Background: I have built several houses, both for family and professionally. Technically, I was a licensed electrical contractor. I just recently moved from a n

Background: I have built several houses, both for family and professionally. Technically, I was a licensed electrical contractor. I just recently moved from a now-condemned 1920's structure to a "modern" 1970's. The problem with modern US building codes is that there is still too much over-regulation (e.g. AFCI's required in essentially all residential splits), combined with the dangerous interconflict of builder's EGO -vs- inspector's EGO — particularly egregious when the inspector feels a one-off homebuilder "deserves" differential treatment. I think the dumbest jurisdictions (AHJ's) are the ones which prevent homeowners from (e.g.) installing their own electrical outlets, not even in owner-occupied structures. Homeowner maintenance becomes illegal, in certain stupid AHJ's (e.g. Chattanooga); and is thus done unpermitted by a helpless-to-stupid-regulations policy. /rant