[texan]

I hear ya, about the wood stove smoke. I moved into a small village and quite honestly it never crossed my mind about the smoke. I hate the smell of it. I had a house with a wood stove and never burned the darn thing cause i hate the smell so bad.
If it was a farm situation it would't be so bad, but when you have houses in a small area spewing out the smoke it becomes almost unbearable.
As soon as i can the house is going up for sale.

[clanter]

I would go back to the city and review the permit; the structure does not appear to have been tied into the primary building properly

Also as for the boarded up front door and windows.... how were they able to obtain a certificate of occupancy?

[ReSomething]

I've had much worse neighbors, but it is a pretty intrusive addition, and half done at that. I think JanM's pergola idea is a good one.

Oh yes, CVpeg. Right now we have a neighbor across the street and they burn their trash, supposedly not legal here, and that means that they've burned a whole hideabed sofa (and the metal parts are still in a heap) and anything else they can get to burn if they pour enough gasoline on it. Little tykes plastic kids yard toys, things that I can't tell what they are but they stink and leave metal frames, regular house trash in white plastic bags, black plastic bags and plastic supermarket bags; what I'm waiting for is for them to do what another Cother once won the big thread prize with - that cother had neighbors that set a small fiberglass boat on fire. With the fuel tank still in it, so it BLEW UP, could be seen for miles around and involved three area fire departments.

I've already secretly hoped they'll set either their house afire or one of their junk cars, so far no luck, but when my dog barks and barks and barks at night, I roll over blissfully and hope that it's driving them NUTS!

[Bristol Bay]

Okay, that post about how they ever got a certificate of occupancy prompted me to check their permit status. As far as I can tell, they have been cleared for HVAC, smoke detectors, etc., but not the final inspection. I am sure they thought they would just slap that sucker on not realizing the effect on the existing house.

I forgot to say (not wanting to pile on after mentioning the schizophrenic son) that the woman is a hoarder with some kind of building mania. No kidding, ever since they bought the house they have been tinkering with it, adding a bathroom, deck, skylights, then a patio cover over their garage (which is in front of their house on street level, so they walk out their front door straight onto the roof of their garage) than another patio cover on the front, then a patio cover over the deck in the back, which remains unfinished. Honestly, they had a great view of the mountains from their front yard until they put a patio cover on their entire yard.

Anyhoo, the permit search turned up this:


Permit Application or Issued Permit Information

GROUP: Building
TYPE: Bldg-Addition
SUB-TYPE: 1 or 2 Family Dwelling
PRIMARY USE: (1) Dwelling - Single Family
WORK DESCRIPTION: add recreation room and deck to the existing sfd ( ' x ') and ( 'x ')
PERMIT ISSUED: No PERMIT ISSUE DATE: N/A ISSUING OFFICE: N/A
CURRENT STATUS: Reviewed by Supervisor CURRENT STATUS DATE: 01/30/2013

[ReSomething]

So? Go ahead and bust them, but be aware that it'll stay there and be ugly probably forever unless the place gets foreclosed on or sold. And if it gets sold it'll probably still have the addition whether it looks exactly the same or not. You can only control what you own.

[Wellspotted]

People did that near where I used to live and work. Cute little 1920s - 1950s bungalows perfectly sufficient for young familes back then ... decades later the new generation of young families would add on HUGE additions that made no attempt to match the original; or tear down the original and build something that did not fit in with the neighbors' houses.

But hey, you just gotta have master suites with cathedral ceilings and a compartmentalized master bath as big as two kids' bedrooms put together, and each kid's gotta have a walk-in closet, and a playroom in addition to the family room ...

But heaven and city hall forbid you should have a barn in your backyard, with a horse in it!



BTW, COTHmods, I love the new smilies!!!

[clanter]

So? Go ahead and bust them, but be aware that it'll stay there and be ugly probably forever unless the place gets foreclosed on or sold. And if it gets sold it'll probably still have the addition whether it looks exactly the same or not. You can only control what you own.

it is not bust them, but ask the city what is going on. They have a permit and inspection process that is supposed to protect the citizens not harm them

They could be made to tear the thing down as non complaint


I spent ten years on my city's Planning & Zoning commission; ordinances are not written to cover blank pages with print, there are specific reasons.

[minnie]

Picture a narrow street full of small resort virtually one or two room vacation cottages on a lake. Very narrow width lots about a quarter acre or less with most of the lot taken up by the steep hill down to the lake. peacefully existing for over 30 years when in a period of 2- 5 years younger affluent couples start buying them, bulldozing the cottages and building huge houses! Happened to my parents...the little cabin with "Hopkins Hideaway" over the door looked like a volkswagon bug parked between two semis! Blocked all the sunlight and there was only ten feet between them. Am sure the neighbors were thrilled when parents passed and property sold. The neighbors were extremely nice, but sure they considered the cabin an eyesore and a detriment to their property values.

[Capall]

My favorite is, "We moved here for the excellent schools and country atmosphere and fresh farmer's market. We want to live "green"...but those cows SMELL! And those tractors block traffic! They have got to go!"

Oh MB, in the rural farming town turned posh hot spot I used to live in, there was once a letter to the editor from some jerk complaining about people stopping to pick up the corn that fell off the corn trailers. He was talking about how "unsanitary" it was and people should just stop doing it because he thought it was gross. It wasn't on busy roads so it wasn't like they were blocking traffic, and the ears were still in their husks and no one cared.

The city is known for it's corn, and has a corn fest every year. The people who moved to the "country" didn't like that there were corn husks on the ground, that the farmers didn't have to have plates for their corn trailers or that tractors sometimes used the roadways and *gasp* got mud on the roads!!!! But they were proud of the corn fest!

[JohnDeere]

OP I agree its ugly we have our own brand of ugly, some dude bought a double lot in our hood and built a nice 3000+ sqft 1 1/2 story got it under roof sided the back & sides then left the front unsided. This has been about 6 years with the front coverd only by sheething (sp). I figure its all rotted by now plus animals have to be living in it, but HOA cant do a thing cause he pays his HOA dues and nothing says the house has to be pretty I pity the person who has to look at it every day cause its ugly.

[quietann]

I worry about stuff like this. "Community" doesn't mean a lot to many people.

My town is large-ish (35K people). We've had all the usual stuff == teardowns, tacky McMansions, etc. for years.

But here's the worst: my husband and I are headed to town meeting on Monday night -- yes we still have it! -- to try to vote up a raise in property taxes. Why are we doing such a silly thing? Because a few years ago, when one of the elementary schools had to be rebuilt, some of the neighbors decided they didn't want it located there anymore, and hired a bunch of lawyers to challenge permits, threaten lawsuits, etc. against the town. Now that everything is *finally* approved, the new school will cost $5 million more to build, because of all the delays, town legal fees, etc.

[carp]

The boarded up windows are a speshul touch.

I will admit that I find neighbor quarrels rather amusing as long as I don't have to be involved. One of my neighbors is a high end stone mason. He owns what started out as a dumpy little ranch house. Eventually he added a second floor, doing most of the exterior work himself. It's just gorgeous to look at: chimmneys with brick set in lattice patterns, brick porch with bluestone steps, granite bases for the pillars supporting the porch roof, decorative granite walls, brick paths to the house. It looks like something out of an architect's portfolio. I suspect the labor alone would have been $200,000 if he'd been working for hire instead of himself. His next door neighbor threw a hissy because he was "changing the character of the neighborhood." Go figure.

[MistyBlue]

Oh MB, in the rural farming town turned posh hot spot I used to live in, there was once a letter to the editor from some jerk complaining about people stopping to pick up the corn that fell off the corn trailers. He was talking about how "unsanitary" it was and people should just stop doing it because he thought it was gross. It wasn't on busy roads so it wasn't like they were blocking traffic, and the ears were still in their husks and no one cared.

The city is known for it's corn, and has a corn fest every year. The people who moved to the "country" didn't like that there were corn husks on the ground, that the farmers didn't have to have plates for their corn trailers or that tractors sometimes used the roadways and *gasp* got mud on the roads!!!! But they were proud of the corn fest!

LOL, sounds like the town just north of me. Durham, CT. Pretty pretty town, home of the oldest and largest Ag Fair in the state. Also home to a buttload of dairies. Hugely popular Durham Dairy...an old fashioned ice cream stand with fresh churned served seasonally. The fairgrounds have a lot of activities...4H fairs, the Tractor Drive In, etc. They also show free outside movies on summer nights.

It's become a Bedroom Community, but I do give the town some kudos for not allowing much building considering how many people try to move in and the limited number of properties. The town's very well known seal is a circle with a cow's head and the town name. And the citiots who have managed to move in are out in numbers at some of the town hall meetings with ridiculous crap like trying to stop the farmers from spreading fertilizer. (the wonderfully aromatic aged manure slurry) Stopping farmers from having manure pits/ponds. Making large tractors and combines illegal on the main roads. That dairies with pastire along main roads replace their current fencing with white rail fencing for aesthetics. Completely ridiculous crap.

And an often quoted comment from these meetings? "we know the town seal/symbol is a cow, but can't that just be the symbol? The cows are unsanitary."

Thankfully they don't outnumber the sane people. Yet.