Great advice, coming from a contractors stand point. I like when the homeowner does their research. I got to admit the # 1 rule is awesome I never even thought to go to a designer in the first place. usually in the trade its just Arch/engineer. get the stamp and move on.
Thanks for the post.
We weren't aware at first either. Didn't realize we needed the Arch signoff until afterwards. We were lucky a contractor friend sent us to the designer, though he didn't explain what he was doing.