Bureaucracy

The screened in porch/deck situation is proving to be much more difficult than it initially appeared. We're making this purchase in part based on the assumption that we'd turn the existing deck into a screened porch and then build a new deck next to or behind the existing one. Behind it there is just a few feet before you get to the pond, so I figured we might not be able to get permission to go that direction and would have to go beside it instead. But as it turns out getting permission to build the screened porch itself is in jeopardy.

Apparently the deck was built with no regard for the building line. The building line is the line you cannot build past on your property. The intent is generally to keep you from encroaching on your neighbors with structures. In our case the existing deck already crosses that line, but there is no neighbor there -- the line in question is between the house (or most of it) and the pond. I'm not sure how they got that deck built, but I assume the line was just ignored. In order to build the screened porch, which involves integrating the roof and foundation everything has to be on the up and up with full permits, etc. No way can we build it without getting that line moved.

So Liane has been going around and around with various entities to try to do that, and naturally each one attempts to pass the buck to the next one. No one wants to claim the authority to do it. Initially no one we talked to had any idea how to go about getting it done. Eventually though, if you're persistent enough you begin to learn how to ask the right people the right questions that eventually lead you in the direction you need to go. What a pain.

So we're working from the angle of, "There is already a structure over the line. We are buying the house and want to get the line corrected to correspond with what's there." We are not even getting in to turning it into a screened porch with them -- that would be too much information and could raise concerns we don't want to tackle just yet. We just want to get the line to be consistent with the structure that exists now. That will give us what we need to go for the porch.

Well, apparently this is no small feat. For starters it has to go to the engineer for the original developer, and of course he isn't available. The person who is available isn't sure whether it can be done.

So all of that is in limbo at the moment while someone researches what can be done. We're supposed to hear back by Wednesday. Heck, for all we know they may come back and tell us the deck has to go.

And if that happens....well....I haven't handed over the money yet so I assume there is still a way out of it, however painful that might be.

Oh boy...