Rural VS City living

[Bearskinner]

Seems like everyone so far lives in a rural environment.

 

[tommy49]

We have 54 acres, 3 miles from the village of Kaleva, population 400.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Seems like everyone so far lives in a rural environment.

Is there really any other place for quality living. The only problem with where I live is unless you are a school teacher or work in Walmart, it isnt much else to do to make a decent living. Lots of low paid service jobs is about it. So lots of retired folks live around me.

 

[CA_Bgrwldr]

Seems like everyone so far lives in a rural environment.

Between the size of most city and suburb lots, and HHA's that dominate most suburban developments over the last 30yrs,
you kind of have too if you want to do much of anything that makes noise. The one in TX that my sister just moved into,
you basically can't have your garage door open, other than to pull your car in and out. My BIL's hobby is woodworking,
and got in trouble for having the door open for ventilation and noise.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I live in a HOA neighborhood outside of Houston Texas before I move to Arkansas. I was constantly getting nasty letters from the "inspectors". They actually paid a company to do driveby's. I had my boat in the driveway for a couple of hours to wash it and got a violation letter, Wife got one for "weeds in front of the house that were actually flowers that werent in bloom.
All kinds of stupid stuff.

Never again will I live in any place with a HOA.

 

[CA_Bgrwldr]

Yep, tried to tell my Sister they didn't want to live in one, when that is all they could find, in Cypress. She said the agent looked at them like they were aliens
when she asked to be shown houses not in an HOA. My BIL didn't want to commute, and has to live with his choice for the next few years until he retires.

 

[dragoneggs]

I will never move back to the 'burbs' or city. On my must list for a property is I need to be able to pee outside without being whistled at or arrested.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I will never move back to the 'burbs' or city. On my must list for a property is I need to be able to pee outside without being whistled at or arrested.

That and you can build whatever you like without asking for permission. That has some good and bad qualities if you happen to live by a low life that puts up junk, stores junk cars, boats, tractors etc like a guy a few miles from me. Another bought some land and started building a structure over a camper but never finished it, just a bunch of scrap wood nailed together and rotting in the rain.
But I have good neighbors and nothing like that around my place.

 

[CA_Bgrwldr]

Building permits are love-hate issue, they are good to prevent the situation of your one neighbors, but due to the local governments seeing them as a source of revenue,
the costs involved make people build without them. In my county, you are already $1200 in the hole for a any non residential structure, just to get the county
to inspect/approve of the site and the size of the building you want to build. You even have to pay for a permit to build a building that is exempt from inspections.

 

[Gary Fowler]

You got your taxes then they tax the tax. I heard one guy that had to get the permit from the county but had to get all his neighbor to sign off on the application before it was approved. One bad neighbor and you are screwed.

 

[Dirt Guy]

I have lived in this same house for house for 35 years. First started out no grid power, just a big diesel generator now as time went on, have grid power. But guess what, building started all around me. Big trophy kind of houses. and they all have an HOA. . not for me ,i like my rural life style . Still can do what I like and no one bothers me. My Thoughts.

 

[Dirt Guy]

Gary, You are right. Here the HOA has to approve your plans ,before you can go to the county for a permit. Glad I am not a part of that. They can have their subdivisions, I will keep living my rural life style.

 

[dragoneggs]

Permits here are extremely expensive due to the fact that we live in a 'seismic' slide zone. This means before the county will even look at your building plan, they require an engineering survey that includes core samples of the area to be built on. This can get ridiculous in terms of time and cost. My neighbor needed to replace his 10ft retaining wall that was built 20+ years ago with railroad ties. The ties were deterring and the wall was bulging a bit in places.

Even though the wall had to be replaced with another wall, the county now required a permit with an engineered plan. Before the wall construction started, he had about $15K into engineering/plan/permit.

I recently was considering building a detached shop in the vicinity of the retaining wall. Because of the nearby engineering/core work was recently performed, I hoped it could be used for my permit. But NO... have to get new core samples. What a ripoff. Instead I decided to dial back my dream shop and settle within the confines of my detach two car garage. I may extend it a bit but I refuse to pay thousands for a no-brainer addition.

 

[Gary Fowler]

It is all about the Benjamins. The gov'ment cant let one dollar stay in the pockets of it's citizens, they have to take it all. We could fire 9 out of 10 government employees and never see any change in services. That is because 9 out of 10 dont do any work anyway, it is the one doing the work. Just look at any city worker doing any job. There will be 10 people at a jobsite and only one will be working, the rest will be standing around doing nothing.

 

[Bearskinner]

It is all about the Benjamins. The gov'ment cant let one dollar stay in the pockets of it's citizens, they have to take it all. We could fire 9 out of 10 government employees and never see any change in services. That is because 9 out of 10 dont do any work anyway, it is the one doing the work. Just look at any city worker doing any job. There will be 10 people at a jobsite and only one will be working, the rest will be standing around doing nothing.

You need 10 shovels at a government dig site. 9 to lean on, one to dig with

 

[Dirt Guy]

Good point, and it is true. Around here it would take 10 shovels, but 12 men, 9 to lean on the shovels, 1 to do the digging, then 2 to go get the coffee and donuts, one to drive the truck and another one to go on the ride, then a 2 hour break, by then it is lunch time, another hour break. not much gets done.

 

[Bearskinner]

So there’s some new folks out there viewing this site, where do you all live?

 

[Gary Fowler]

Gary, You are right. Here the HOA has to approve your plans ,before you can go to the county for a permit. Glad I am not a part of that. They can have their subdivisions, I will keep living my rural life style.

An HOA in my area is highly unlikely to ever happen. Everything around me is large acreage that I suppose could be turned into a subdivision but is highly unlikely due to the topography. The hills and low areas in all the property limit the number of houses that could be built in most sites. There are a few good areas that have been developed into housing developments but no HOA to contend with and minimum of 3 acres per site. NO PERMITS from the county other than a PERK TEST for sewer to determine if soil is ok for septic system and if so, how many feet of field line is required. Other than that, no permits for design, etc is required.

 

[MC]

I grew up on a 55 acre hobby farm in a town of 1,200.

Today, I live three miles from the beach in San Diego... recently got a place with almost a quarter acre corner lot in a neighborhood with no HOA. My last place was a block from the beach in an HOA so I know the struggles with that.

I too feel your pain with the permitting requirements to do just about anything. I'm currently debating with the electric company about why I need to dig a $10k trench and run a new service line just to replace my aging electric panel.

Most things I just avoid permits by keeping projects indoors or small enough to slide under the radar. That's what most people around here do... only things I want to permit are major renovations, additions, or something like a new electric panel so my insurance doesn't come back to bite me if anything ever happens.

I wanted to do a 6 foot high freestanding wall in sections but I will need plans and permits for that. Maybe if I can figure out how to put the plans together and get somebody to show me how they need the rebar tied together I'll do it myself.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I grew up on a 55 acre hobby farm in a town of 1,200.

Today, I live three miles from the beach in San Diego... recently got a place with almost a quarter acre corner lot in a neighborhood with no HOA. My last place was a block from the beach in an HOA so I know the struggles with that.

I too feel your pain with the permitting requirements to do just about anything. I'm currently debating with the electric company about why I need to dig a $10k trench and run a new service line just to replace my aging electric panel.

Most things I just avoid permits by keeping projects indoors or small enough to slide under the radar. That's what most people around here do... only things I want to permit are major renovations, additions, or something like a new electric panel so my insurance doesn't come back to bite me if anything ever happens.

I wanted to do a 6 foot high freestanding wall in sections but I will need plans and permits for that. Maybe if I can figure out how to put the plans together and get somebody to show me how they need the rebar tied together I'll do it myself.

I wouldnt think you needed permits or any other "permissions" to replace in kind any electric panel. If you intend to upgrade to more amps then yes as example replacing a 100 amp panel with 200 amp even if you only use 100 amps of the capacity. The box would be capable of adding circuits to fill up the 200 amp capacity which is why they want a new service line. 10K for a service line inside a city seems a bit much even by California standards. You couldnt be running that far in a city. Rural areas I could see when you might have to run 1/4 mile or more.