The Perilous Process of Building Permits »
As some of you may know, we are building a shed. A garage, really, since it's a bit of a monstrous shed. But I still call it a shed, since it is one of those that they assemble on site (that is, at our house). I guess that since it's twenty-four feet wide by thirty-six feet long, I can understand people who don't want to call it just a shed. Add to that the fact that it has a large roll-up door (sixteen feet wide!), and calling it a garage is easily justified.
Unfortunately, a smaller outbuilding can be essentially dropped off. But a beast such as this really must be assembled, and the base for it is a concrete pad. Footer. Slab. Foundation. Call it what you may, but it has to be built. That's not cheap, either, but I digress. To get one of these, you have to jump through a huge number of hoops, and the first hoop isn't what you might call easy. It is obtaining the dreaded building permit.
For those of you who do this regularly, you have my utmost respect. I hope that I never have to do it again. It's really that bad.
