When I worked down in East Tennessee way back, the local code said that you could do anything you wanted to, for yourself, in your own home - and the NEC be damned. You could NOT do substandard work in someone else's home or in any business but you were allowed to burn yourself and your family to death.
I don't know if this is still true or if it answers your question, but let me pose one of my own:
Do you expect your government to be logical or to make sense?
Sam
