06/03/2022
Well.. it has come to this. Hang on because this is going to get bureaucratic and frustrating, but we find sharing the process with the community is one of the best ways forward. Especially because this project is not only a personal one, but it is meant to be replicated as an affordable housing option supported by local municipalities chalk full of sustainability.
It has been 7 months since we submitted our building plans with the CRD, the first time. 7 full months. We need the permit to start putting the foundation down and the roof up so Yellow House can stop living in the air and we can start living in our home. On Wednesday my partner, Dave, and I moved into a trailer on our property because we have run out of insurance money from the fire that took our previous home 2 years ago. We're now waking up to seeing Yellow House up in the air, physically and metaphorically, everyday -- and it's enough.
This is an extreme amount of time to be waiting for a straightforward building permit, no rezoning etc. that one could expectto complicate things a bit more. Back in October 2021, we checked off all requirements for our building permits listed on the CRD website (and online application guide) and then some, including a geo tech report, an engineer's report, architect's drawings, a septic report, a few other items we spent weeks obtaining and still aren't sure if they were necessary. We have been pleading to speak with a building inspector since October to go over what additional documents are required, to zero avail. Like, they are avoiding us.
The CRD went thru a riggamarol of inspectors since the fall - the first one who looked at our plans back in October and did not like them stating we needed a New Home Warranty, which was wrong, left. His mistake cost us months of delays, and thousands of dollars. The CRD did not replace that building inspector until a few weeks ago, and relied on contract inspectors who worked 2 days of the week. They were not available to us. The more frustrating part us the former head of inspections for the JDF district, who we talked to several times leading up to this project, was perfectly on board with it. He knew the building code, and how this process was treated. Nickel Bros moves hundreds of homes per year, so this is not a process unseen in the CRD.
When we spoke to BC Housing back in October, they clarified *back in October* that we didn't need a New Home Warranty. A New Home Warranty is necessary if one changes more than 50% of a house above the foundation. We are not and do not fall under this category as proven in our plans. We aren't changing anything on the main floor and we are simply adding a tiered partial basement following the slope of our terrain, and the exact same roof line as before, with a few added dormers. The house still has it's beautiful old floors and floor joists - this has been a point of confusion, that the floor joists for both levels are intact and remaining. We are completely confounded as to why the current inspector is having a hard time understanding this, as the details are all in our engineer and architect drawings. So we called BC Housing AGAIN last week to confirm AGAIN that we don't need New Home Warranty - they said the same thing they told us in October and added that timeline to the correspondence with the building inspector. The building inspector has not yet accepted BC Housing's ruling on the matter from what we can see, and we haven't heard from him since last week. Why? No but really, why?
The truth is this bureaubattle over the business of saving and moving homes as part of an affordable housing model, has been going on a long time. Historically, Nickel Brothers have been applying pressure on local municipalities to make permitting for these projects more accessible and clearer for the public and public-servant-building-inspectors alike. Something we've repeatedly heard and that sticks with us now is when the gas is off, municipalities revert to the same indistinguishable and innacurate rules on permitting and New Home Warranty. In the last 7 months alone, we have crash coursed the CRD permitting world, BC Housing's requirements, and all the dodge that comes with it - learning more than we expected and needing to outline rules for the rule makers.
What's especially painful is hearing the many tradespeople we've spoken to tell us the work we need done will take no time. Like a week to do the roof, a few weeks to do the foundation. It hurts. It hurts seeing her up in the air like this for so long for absolutely no reason.
Hang on girl💛🏡💛
We're gonna have to get our hands more dirty now.
Please share,
Mandalena L.
