met with this Santa Cruz Building Dept (not the Planning Dept as i thought) today for a building fire inspection; this determines how much of the structure is damaged (from the County's point of view) so they'll know how to permit it (as a 'replacement' or a 'remodel'). if >75% of the structure is damaged, it's a replacement; if it's less, it's a remodel.

replacement would mean slightly more expensive permits, the requirement of fire sprinklers in the replacement building, and some other stuff (i haven't found a complete list yet) (some replacement vs remodel requirements). remodel means slightly less expensive permits, no requirement of fire sprinklers, etc.

the guy said that the foundation looked good to him and that that was worth 15% of "not damaged" (and that we have a pretty good foundation; it's 8" inches thick with 5/8ths bolts; it has round washers instead of 3x3" plate washers, but he said it looked professionally done to him). he alos said the smoke-damaged-but-unburned office might be worth another 7-8%, which would put us into "remodel" territory. he said he'd have to crunch the numbers and see; he'll file his report with the Planning Dept in the next few days and they'll ultimately be the ones to make the replace vs remodel decision.

the next steps are getting a site survey with altitude (so they know exactly where the house lies in the floodway; i think there's still a chance that they might require us to move the house to higher ground on our lot but there really isn't any), soil and maybe hydrology surveys, then a demolition permit and a remodel permit. then our very own temporary power pole and port-a-potty!

but the long and the short of it is: we can rebuild, it'll probably be located on the existing foundation, and it'll likely be a remodel. hooray!