How to obtain a permit.

First of all know this, I'm no contractor. I have no plans to become a contractor. All I wanted to do was obtain a permit for our addition so that my wife and I could sleep at night.(alright, we didn't actually lose any sleep over it. but anyways...) Last week I went to the planning and building department of City Hall. I showed up with the citation that we received in the mail and asked them how I could get a permit for my addition that was already built. Oh it's quite simple the man behind the counter tells me. You just draw up some plans showing how your addition is going to be built, and we give you a permit to start building. Sounds simple right? So Gwen and I take all of the measurements with the utmost care and we draw up our plans. I go to the city building yesterday, and after waiting there for three hours I finally get to the counter and proudly say "take a look at these plans. pretty good huh." The man then proceeds to pick apart the drawings that we made and then tells me that it's not even to the right scale. What scale? The last guy I talked to didn't say anything about the scale. Also they want to know how you are going to build it up to code, regardless of the fact that it's already been built.
Our addition is not up to code so we are going to end up having to take down at least two of the walls and rebuild them. This will end up being a good thing because I know that when I rebuild it, it won't leak the way it does now. Anyways.... Last night we spent hours re-drawing our plans to exactly match their demands. I went back to the city today.(did I mention that I took a week off from making coffee?) I got there about two minutes before they opened and was still third in line. This was the first visit for the other two people in line so I felt I had some wisdom that I could share with them. "Do you have the right scale on your plans? I asked. "Do you have all three plans that you need?" "All three plans?" one of them said with fear in his voice. So, they call my number and I have to tell you, I was nervous. I sit down and show yet another guy my new and improved set of plans. He helps me with a couple of minor changes and then approves me to get a permit. "Thank you very much." I said as I began to get up. Then he looks up and says ...
"Ooooh, did Andy explain the fees to you?" -Matt.