Trying to Minimize Government Waste

When the man came by last night to pick up the roof sheathing we'd listed on craigslist for free, he asked us why we were tearing the roof off our front deck. "It's really nice," he said. "I'd love to have a deck like that!"

We agreed with him and then assured him that we were not tearing it down by choice. This deck, which provides (provided) great shade on one long side of the house and a lovely place to sit and watch the birds, butterflies, bunnies, and burrowing ground squirrels, has been here for over four years. Visible to all who drive by and visible on the biannual overhead photos taken by the county government. As best we can tell, these photos are used, among other things, for making sure the assessor's office has every single taxable item on a property in their records and for enforcement of zoning codes.

But, I'm getting ahead of the story. When I first saw the photo of this house on the MLS listing, one of the things I really liked was the front deck with sunburst wrought iron railing. It was obviously not a new deck; in fact, we thought it may have been put up when the house was put in place.

We were wrong. A few months ago, we received a code violation notice from the county for a deck built without a permit. As per the instructions in our letter, I called the enforcement officer. Since we own the property, the county is holding us reponsible for the lack of permit even though it was a prior owner that actually did the deed. The assessor's records show it was built in '06 but apparently the zoning people didn't get around to noticing it on the ground for four years. I was informed that applying for a permit and paying for it even though it was already built would likely clear the violation.

If only life were so simple. Following their instructions, which were incomplete, we prepared our site plan and specs of how the deck had been built. We were a bit concerned after looking at their sample drawings for a covered porch that we were going to run into trouble with the deck's roof. It was connected to the edge of the house's roof, which was specifically not permitted according to the sample. Still, we proceeded with preparing the papers, prepared to cross that bridge when we got to it.

When I went to the county offices to file for the permit, I was told everything had to go through the flood control department for approval first since we live in a floodplain. They do not charge for their permits but have, as we were to find out, much stricter code requirements. After two weeks of waiting, we got a large packet back from that department. Among other things, they were unhappy with our site plan as it did not contain information they required, elements not included on the list given us by the other department. Although they didn't seem to have an issue with the deck, there was some additional distressing news in their packet that led us to hire a general contractor with over two decades of experience to help us through the permit process.

She spent hours meeting with me and with county officials. While officially our permit application for the deck had to be approved by the floodplain folks before it could go to the regular zoning department, the code violation issue was under a deadline and there was no way we could meet it as well as provide the voluminous information now required by the flood control department on their separate time table. She talked with the code enforcement officer who indicated simply removing the roof from the deck might solve our problems with the original code violation.

However, by this time, we'd done a little more investigation of our own and gotten feedback from the contractor, too. Even with the roof gone, there was no way the rest of the deck would meet code. While sturdy enough to last for decades, it was not built to code. Unfortunately, it is not a simple matter of just shoring up a few bits here and there. The supporting posts are not spaced correctly nor seated in properly-sized cement and rebar-reinforced holes, among other problems.

The entire deck was going to have to go. At this point, I called the code enforcement person and asked for the deadline we had to remove it entirely to make the code violation go away. Due to the amount of labor involved, my sweetie is taking time off work to meet the deadline. Hopefully he will still be able to since we had not factored in his mother's injury and hip replacement surgery! She's been moved closer to us for her physical therapy but checking in with her daily has put a crimp in the schedule and added a great deal of emotional strain to an already stressful situation.

We could, if we did things the typical American way, get this deck outta here in just a couple of days. Using a circular saw and a roll-off container destined for the landfill, we could rip and toss it quickly. That is not appropriate, though. Removing a perfectly good deck is already an incredible waste of the original effort and materials to construct it. No way are we going to add to the waste by trashing perfectly good materials.

Hence, the gentleman last night picking up the re-usable roof sheathing that has been removed. Friends with a truck also came by yesterday to help us haul the rolled roofing debris to the landfill. That will, we hope, be the only load that goes to the dump. Everything else should be recyclable or re-usable. The problem is that removing the millions of screws and nails is far more time-consuming and labor-intensive than just cutting everything up to throw away. And getting rid of it all is also time-consuming with little payback other than knowing we are not contributing to waste.

Craigslist is great for hooking up people with supplies but it sucks up a lot of time in the posting, responses, and then hoping people will actually show up when they say. (They rarely do.) The roof sheathing and weathered plywood decking is not in good enough shape to sell. The wood beams, posts, and supports will hopefully net a few dollars along with all the brackets and the wrought iron railing. It will in no way, though, be equivalent to the loss in value to the house from removing a nice deck.

And this is what really makes no sense. Because government departments don't work with each other, the county is going to lose tax revenues because the value of the house will be reduced. We do not have the funds to rebuild the porch to code nor the desire to go through the permit process again.

We are far from done with the permit nightmare. There is another looming issue we must deal with, one that will not devalue the house the way the loss of the porch does, but one that will cost us several thousand dollars out of pocket. Until it is completely resolved, I will not be writing about it.

I know there are those of you with good hearts and minds who will think we surely have not considered every option here, but let me assure you that we have. We've done a lot of research since this started and have hired two professionals to help us. The first person felt so badly about the whole unfair situation we've been placed in that she did not even charge us for her services. This will not be the case with the engineer we are currently working with. Both professionals have spoken extensively with county personnel to see if there is any way to avoid doing all the work they are demanding. There is not. The county will not waive any requirements, they will not grandfather them in, nor do they care that we are new owners and did not do the original work. Legal options are not possible for a variety of reasons I don't want to get into here, and in any case, would not result in us recouping our losses. The best we can hope for at this point is to get all the work done that is required of us and sell the house for enough that we don't totally lose our shirts.

This whole experience (of which you only have gotten a small glimpse) has been a huge drain on our time, our energy, our emotions, and our money. It has robbed us of our dreams and greatly increased our cynicism of what is happening in this country. Combined with the family traumas of the past few months (dog's cancer, nephew's death, and MIL's injury), I have been so depressed and angry that my whining and negativity is driving away friends and acquaintances.

I almost wrote a post this week on how to respond to someone in crisis like this. Do not tell them it will be okay - it might not, do not tell them they just need to meditate - they may not have the energy left to do even that, and do not just ignore them - they are already dealing with a heartless situation. Do not offer advice unless the person asks for suggestions or ideas.

No, in my opinion, the proper response is more along the lines of, "I'm so sorry to hear how difficult it has been for you lately. Is there anything I can do to help?" Then maybe offer to take the person out for a coffee or lunch, or help with the work of getting the property ready to put on the market, or just offer a hug and understanding. This may not be the case for everybody in crisis, but I know it is for me. I'd much rather have someone come take care of some of the weed-eating or pruning than tell me how I just need to hire a lawyer and sue everybody.

Please note that this obviously applies to dealing with people in person, not over the Internet. I do not expect folks across the country or the world to hop on a plane to come weed-eat my yard!