Thursday, April 26, 2012

FAIL!

Jeff went to the City of Portland today to ask about building the new garage. The City's rules, in our opinion, are pretty irrational. Because the current garage is built one foot away from the property line, we have to request a variance to rebuild it in the same spot. But if we get that variance, it is to build a garage which is solely for parking cars. You can't tell them you're going to use it as a workshop, or the rules are different. It doesn't matter that every other person in Portland uses their garage for lots of purposes besides parking cars, those are the rules...period.

Also, according to the City, we have to pour a new slab or cut down the edges of the current slab and pour footings. And they won't let the eave extend out on the west side of the building. So, this is what it would look like.
Yuck! It looks really stupid with the roof detail chopped off. So, really not a good day.




And the system is totally complaint-driven. If we build our car parking building and then use it as a workshop, and our neighbor complains, there may be trouble. With our current neighbor we wouldn't be concerned because he uses his garage as a workshop, but he's about to move out and bring in renters. 


And presumably, now that the City has this in their file, no matter who builds the garage, this will be the decision regarding the eave. So now we probably can't even hire a contractor to build the garage we really want.

Sharon has definitely lost enthusiasm for this project. Thanks so much Portland...you probably just saved us a bunch of money. Maybe we'll just apply plywood to the interior to support the structure and yellow paint to the exterior and live with the fugly garage.

2 comments:

  1. I've been reading through this blog obsessively from start to finish and I love the work you've done! Although this is a old post, I must ask. . . since you ended up pouring a new slab any way, why didn't you relocate the garage sufficiently away from the property line and built the original design?

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  2. We didn't move it 4 foot off the property line because it was easier to get a permit to rebuilt it exactly in the same spot. Also, our backyard is small. I didn't want to waste 4 foot that would be useless on the other side of the garage.

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