EVERYBODY'S GOT 'EM You probably think that you have more than your fair share of the world's problems.
Everywhere you look, something always seems to be in need of some changes, repairs, or something else to take up one's spare time. That is most common. Almost a sure thing.
Let me tell you what happened of to a friend ours when he bought a small home in the suburbs. It was a neat, little home, with three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen/dining area, living room/den combination, and a single-car garage tacked on the north end. His house was located on a corner lot. The front, facing the street, had no fence - only two boxwood, one on each end of a narrow, concrete-slab porch. The had been built before the others in the area had been “thrown up”by less concerned contractors. The corner house looked like a house. The other rows of places up and down the street appeared to anyone flying above the development like a litter of identical piglets with their mouths/doors - some open, others snapped shut - evenly spaced along guttered edge of the feeding trough the street appeared to become.
Troubles are often built-in but try to add something if you want to experience real problems.
My friend bought the place knowing that he wanted to tear down the small frame,
utility building in the back yard along the side fence. It just not large enough and the location was perfect. With such an idea in mind he found a contractor who built that type of structure and talked it all over with him. Fine . Ideal site. Reasonable cost. With such a building he could let his two hobbies grow – ham radio and carpentry work on a small, gadget, do-dad scale -nothing too cumbersome .
He didn't expect the kind of troubles that came his way, however. The contractor told him he would have to have a County Building Permit before he could start work. At the County Government offices, after he finally found the right person who handled such matters, he was told he would have to submit two copies of the original plans for the intended building for official approval and affirm his standing on environmental concerns of natural balance, social and esoteric matters The copies were made an returned to the county offices for study. If the request was opposed in any way a Public Hearing would be scheduled at a cost of $237.00 for use of facilities. It was noted that permit must be obtain to cover water and sewerage supplies and services of which were tied in with house. There was also a matter of an electrical serve to determine if wiring was in accordance with hobby requirements.
All new site requirement were then set forth. The new structure had to be placed at least
fifteen feet away from the fence along the road. That would place the it building in the middle of the yard and against the house. It might also be necessary to cut and uproot one of
the few gum trees remaining in the entire area.
The entire project is now said to be:”on hold.”
The contractor, who has apparently run into such problems before has one
suggested plan. It is very simply. “If you will just tell me to build two identical twelve foot square buildings located where the shed now stands we face none of these problems.
No permit is required, and you can put it where you like.
A.L.M. February 1, 2006 [c596wds\
