choked &%$#*@&

oh man... we went out and bought a shed and playhouse made of cedar so our kids could have a GREAT fort to play in. you know, keep them off the streets and out of the parks at night... give them a place to hang out. (our kids are 7 and 12) - so the little one gets to play in it during the day and the teenagers hang out in it at night.

we've been working like crazy on it. the shed is 8' x 6' and we have it beside the house and we put the playhouse 6' x 6' on top of it, cut a hole in the floor and made a trap door and a ladder inside the shed so the kids can go up and down... and we can lock the shed from the inside so the older ones can camp out in it in the summer. we stained it to match the house, put a red border on it to make it just like our house... looks great by the way (not quite finished but almost there)

so today the district rep. comes to our door and says we have to stop work on it and get rid of it.

it has to be 1.5 metres from the property line (that's 5') and there isn't that much room available there (and no where else to put it) we've place it at the top of our driveway beside the garage and there's only 9' between the garage and the fence...

and it can't be over 12' and it'll be about 14' with the roof.

AND even though it's stacked and really a two story playhouse (as they'll use the bottom for a playhouse and then in years to come, we'll use it as a shed when they are done with it) they consider it two buildings and since we have a shed in the backyard... we can only have one more building in the yard!

this sucks! we paid so much $$ for the wood and stain and all the labour we've put into it and now it has to go.

my hubby is going to talk to the district rep next week...

i'm so disappointed for my kids. people across the street have a playhouse with a shed below it that's waaaaaaaay higher than ours... this isn't fair :(

I hate The Man:mad:

if your lucky you could get a variance. i hope it works out..

Oh I hope everything works out for you guys- i mean, taking the kids' clubhouse! How cold. I can understand some ordinances, but this- seriously. Wtc.

i am so hoping there's something we can do to make this work. i haven't been able to tell the kids... they are going to be so sad :(

Always check local ordinances and subdivision ordinances before doing any construction or 'buying big stuff'. I deal with this kinda stuff daily at work(subdivision development and public design projects)..... and it can become a mess and tons of trouble if certain things are not known.

I know people that have bought boats drove them home...then were told that they must find an out-of-subdivision storage area because in the subdivision ordinance they do not allow boat or RVs to be stored on the property in order to 'keep up appearances'.

It really sucks that you were unaware of the 'rules' before building. If the rep says nothing can be done, make sure you get your hubby to get a copy the ordinance and read the document.......there may be sometype of loophole in the wording.

Let me know how it goes and what it says exactly and maybe I could be some help....however, I really don't know how these kinda things are handled in Canada ;)

thanks daniel... i'll keep you in mind if we have problems ;)

If nothing else, make sure Hubby has pics of your bawling children to take with him to show the ordinance people what happens when you stomp all over little kids' dreams. Tell the zoning f-wits that they're robbing your little ones of a wholesome past time, and will now be forced to rot their brains with TV, video games, marijuana & eventually crack. Let them know that the "zoning rules & laws" will turn your darling babies into drug-addled derelicts that are forced to sell themselves on the street corner to support...

Wait. Ok. Maybe that's a bit extreme. But you get my point. Twist that knife!!! Hell...want ME to go deal with them for you? :taz:

K~

i'm really hoping something can be worked out. the kids have wanted this playhouse/clubhouse/hang out for so long... and we finally had the money to buy the materials (which by the way is over $1000) and now... it's kindling :(

so everyone, cross your fingers and toes for us!

well... they are being real difficult with this. they do NOT want it in our front yard and now they are saying we aren't caring for our backyard properly!

my yard is serenity garden... with a pond and waterfall... ferns and flowers fill the yard... many trees as well... surrounded by 20 ft high cedar bushes... really beautiful... they don't like our yard and are making some 'threats' in that regard but i can't imagine they'll be able to force us to turn it to grass????

but... i think we are going to have to remove the shed in the backyard and replace it with this new one (shed/clubhouse/playhouse combo) instead of having the clubhouse in the front yard.

so we'll see what happens now.

please send light and love to this situation... assisting us to create this safe place for our kids to hang out.

Wait a minute i thought we lived in America!!!!! Who are these people to tell you what should be in your yard:mad: .As long as you do not have junk cars or garbage all over YOUR property who are they to tell you what looks nice or not!!! I tell you this world is getting ridiculous.

here's my yard. totally organically grown - except when we have a wasp nest... hence the toxins on the table - we had to remove a nasty nest after they attacked me while i was weeding...

http://www.timelessspirit.com/images/snakes/yard1.jpg

http://www.timelessspirit.com/images/snakes/yard2.jpg

http://www.timelessspirit.com/images/snakes/yard3.jpg

so i have no idea what they find 'unkept' about my yard... it's lush and beautiful!

I bet you have someone on your block or the inspector that jealouse of you and your yard;) .Contact an attorney and ask him about this crap if its legal or not. Maybe the next bee hive you should leave until they come back to harrass you about your yard :P

I'm going to see where it all goes first... hoping with some good old fashioned spell work and meditation... these dark clouds will clear to a beautiful bright sky.

fight it....who is this "inspector" telling you what to do on YOUR property? If he wants to fine you....take it to court with those pictures....and you can do plenty to build your case. When it's over and done with, put the play house back out with a sign that says......*censored*.....j/k...but yeah what a load. You have a beautiful yard. don't fall victem to "well i don't like it so you have to change it"

It reminds me of my landlord..."well, I don't like snakes, so no you can't keep it...."

That is absurd; your yard is gorgeous. Much better than the horrific flat beds of artificial looking grass (chemically treated) that most people find beautiful.

:confused:

I would *LOVE* to have your back yard, it's stunning! Just beautiful! It's attitudes like your neighbor's that makes me hate Home Owners Associations. Everything must look uniform, the same, and boring as all get out. Bleh. Up their nose with a rubber hose, there's nothing wrong at all with having a beautiful lush naturalistic back yard. Some of us actually *like* nature.

You would think neighbors would love your yard- if i were next to you i'd hound you for cookouts lol

Here's my opinion, great yard... get a few local nursery people or owners, plant society people out to take a look at your yard.


Get a few written statements from them as to what they think of it and the plants, names of the plants etc. I bet that "two bit jack boot wearing" inspector doesn't even know what your plants names are. Then you have a nice endorsed natural back yard setting! Take that to court.... so a judge can see these plants are being taken care of as they should be!

chances are you guys don't know who brian minter is... but he's the god of gardening out here. he's assisted us greatly with creating a natural environment in our yard... so i'm not overly worried... it's more the stress of having to deal with this.

i sure appreciate all your support though... thank you all SOOOOOO much

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

chances are you guys don't know who brian minter is... but he's the god of gardening out here. he's assisted us greatly with creating a natural environment in our yard... so i'm not overly worried... it's more the stress of having to deal with this.

i sure appreciate all your support though... thank you all SOOOOOO much

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Good for you:) .Tell Mr inspector to back off and go get a real job and leave you alone:P

you know... i've been thinking a lot about these permit guys... and i can't imagine what an unhappy life they must lead to be so miserable in their work. i feel sorry for them... living their lives.

i'm going to focus my energy towards them - sending them love. perhaps will assist them in their lives.

in light,
aleesha

well... we have an appt with him tomorrow morning at 10. wish us luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

well... we have an appt with him tomorrow morning at 10. wish us luck!

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Good luck wishes coming your way:cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

oh man... we went out and bought a shed and playhouse made of cedar so our kids could have a GREAT fort to play in. you know, keep them off the streets and out of the parks at night... give them a place to hang out. (our kids are 7 and 12) - so the little one gets to play in it during the day and the teenagers hang out in it at night.

we've been working like crazy on it. the shed is 8' x 6' and we have it beside the house and we put the playhouse 6' x 6' on top of it, cut a hole in the floor and made a trap door and a ladder inside the shed so the kids can go up and down... and we can lock the shed from the inside so the older ones can camp out in it in the summer. we stained it to match the house, put a red border on it to make it just like our house... looks great by the way (not quite finished but almost there)

so today the district rep. comes to our door and says we have to stop work on it and get rid of it.

it has to be 1.5 metres from the property line (that's 5') and there isn't that much room available there (and no where else to put it) we've place it at the top of our driveway beside the garage and there's only 9' between the garage and the fence...

and it can't be over 12' and it'll be about 14' with the roof.

AND even though it's stacked and really a two story playhouse (as they'll use the bottom for a playhouse and then in years to come, we'll use it as a shed when they are done with it) they consider it two buildings and since we have a shed in the backyard... we can only have one more building in the yard!

this sucks! we paid so much $$ for the wood and stain and all the labour we've put into it and now it has to go.

my hubby is going to talk to the district rep next week...

i'm so disappointed for my kids. people across the street have a playhouse with a shed below it that's waaaaaaaay higher than ours... this isn't fair :(

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You may need to get a building permit. Im sorry to hear this though. That soo sad... :mad: Like when our dog had puppies back when I was 12 we had th dad and we decided to keep the girl because she had great build and she was my favorite and mom letted me have my first dog. lol. And well we had this HUGE fenced in yard and a dog house and everythign then animal control comes over saying we have too many dogs!!!! Only 3 dogs and us. Not too many. And people said my dog scared people!!! Just because my dog is almost all black with blue eyes doesnt mean she is a devill.. people are soo dumb nowadays. :rolls eyes: When I figur ehow to post a pic I'll show you a pic of Lindy my dog. We did however get to keep all our dogs and told the animal control our dog is 100% controled whenever she is outside.. and she doesnt hurt or even try to. She just ays there staring at people when they walk but her mom and dad would be the ones growling and making the fuss... Well thats all besides the point. Im sure you'll be able to fix the problem. :oops:

turns out it's the by law guy coming over regarding our back yard and not the permit guy for the playhouse.

so i wonder what he'll have to say...

sending positive vibes my way for this meeting tomorrow :wuv:

(we don't need a permit for the playhouse - they say we can only have one building and so since we have a shed in the back already... we need to remove it in order to keep the kids playhouse and we need their permission to remove the older shed... so we wait...)

Permission to remove something from YOUR yard they are a bunch of jokes.Be sure to ask his permission if you have to use the bathroom now :grabbed: :grabbed: :grabbed: :irkd: :P :P

The joys of living in the middle of nowhere become more appearant when I read things like this.
I wish you much luck

Sending positive vibes your way. :gj: :hug:

well he didn't show up. and hasn't shown up yet!

i think it's all about 'power and control' - as many people in this profession (being a by-law officer) are into that (from what i've read and seen)...

so we will wait till he decides to show up.

ah the joys of living within the town limits! (and my tax dollars are paying his wage???)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

well he didn't show up. and hasn't shown up yet!

i think it's all about 'power and control' - as many people in this profession (being a by-law officer) are into that (from what i've read and seen)...

so we will wait till he decides to show up.

ah the joys of living within the town limits! (and my tax dollars are paying his wage???)

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He is probably at the local donut shop :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

well he didn't show up. and hasn't shown up yet!

i think it's all about 'power and control' - as many people in this profession (being a by-law officer) are into that (from what i've read and seen)...

so we will wait till he decides to show up.

ah the joys of living within the town limits! (and my tax dollars are paying his wage???)

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I bet they used to be the hall monitors in high school!!

Seriously though, it is a bunch of crap that you can only have one building, etc. Shouldn't they be out fighting the war on drugs, etc? Sigh; it reminds me why I like living far away from people :(

and the drugs in this little town is soooo outta control! i agree... the money could definitely be better spent!

so we got a registered letter today stating that he wants our passion flower vines cut down because they "interfere with emergency personel entering our home" - we have a trellis around our front step and the vine grows on it.

he wants the ivy in the backyard removed as it is growing over a sidewalk the former owner put in and we don't like so we've grown the ivy over it - and he feels "emergency personel won't be able to service the shed"

he wants the wood we have to finish building the playhouse removed from the driveway - but since he's the one who gave us the 'stop work order' he knows we are waiting to finish it... but he wants the wood moved.

we have a ladder in the backyard standing up against the shed and he wants it removed as it will get in the way of 'emergency personel servicing the shed'.

he also would like the chairs our kids have in the top of the playhouse removed as they are 'unsightly'.

and he would like our entire yard cleaned up. now... if you were here and saw my yard... there's nothing to clean up. it's all plants and flowers and trees and rock gardens... there isn't garbage all over. no old vehicles that don't run. nothing. so i have no idea what he's talking about.

we'll speak to him on monday and see what's up and if he insists on continueing with this, then i'm asking to speak to his boss... and if that doesn't work... i'll go to the paper cause this is harrassment! hrmph.

If this was myself this clown was messing with i would have the local paper over in the morning:P .I would ask him also point blank who would pay the bill if my shed needed the emergency people:rolleyes: .I would start taking numerous pics of your yard from numerous angles as i think its going to be needed.I would also contact your local fire dept and ambulance service and ask them to have someone come out and give you advice as far as if this stuff would prevent them getting to you if needed.Since he seems to be using them as a excuse it would be nice to hear there comments;) .

Joe you hit that nail right on the head!

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Originally Posted by lillyorchid

Joe you hit that nail right on the head!

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Why thank you :cool:

i couldn't agree more. here are the pics i was taking while you were posting!

this is the front of my house.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...housefront.jpg

this is my doorway which he feels in inaccessible

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../7/doorway.jpg

another pic of door

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/files/2/5/4/7/door.jpg

this is a pic from inside the front door to show how much space you have to walk through.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...efrontdoor.jpg

this is the unfinished playhouse and wood - since we have a stop work order, we aren't allowed to do anything to it. note the unsightly (as he puts it) chairs the kids are sitting on - on the top of the playhouse

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../playhouse.jpg

here's my back yard ivy... and the shed at the end. i didn't realize our ladder had fallen over and it'll be fixed in the morning

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...ackyardivy.jpg

this is our 'unaccessible' back gate and back doorway. sheesh

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/files/2/5/4/7/gate.jpg

Get an attourney. I swear, people B#@!H about every little thing they possibly can, even if it's not affecting them in any way. Pssshht.

Wow i could get a mack truck thru your front door with all that room:P .My reptile sister i have one request to ask of you.Give this clown all you have and then some!!!!!!!!! I see nothing wrong with YOUR entire property :mad: .Do any of your neighbors know about this crap going on? If so what are there opinions of YOUR property? I would ask them to write adfadavids(sorry spelling) on there opinion of YOUR property and show the judge these.Do you notice i keep capitalizing YOUR property lol:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

Get an attourney. I swear, people B#@!H about every little thing they possibly can, even if it's not affecting them in any way. Pssshht.

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The ones who are probably complaining are probably jealouse of her PROPERTY :P .

i spoke to some neighbours tonight and they are all shocked... since our yard is considered one of the more gorgeous of the neighbourhood! there are houses with overgrown dandelions, unkept flower beds and dead vehicles cluttering their yard and driveway...

so, we are going to do what we feel needs to be done and then we are going to meet with this guy. hopefully we can agree to disagree and end this... otherwise we are going to city council, writing to the paper and calling them as well... and worse case scenerio... getting a lawyer.

we wonder what's next... will they not like the colour of my walls inside my home and make me paint them?

*still sad and upset over this and trying to find my "center" *

I think i figured out why he is harrassing you folks.He is scared of the ones who have the junk cars and unkept yards :mad: .I bet he thinks he can bully you and make it look like he is doing his job:mad: .Call his boss first thing Monday and request him to come view YOUR property and show him this report the clown wrote up.If his boss refuses to come out then contact the newspapers and the mayors office and whoever else you may think of to stop this crap once and for all :mad: .Tell them you pay your taxes for YOUR property and do not deserve this harrassment from this clown;) .

*Hugs* Sending positive vibes your way!

This is absurd. Your house is beautfiul and this guy really doesn't have a reason to be picking on you as much if there are really cars that have abandoned cars in the yards and so on.

Personally, "home standards" are something of a pain in the butt. One of my friends got fined a couple times for things of that nature, and you should see how crappy the neighborhood was that he lived in at the time. He moved the stuff apropriately, but he was totally disgusted by the whole thing. It was a really trashy neighborhood anyway.

here's a quick update:

last night my friend called a woman who is good friends with some of the city council members. turns out this by-law officer is harrassing a lot of residents and business owners and he has a bunch of complaints about him. they want me to come to the next meeting. they are also going to meet with me beforehand.

so at least it's no longer me against him. i have some others on my side.

they explained to me that this guy is an ex-army cop and takes his job VERY seriously. a little too seriously for our small town of 2000 people.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

here's a quick update:

last night my friend called a woman who is good friends with some of the city council members. turns out this by-law officer is harrassing a lot of residents and business owners and he has a bunch of complaints about him. they want me to come to the next meeting. they are also going to meet with me beforehand.

so at least it's no longer me against him. i have some others on my side.

they explained to me that this guy is an ex-army cop and takes his job VERY seriously. a little too seriously for our small town of 2000 people.

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I knew it:mad: .Looks like this clown might have his clusters replaced :P .Shut him DOWN :cool:

a short update: we are meeting with the by-law officer tomorrow at our home... to discuss the changes we've made and see if he'll remove the notice to comply now. we've also contacted city council to request time to speak to them at the next council meeting on monday... regarding the fact that he made our 12 yr old son grant him access to our yard (and took our son with him) and the fact that after he spoke with my hubby and set an appt for the next day... he entered our yard (against the by-laws by the way) and took photos and then he didn't show up the next day.

i received an email from him... he's a little miffed that we are going in front of city council... and he says he'll be here tomorrow. we have an advocate who will also be here for the meeting tomorrow so it isn't our word against his.

wish me luck,
aleesha

Aleesha,it sounds like you have this clown where you need him :P .I would still go in front of the city council as he might think he can bully someone else or even you down the line.I do not blame you for having a nuetral person at the meeting tommorow :sweeet: .I bet he loses his job since he coaxed a minor into letting him on your property that is a bunch of bull and he knows he was wrong.Let us know how it goes

well our meeting has been cancelled. we are getting a lawyer instead. the community will be fundraising for the cost of the lawyer.

i hate having to do this... i just want to be left alone... man this sucks.

but... i love my yard and this earth and all her critters more than i hate fighting this fight.

so... i'm off to fight.

Wow, Aleesha...what happened to today's meeting? Was it the cancellation that escalated things to "lawyer worthy?" But on the upside...that's WONderful that the community is pulling together to support you in this fight! Keep fighting and don't give in!!!

the meeting has been cancelled by us. the lawyer said that by us attending this meeting we are admitting that we are wrong so he doesn't want the meeting to happen.

the reason i've agreed to be the 'poster child' for this in our community is... the city council has gone insane. on monday night there are bylaws being passed which state:

no more than two birds in one home - fine $100
no cracks in your lino - fine $100
your carpet cannot be worn down or you are are fined $100
if you do not have a lock on your bathroom door... fine $100

and there's more! can you believe this? in canada? i think perhaps i moved to a communist country and forgot to forward my address. :(