our reviews and and here’s what I’m telling people the market is shifting and you need to have shift strategies and we’ve got them for you. We’ve been through multiple shifts. So thank you for listening and thank you to our sponsor, Jody and Derek a Pacific Rim mortgage ally with Allstate Insurance and D pillar pools home inspection John with Kilauea pest control Duke with Hawaii Pacific Property Management Kyle was impact while solution Robinson fine line paint works acity of American flooring home Jake with Sky construction roofing and solar Ryan of Zerorez Hawaii if you want to get a hold of any of our sponsors just go to team lolly.com We also want to give a big thank you to Leah Rodriguez our producer here in the studio you make sure to tune in next week love and awesome guests talking about something that’ll change your life forever. This is the team Lally real estate show home and the guarantee so we can sell your home at the agreed upon price center timeframe. We’ll have it bought for cash.

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