I figure it’s not a factor of my age, it’s a factor of the house’s age.
You see some old houses they say something like “This house was built in 1840 by Mister Plutis Astercock for his family” and they mean he knocked some trees over, sawed it into boards and nailed it together with his own hands. Just…right there in town. Down the street from the post office. Try that now and they’ll broadcast your evisceration on PBS. I’m a trained carpenter god dammit there are five families living in houses I built. No, now the only place you’re allowed to build your own house with your own hands is out in the cousinfucks.
There’s no reason you couldn’t still do that, as long as you pull the necessary permits and your work can pass inspection. Most jurisdictions make specific exemptions in the contractor licensing rules for homeowners working on their own properties.
hard disagree. The residential building code isn’t terribly hard to adhere to – especially in new construction – and nearly every bit of it is written with the health and safety of building occupants in mind. I’d much rather deal with a bit of bureaucratic oversight to be sure my house and/or my neighbor’s house doesn’t collapse in a stiff breeze, or blow up from a gas leak, or kill all its occupants in a fire, or turn into a heap of rot after the first heavy rain, etc., etc. You might have the skills and ethics required to do the job right without somebody looking over your shoulder, but not everybody does, and I’d venture at least half the big home building firms would cut every corner they could in the absence of code enforcement.
Oh I’m all for building safety standards. I’m not willing to deal with legislation that requires adherence to proprietary standards created by for-profit companies that cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars a copy because graft.
I get older, and the to-do list only grows in length. Condolences about your relative.
I figure it’s not a factor of my age, it’s a factor of the house’s age.
You see some old houses they say something like “This house was built in 1840 by Mister Plutis Astercock for his family” and they mean he knocked some trees over, sawed it into boards and nailed it together with his own hands. Just…right there in town. Down the street from the post office. Try that now and they’ll broadcast your evisceration on PBS. I’m a trained carpenter god dammit there are five families living in houses I built. No, now the only place you’re allowed to build your own house with your own hands is out in the cousinfucks.
There’s no reason you couldn’t still do that, as long as you pull the necessary permits and your work can pass inspection. Most jurisdictions make specific exemptions in the contractor licensing rules for homeowners working on their own properties.
And we get into the red tape that makes it functionally impossible. Fuck everything about it.
hard disagree. The residential building code isn’t terribly hard to adhere to – especially in new construction – and nearly every bit of it is written with the health and safety of building occupants in mind. I’d much rather deal with a bit of bureaucratic oversight to be sure my house and/or my neighbor’s house doesn’t collapse in a stiff breeze, or blow up from a gas leak, or kill all its occupants in a fire, or turn into a heap of rot after the first heavy rain, etc., etc. You might have the skills and ethics required to do the job right without somebody looking over your shoulder, but not everybody does, and I’d venture at least half the big home building firms would cut every corner they could in the absence of code enforcement.
Oh I’m all for building safety standards. I’m not willing to deal with legislation that requires adherence to proprietary standards created by for-profit companies that cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars a copy because graft.