Home Improvement Today?

Update:
The shop took a bit of a back seat the past month while I worked on the retaining wall. However, I did get the roof done which is a huge sigh of relief. There were a few rotten decking boards, some rotten bird blocks on the old side of the building, a couple of rotten rafter tails, a rotten rafter, and a rotten fascia board. Happy to say all of those were replaced along with the shingles. Gutters are also squeaky clean and ready for down spouts! The front of the building is starting to look more like a shop and less like a barn. The roof is asymmetrical, but I guess that's just a subtle reminder that this started as a horse stable with a breezeway and was never intended to be an actual enclosed building.









It's been 30 days since I had the floor poured and it's almost fully cured. I can see maybe 1-2 spots that still need to change color, otherwise it looks great. The controlled joints have cracks right in the center of them, so I think that was a success.



Nearing the home stretch here. Got a pretty small punch-list to do before September when I disappear for hunting the rest of the year:

• Cut 4 windows into the existing load-bearing walls
• Cut bird blocks for the "new" wall; previous owner left it wide open on that side
• Install house wrap
• Install 6 windows and a man-door
• Install siding
• Trim and caulk
• Call electrician to pull cable into existing conduit and wire sub panel

That's about as far as I'll get this year before September. That leaves paint, garage door, and interior for next year. When my siding is up I'll make a temporary wall to close-up the garage opening for the winter. At least during the fall I should be able to wire the inside and start using it as an actual shop indefinitely.

The biggest time-sink has been this dumb retaining wall.










There is 21 yards of 3/4 open behind this 90' long wall. All hand-loaded into a mower cart. I never want to see gravel again for as long as I live.






I've got about 30 more blocks to go that we'll stack tonight and then all that's left is to back-fill with 12" of soil. Luckily super lightweight and we don't even need to do it immediately; the native soil is effectively retained and we have good drainage at this point. Our plan is to plant the top with larger bushes (hence the 12") to make a natural barrier the dog won't want to leap off of.

 

Wow. I am humbled.

 

do you require a building permit for the work on your shop in your jurisdiction ?

 

The only things that I’m doing or will do that would require permits are electrical (we will permit) and probably cutting in the windows (undecided). When I got the building it was the footprint it is now and our county allows you to adjust gable end walls, pour concrete floors, replace roof decking less than 30% of total squares, and put in retaining walls 4’ or less so long as they’re outside of the surcharge zone from an uphill building without a permit. In the city about 8 miles down the road I think it’s a little more strict. Only reason I mention the window cutting is because they’re going in load-bearing walls.

 

cool , I was just curious how it compares to where I am . Here any new building over 100 sqft needs a permit as well as any structural or plumbing changes to existing buildings over 100 sqft . electrical is a seperate permitting authority but here we also only have an 18 months open permit to complete the work

 

So, curious question. Say private land and sat internet. What actually stops you from building with zero permits? Electrical connection? So if you go off grid solar that gets around that. Septic assumed, maybe a well or water tanks and truck in the supply. Property taxes? How does the state or municipality enforce the permit requirements for completely rogue actors?

 

you can but how you usually get busted here is nosy neighbour and property tax assessor . Also in our jurisdiction if you apply for a permit on anything , the land use people do a search of historical aerial photographs and satellite data to compare existing structures to what was originally there

 

A decade ago I was looking at a rental a few miles out of town up in the hills, sort of a hippy community but nice construction with ocean views. Lots of locally-sourced rock exterior walls with abstract recycled glass windows shaped like the sun (hippy style) and the like. The owner (her name was Moonbear) said all the homes on the street were built without permits and the city/county never did anything about it, but they can't sell it as they were told that would trigger permit intervention. I didn't rent there as the driveway seemed totally unsafe for most drivers (huge drop if you make a mistake).

Not sure how typical this is, was in coastal central California.

Interestingly, they all had bonafide electrical service.

 

You can get an electrical service under a permit and thats it. It's a seperate permit, the rest of it you can build what you want as long as its just you. The problems arise on the back end if you ever want to sell it, now you have an issue because no permit was ever pulled and the house is not known if it was built correctly. Basically you're selling land, the house would have to be razed.

 

That’s strict lol. Also you said 100 sq ft is the under permit limit? Sheesh. Where I’m at you can alter structures as long as it’s not a load bearing wall and you don’t adjust the foundational footprint — and that’s for actual dwellings. For shops and sheds the permit office rolls their eyes at you when you try to permit any changes to them.

 

Speaking of electrical...who wants to play "The Previous Owner of My House Was an Idiot?" My wife grabbed the sledge this morning to finally take the tile surround out of the bathroom and we found this in the wall. None of the pipes were secured to any studs either.

 

That galvanized and copper pipe gonna be some galvanic corrosion

 

That galvanized pipe is the vent stack and has been there since 1960. The rest of it was the hack job the previous owner did when they "remodeled" the bathroom just before we bought the house.

The other interesting part is that the bathroom used to be about 2" wider but they put a whole lot of "new" framing in that wall to make it the standard 60" wide for the new tub.

 

Doing slab prep for our basement slab pour next week

 

Ok, whew...

 

who needs continuous studs , they just get in the way

 

Structural studs? Pfft, useless.

 

They don't enforce unless they're caught. I once heard of a man who built and lived in an off grid cabin shanty for a couple of decades until he got caught. Somewhere in Montana; I think his name was Kaczynski. He wasn't busted for a lack of permits and unpaid property taxes though.

This. I firmly believe permits have more to do with increasing one's property taxes than code compliance and safety.

That too. There's also the issue if public services are needed (police/fire) if one hasn't paid for those services through their taxes.

 

Public service. If you are lying on the side of the road they have to help you. Taxes have nothing to do with it.
A structure in the middle of a field is burning, fire comes. Regardless of taxes.