I live in PA and have been wracking my brain trying to figure out the legalalities of opening my own business from home. We have 2 dogs that have been in the family too long to get rid of and not long enough to be on there way out so to speak so using my actual kitchen is a problem. Our plan is to convert part of our basement into a kitchen/display/meeting room. My questions are this:
1.) Once you have your first inspection for your license, do they come yearly there after or is it a one time deal?

2.) I've been hearing from a lot of people around here about grants for business. Does anyone know if there is anything that would pretain to us? I've checked www.grant.gov but need a road map to understand what the heck they mean. Most of it seems to pertain to medical expirements (how you would do that from home is beyond me).

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
TIA!!

I got legal in PA last month. When I had my inspection, I was told that the law says no pets, but as long as they are outside/locked away from the kitchen, you are ok. The inspections are done every 2 years, and the state will call to set up an appt.-no surprise inspections. Before you schedule your appt. with the dept. of ag., check out the rules for your town. My town doesn't allow any foot traffic to my house. Make sure that your basement can be used before you make too many plans.
I did not apply for any grants, so I can't help with that part.
Let me know if I can help anymore.
-meg

I have been told that inspections for a commercial kitchen happen whenever the health inspector feels the urge. I rent my kitchen from a caterer and that is what she has told me. But of course this is Alabama.

When it is a commercial kitchen yes the inspections are at the drop of a hat whenever they get an itch to do so. But when it's in your home they have to notify you before inspections of any sort. The house we are moving into is my fathers, they have been inspected for the past year because of the current tenant and there are numerous things they've been inspecting but mostly it's the house its self... so it's kind of different but it's the state inspector that comes in.... they have to notify in writing of their intent to inspect on such and such date and if this isn't convient with you tough... you have to make plans to be there or have someone there at the time of the inspection or you get fined. A little different then direct baking inspection but still about the same... and that's in Maryland. If you cross the line a bit you don't have to be licensed where I live. You can bake and sell from home, but you can NOT advertise in newspapers, flyers in stores, etc. only thing you can do is word of mouth... works for me but maybe not for you

What Meggylou said! About your dogs...I have two (a 7-year old Siberian Husky and a 6-year old Rottweiler) and two cats. They let me slide because I keep them in the cellar when I'm baking - even the cats. None of them are allowed in the kitchen at all even when I'm not baking and I vacuum the floors every day throughout the entire house just to be sure. Keeping the cats out of the kitchen was a little hard to enforce but a spray bottle of water fixed that! Every time one of them wandered toward the kitchen they got a face full of water. Even with all of those precautions, I'm still really anal retentive about inspecting everything for hair. I would be mortified if someone complained about a stray strand of dog hair in their cake.

I have two lab mixes...one chocolate, one black. We have an outside pen for them and would normally keep them either out there or in the basement if the weather is to exteme or when company comes. They would basically only be upstairs at night or when I wasn't doing an order. Do you think that would work? Is there anyone you can call and ask BEFORE scheduling and inspection? The FAQ's section on the Dept. of Ag website is geared more toward farming not business.

As far as the house cleaning goes, we vaccum regularly and shampoo weekly....we also have an 18mth old daugher
Hair...any hair in food makes me literally gag so I am "anal" about pet hair anywhere as well.

I have been trying to contact my township to get the necessary paperwork from them but no one answers and there isn't an apparent answering system.....this is the price you pay for living in the boonies!
I also emailed our local Trehab to see what services they can provide as they sometime hold classes and help with start up costs but I haven't heard back from them yet.

That sounds like a workable situation with the dogs...I don't see it being a problem. I live in the middle of nowhere, too! My township is 25 square miles with less than 2000 people and has no zoning laws. I didn't even bother dealing with them, I just did what I had to do to be legal with the state. I'm not sure who you would contact otherwise. If you're as rural as I am, you may not be getting any answers because there isn't anyone in charge of this type of thing. We have one township officer that handles everything from building permits to scheduling bingo at the fire hall...with no zoning, he couldn't care less about me baking for profit from my home!

mjw15618--- Gee you have a whole 2000! I don't think we have that many!?!? LOL
I was able to find out some info on the township supervisors. Seems there is a little "government" with all the offices and apparently (little did I know) I know all these people. They are either childhood friends' parents or parents of people I babysat for.....hopefully that will be to my advantage
We don't have any zoning in our community either but there are several people...even on my cow path (road) that have businesses out of their homes. None food that I know of though.

Oh, you should be fine then. I think we're lucky that we do live where we do...nobody gives a crap! It is weird when there's no zoning - on my stretch of road we have a bible church, a few houses, a dairy farm and a guy that builds kitchen cabinets out of a garage!

Good luck!

Has anyone been approved with a dog in the house? I have a 15 lb dachshund that isn't even able to get anywhere near food surfaces and would be easy to keep out of the kitchen. I called the state, though, to see if I could get legal by putting a separate kitchen in the basement where the dog would never be. They said, yes, but ONLY if the basement kitchen had a SEPARATE entrance.

Why the discrepancies?

Are you in Pennsylvania? We aren't required to have a separate kitchen, but some townships have ordinances concerning foot traffic and so on. I know quite a few people that are legal and have pets in the house...including me!

I found out that the person I need to speak with is my friend's grandpa but she also said I will be referred to someone in the next town/township. I don't know what that would have to do with anything but we'll give it a shot. I was going to call there today but it snowed here last night and this person is also the one who plows the roads so I may stop by his garage on Saturday.
I'm also thinking about calling the inspector's number for our area and asking questions. Like the dog issue and such. I won't have to give my name just talk in generals...hopefully.

I also live in nepa, dept. of ag must not be too busy, I called one day last month to set up an inspection and I was told they would be there the next day. I spent the night cleaning and straightening like a mad woman, but I passed . Be prepared when you call in case this happens to you.

I can't imagine a health inspector passing any kitchen with animals nearby. An Italian restaurant we make french bread for had to trap the outside cats and quit feeding them via the health inspector. Which I found strange! they said it was a hazard of some sort, maybe the kitty piles in the dirt? Haha

Lora