I went to the Building Inspector's office today to pull a permit for a little kitchen re-do. What a nightmare. Not only was it in the welfare/health dept office, I got handed a 16 page form to fill out that's more complicated than an application to medical school! You would not believe the asinine information they demand that is not remotely pertinent to the project. Example: A plat showing the house site on the lot for a project that won't affect the roof line?? In the center of 3.5 acres???? I swear, my wife loves Porsches, I already tried to barter a new 911 for s**tcanning this project. Not even close.
Uro, The married life is VERRRRY good when you have a newly remodeled trophy kitchen. know what I'm sayin'? Erich
McMinn County, TN (just northeast of Chattanooga) has no permit requirements of any kind. Sorry to have to break it to you, you moved to the wrong state!
I can beat that story. Back in the 70s, one of our local clubs held their meetings at night in the basement office of a local building. The office was used during the day by the drug enforcement team of the local police department. The basement was also was the location for a free clinic, and the appropriate high quality individuals that such an establishment draws. I can remember the evening that me and a friend showed up early for the meeting, and we're walking down the hallway surround by big fat women in hospital gowns as they were lining up for some kind of examination that we really didn't want to know about. Since the drug enforcement team used the office during the day, all their assorted hardware and records were laying around on the desks and tables. It was a real kick to open up the mug shot books and see several of my high school classmates smiling for their mug shots. Also interesting was the assorted confiscated goodies lying around the office. I still have one picture of us sitting at a meeting with pots full of marijuana plants sitting in the background. And no,......I didn't take any samples!!!! (obviously, security was pretty lax back then.)
First mistake was going to get the stupid permit. I mean, WTF, it's a kitchen, right? Who's going to come to your door and ask if you're tweaking your kitchen? Sheesh - sometimes honest people do the stupidest things. Noble, but stupid. Must be the true blue doctor mentality, even when retired. 911s??? I had a 930 - '88 911 Turbo, a plain vanilla '87 911 and a '88 944 Turbo. Great cars but why did I sell them? The thrill was gone. I'll stick with our Jag-u-war. I'd be suspiscious of a woman who could be bought off with a Porche. Maybe time to call in the FChat police.
Believe me if it were an internal project I would have quitely done it. It involves enclosing 225 sq feet of very exposed porch.
I'd never ever advocate voilating any permit regulations, or any other totally weak ass pansy laws that hide illegal tax collectors behind a badge and a gun. Oh wait *** it do it yourself. Come back 3 years later and say "Hey, I am getting quotes on new carpet, think my house's ft^2 is off, I need to update it." "Oh what, used to be a porch? that SOB previous owner!"
Sorry to hear they have you jumping through hoops. My favorite part is when they re-assess the value & property taxes because you've made your home a bit larger. The BEST is "school-tax"...cause a larger home could hold more kids and therefore you need to pay more. I'm telling ya, building inspectors and city workers have a job waiting for them in hell: they already have excellent experience!!! Hope they didn't piss ya off
Seriously, I hear ya. All of our "projects" have been invisible from the street. Last year we installed new windows - DIY. Building Dept. had said we needed a permit so we changed a couple at a time over a period of 3-4 weeks. Building inspectors cruise around here in pickups with 2-way radios and wear mirror Ray-Bans. County website has all properties listed complete with plat and sq. ft. diagram of all structures.
