Close, But No Cigar
I finished up the framing in the bathroom and there is not enough room for the laundry bin I dumpster dove for a few weeks back. There is a chance I can use it in a cabinet that can go behind the door, but it won’t be a built-in like the one in front of the door. I’ll have to wait and see how much room there is behind the door once everything is built.
Today as I was banging around in the room there was a knock at the door. It was a woman from the building department. She had a clipboard and a little name badge. She introduced herself and then asked if I was all done with the construction. Huh? I haven’t gotten a building permit since 2004.
The first 2 years I was in the house I got 5 permits from the building department for all new plumbing, electrical, natural gas, and water heater, along with 3 demolition permits for removing the rental kitchens and baths, removing the asbestos siding, and
removing the 2 story addition. As far as I knew everything was signed off by the inspectors.
I grabbed all my permits and showed the woman that everything was signed off by the inspector. To be honest, I’m still not really sure what permit or construction she was asking about. I wish I had pried a little more and asked specifically what construction she was referring to.
In the end, she asked if she could take a few pictures of the exterior. I said sure and then I asked why. She said they wanted to keep their records up to date. When we were flipping through here clipboard of the permits and other paperwork for my house I noticed she had a very detailed hand drawn outline of the house. It was on graph paper and was pretty specific. I didn’t realize they had something like that.
Oh, and if anyone from the city is reading this, this blog is purely fictitious. I don’t really live in Eureka or own The Petch House. This whole thing is all an elaborate hoax and a figment of my imagination.
That should fool the little SOBs down at City Hall.
4 comments:
The last two lines in your post say it all.
When you said there was no way anybody could know, I thought, wait a minute, you blog it.
Line drawing of your house? Nice. They don't do anything like that here. In fact the picture they have of my house at the tax office is about 10 years old or older.
I haven't done anything to the outside of my house so it still looks like hell which is fine for tax purposes. There is a paper you can file with the city that keeps them from raising taxes after you have improved your house. Do they have something like that in Eureka? I foget what it's called, but a guy at the tax office, he's also a home renovator, told me about it. It's not something that is advertised.
I'm not sure if we have anything like that. The 1978 Prop 13 sort of keeps property taxes in-line here in California.
I think my taxes did drop after I remvoed all the ktichens and baths and the addition. They didn't drop much, but they did drop.
Be happy that you don't live in DC:)
http://homeimprovementninja.blogspot.com/
Yikes! It really could be much worse.
Post a Comment