# Satellite view



## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

Here's a satellite view of my wood stacks / stacking areas.

Red outline indicates wood stacks.  It's about  8 cords if all racks are full.

We have a lot more room to stack wood - wonder what the neighbors would say if I added more stacks?


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## Lumber-Jack (Feb 1, 2013)

Woe!  I thought my driveway was in bad shape, you can see the cracks in your driveway from SPACE!


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## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

90% of what you apparently are thinking are cracks are actually seams in the cement.  Either way, the drive is very level. 

What - no comment about the new sewer line in the front yard that cost us around $18,000 to install because of new construction on the other side of the road?  Our septic was just fine but we were forced into connecting (state law).


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## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

PS  New roof too.  That was around $12,000.

Sewer & roof were done in back-to-back years, 2/3 yrs. ago.


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## TimJ (Feb 1, 2013)

hopefully your wood savings will someday add up to that


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## BEConklin (Feb 1, 2013)

Hard to tell with them red lines drawn in but it looks like it's mostly oak with some nice pieces of ash here and there....and is that maple on the right? Boy them satellites are amazing...


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## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

Just a very bit of oak, right next to the shed.  Locust, hard maple, elm and the dreaded box elder make up my normal mix plus a little of of pear, crabapple, apple, etc. - whatever I can get free/cheap.

Yeah, we will replace the driveway - sometime after we get hubby's heart transplant medical bills paid off.  

We had heart transplant bills, sewer & roof all happen in about 3 yrs. - what a financial hoot that has been!


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## yooperdave (Feb 1, 2013)

After the sewer and roof bills, I can understand your husband's heart problem I hope he's doing well.


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## billb3 (Feb 1, 2013)

Is that you sunbathing in front of the shed ?


My stacks are in the woods, otherwise I'd  spell words with them for the planes/helicopters  going over taking  those aerial shots.


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## Lumber-Jack (Feb 1, 2013)

Shari said:


> Yeah, we will replace the driveway - sometime after we get hubby's heart transplant medical bills paid off.
> 
> We had heart transplant bills, sewer & roof all happen in about 3 yrs. - what a financial hoot that has been!


It never rains, it pours.  Hope your husband is doing well now.
I wouldn't worry about the driveway, the crack about the cracks was just a joke. I'm sure it's in much better shape than ours, even if you can't see the cracks in it from space. lol
It's amazing what they can see with those satellite  images.


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## fabsroman (Feb 1, 2013)

Shari said:


> 90% of what you apparently are thinking are cracks are actually seams in the cement. Either way, the drive is very level.
> 
> What - no comment about the new sewer line in the front yard that cost us around $18,000 to install because of new construction on the other side of the road? Our septic was just fine but we were forced into connecting (state law).


 
Did the state finance the install for you? $18,000 isn't a drop in the bucket for most people. We will probably have to do that at some point too as water and sewer are moving this way .Actually, water is already here. Thing is, our septic field is 25 years old, so it might not be a bad thing except for the $18,000 cost. Man, that is steep.


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## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

fabsroman said:


> Did the state finance the install for you? $18,000 isn't a drop in the bucket for most people.


 
State financing?  Ha!  Nope.  We had to pay when the work was done.  No, there was no financial aid.  We even had to pay the city $2,200 'impact fee' for the benefit of sewer.  All up front costs of living where we live.

We just had landscaping done on the sewer line last fall.  We were the last ones on the block to get our landscaping done.  I'm surprised nobody at city hall cited us for not doing it sooner.


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## Machria (Feb 1, 2013)

Is that a tree down in the top left corner of the pic?


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## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

Machria said:


> Is that a tree down in the top left corner of the pic?


 
No - it's guy wires for a telephone pole.

There is a wooded area on the lot on the upper part of the picture - I'd love to get in there and at least cherry pick the downed trees.  I'm working on the neighbor......


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## Machria (Feb 1, 2013)

Hey, telephone poles burn too


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## swagler85 (Feb 1, 2013)

*WOW $12,000 FOR A ROOF IS A LOT, HOW BIG IS YOUR HOUSE?*


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## basod (Feb 1, 2013)

If you can make out your wood stacks from google earth.....
You might be a redneck hearth.com wood burner


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## Backwoods Savage (Feb 1, 2013)

Wow Shari, you have been hit super hard. Big thing though is that hubby is still with you.

Nice satelite view!


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## Machria (Feb 1, 2013)

If you have to go to a Satellite view to evaluate your wood situation, you may have an issue!   Just saying!


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## StihlHead (Feb 1, 2013)

Shari said:


> State financing? Ha! Nope. We had to pay when the work was done. No, there was no financial aid. We even had to pay the city $2,200 'impact fee' for the benefit of sewer. All up front costs of living where we live.
> 
> We just had landscaping done on the sewer line last fall. We were the last ones on the block to get our landscaping done. I'm surprised nobody at city hall cited us for not doing it sooner.


 
I bought a property 5 miles and two river crossings beyond the water and sewer improvement zones around here. Basically if they bring a sewer line within 100 yards of your property here they make you hook up to it, at your cost. You pay the permit fees, easement fees, assessment fees (the right to hook up to their sewer), inspection fees, you pay for all the costs to install the sewer lines, and here they also have a septic decommission fee with permits and inspections. Then you have the added privilege of paying hefty monthly sewer fees,_ and_ worse, increased property taxes because of the assessed increase in property value after being connected to the public sewer (essentially an endless tax on the money you had to spend on the sewer).

People here fight sewer annex plans all the time. It becomes political warfare, and everyone on septic knows where the nearest sewer lines are and where they are being put in. All new development and new houses in sewer areas have to be connected, and that bring in more sewer lines, which brings more people within range of required connection sewer services. It snowballs over time, and the cities and county public works grow like cancers, all at the expense of homeowners.


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

Shari said:


> 90% of what you apparently are thinking are cracks are actually seams in the cement. Either way, the drive is very level.
> 
> What - no comment about the new sewer line in the front yard that cost us around $18,000 to install because of new construction on the other side of the road? Our septic was just fine but we were forced into connecting (state law).


 
I would have told them to GFYS.....


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

Shari said:


> Just a very bit of oak, right next to the shed. Locust, hard maple, elm and the dreaded box elder make up my normal mix plus a little of of pear, crabapple, apple, etc. - whatever I can get free/cheap.


 
Apple is one of the highest BTU woods out there... that's awesome if you get it for free... and the fruitwoods smell great burning too



Shari said:


> Yeah, we will replace the driveway - sometime after we get hubby's heart transplant medical bills paid off.
> We had heart transplant bills, sewer & roof all happen in about 3 yrs. - what a financial hoot that has been!


 
My Lord..... I'd be in bankruptcy court while living in a tent....


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

swagler85 said:


> *WOW $12,000 FOR A ROOF IS A LOT, HOW BIG IS YOUR HOUSE?*


 
The cost of shingles has exploded over the last 10 years.....

I need to replace mine.. and I am dreading it... I have shingled literally acres of roofs, and I am completely capable of doing it myself.... however coming up with 50 square of roofing materials (house, el (shed) and barn) is going to be tough...


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## Seasoned Oak (Feb 1, 2013)

Bret Chase said:


> The cost of shingles has exploded over the last 10 years.....
> 
> I need to replace mine.. and I am dreading it... I have shingled literally acres of roofs, and I am completely capable of doing it myself.... however coming up with 50 square of roofing materials (house, el (shed) and barn) is going to be tough...


Use Metal


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

Seasoned Oak said:


> Use Metal


 
I can't.. There is a spot on my roof where 3 roof pitches converge to pretty much a single point... making a metal roof tight there is very, very difficult. While I have done acres of shingled roofs... I have laid easily 10x the sq. footage in metal.... the average shingled roof is about 8 square... the average metal one is 70 square...I would love to be in a position to just pay somebody else to do it.... but I'm not...


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## 711mhw (Feb 1, 2013)

I never understanded the need for your "sewer" rules from the city/state. It would seem that a properly operating (private) septic sys. & (private) well is the perfect recyling system. Now in "town" where they don't have the space, that's different. It makes you wonder why we pay these people, or even need them. (govt)


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## Seasoned Oak (Feb 1, 2013)

One of my best friends(a roofer) Has hundreds of bundles of odds and ends in shingle leftovers from jobs.Probably a lot of roofers have that,unless they throw everything away. AS long as you dont care about the mix and match colors. possibly for the barn shed ect.


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

Seasoned Oak said:


> One of my best friends(a roofer) Has hundreds of bundles of odds and ends in shingle leftovers from jobs.Probably a lot of roofers have that,unless they throw everything away. AS long as you dont care about the mix and match colors. possibly for the barn shed ect.


 
we used to have a lot of spare bundles, but they all ended up in the dumpster as we moved our crap from one of our empty rental properties to another as they were rented/became available...

I will probably end up with metal on the barn, and shingles on the house and El... I want a blue roof dammit...


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## Seasoned Oak (Feb 1, 2013)

Such a waste of a very expensive product.


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

711mhw said:


> I never understanded the need for your "sewer" rules from the city/state. It would seem that a properly operating (private) septic sys. & (private) well is the perfect recyling system. Now in "town" where they don't have the space, that's different. It makes you wonder why we pay these people, or even need them. (govt)


 
oh don't even get me started.... I'll get banned for sure....


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

Seasoned Oak said:


> Such a waste of a very expensive product.


 
well it basically comes down to... is it cheaper to move it, or buy new bundles when someone is willing to pay for it..... frequently tossing it makes the most financial sense, esp when it was paid for the first time...


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## swagler85 (Feb 1, 2013)

Bret Chase said:


> The cost of shingles has exploded over the last 10 years.....
> 
> I need to replace mine.. and I am dreading it... I have shingled literally acres of roofs, and I am completely capable of doing it myself.... however coming up with 50 square of roofing materials (house, el (shed) and barn) is going to be tough...


Yes I know that prices have gone up but I can get a 26 square roof torn off and replaced with a 30 year dimensional shingle for $5,200 here. Thats on a 1400 sg/ft ranch with 2 car garage.  I could do it myself as well as I roofed for many years but with my schedule its easier to pay for someone to do it. Just looking at the house in the picture above it doesn't look like much more than what I just had done. And I paid less than half, wouldn't think that Wisconsin cost of living would be that much higher to justify $12,000. Maybe I'm wrong.


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## velvetfoot (Feb 1, 2013)

The builders putting up the developments make out with the sewer and water lines cause they can pack in more houses and make more money, and they use their influence to get that done, IMHO.


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

$200 a square is a steal here for a strip and reshingle... just getting rid of the stripped shingles has gotten stupidly expensive...


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## Bret Chase (Feb 1, 2013)

velvetfoot said:


> The builders putting up the developments make out with the sewer and water lines cause they can pack in more houses and make more money, and they use their influence to get that done, IMHO.


 
In my area, that statement doesn't really apply.. with a 40k sq. ft minimum lot size....


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## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

StihlHead said:


> I bought a property 5 miles and two river crossings beyond the water and sewer improvement zones around here. Basically if they bring a sewer line within 100 yards of your property here they make you hook up to it, at your cost. You pay the permit fees, easement fees, assessment fees (the right to hook up to their sewer), inspection fees, you pay for all the costs to install the sewer lines, and here they also have a septic decommission fee with permits and inspections. Then you have the added privilege of paying hefty monthly sewer fees,_ and_ worse, increased property taxes because of the assessed increase in property value after being connected to the public sewer (essentially an endless tax on the money you had to spend on the sewer).


 
Sounds like you got the same "system" we have here.  It didn't matter that our septic was functioning properly.  We were forced to hook up due to state law.


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## Shari (Feb 1, 2013)

swagler85 said:


> *WOW $12,000 FOR A ROOF IS A LOT, HOW BIG IS YOUR HOUSE?*


 

We are just a tad under 1,800 sq. ft. plus an attached 2 car garage plus a 10' x 20' covered patio.

The house/garage was a complete roof tear off as we already had 2 layers up there.  The patio was in bad shape - tear off including the plywood.  We have a hip roof with, I think, 5 valleys.

When hubby was in the hospital, in a coma, I was living at the hospital with him, we had a couple of really bad thunderstorms roll through and I went home for a couple of hours to check out the house.  We had water in the basement.  I cleared the floor drain, got the sump pump running (it, of course, had cocked sideways inside the crock) and pushed the water to where it would drain, all the time trying to figure out where the water had gotten in.  The best I could figure was an area near our front sidewalk.  After cleaning, quickly, as best I could in the basement, I went outside and shoveled dirt up against the house where I figured the water had entered.  Then I went back to the hospital.

A couple of months later, hubby's home, living on what would be his first of two artificial hearts, batteries keeping him ticking, and again we had water in the basement.  I was crushed!  "What the hey is going on here?"  While I was standing down there trying to figure out where the water was coming from I felt a drop of water land on my head - the rafter above me was wet. "Huh?"  Okay, upstairs I go......

Do you know what I mean by the 'dead head space' above a stairwell?  It's a dead space where the ceiling of the stairs runs down at the same angle as the stairs but there is no access to that area from the living space.  Well, we do, kind of, have access to that area.  We have an old style stereo system with old speakers built into a wall in our dining room which butts up to the basement stairwell.  One of those speakers backs into this 'dead head space'.  I pulled out the speaker (no mean feat here - they are meant to be floor models and are old and HEAVY) and there it was - a leak in the roof right above the stairwell in the dead head space.  Talk about a sneaky spot for a leak!  I crawled through the speaker hole, got inside the 'dead head space' and pulled the wet insulation out,  I kept the speaker out and put a fan in the opening for about a week.  One of these days I have to get back in there and re-install insulation. Ugh!  I HATE working with insulation.

We had 3 companies give us estimates.  Believe it or not they were all within $600 of each other.    We were (are) very pleased with the guys that did the work - they were neat; they cleaned up at the end of each day; they did the roof in sections;  we weren't bare to the weather at any time & my BIL referred them to us.

While the roofers were here we had at least one day of 60 mph winds which was too much wind for them to work in.  I snagged the two young guys to wheel 3 yds. of traffic bond back around the shed in the backyard for my wood stacking area.  I think they said it was 60 contractor wheelbarrows.    They got a workout on a day the couldn't work due to wind and I gave them some greenbacks for the separate job.  There was no way hubby nor I could have done that job.


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## Shari (Feb 2, 2013)

yooperdave said:


> After the sewer and roof bills, I can understand your husband's heart problem I hope he's doing well.


 

Actually, the heart issue happened first.  And, yes, he's doing well now.  There are lingering issues that will never get better but he passed the 2 yr. mark on the transplant.  The Drs. say if a patient makes the 2 yr. mark with no rejection then they have a 90% chance they will never have a rejection.  If there is anything to really worry about, the immunosuppressants he takes have a cancer causing history. 

This is not to say there are other health issues like immuno things that go on.  As example, I had to take him to the emergency room for an infected hangnail.    Any infection is bad news for him.  The grand kids came down with pink eye when we had them visiting us - a.s.a.p. they had to go home and I had to disinfect everything they touched.

"Blood titers" is an interesting subject that affects him also but is way off-topic......

To make this story wood related:  We heat with wood in order to afford to stay in our home.  What we save in heat costs goes right out the door paying medical bills.


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## velvetfoot (Feb 2, 2013)

Ok, back on whatever track.
Here is a pile of logs at the end of my driveway.


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## loon (Feb 2, 2013)

Bret Chase said:


> The cost of shingles has exploded over the last 10 years.....
> 
> I need to replace mine.. and I am dreading it... I have shingled literally acres of roofs, and I am completely capable of doing it myself.... however coming up with 50 square of roofing materials (house, el (shed) and barn) is going to be tough...


 

Was quoted a couple years back $9.500 for our 1600sqf house and they would of been done in a day  Got ahold of some of my Buddies and it took us 2 days at $3.500+Beer and Food 

Cool picture Shari and sorry to read about those crazy bills..

loon


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## swagler85 (Feb 2, 2013)

Shari said:


> We are just a tad under 1,800 sq. ft. plus an attached 2 car garage plus a 10' x 20' covered patio.
> 
> The house/garage was a complete roof tear off as we already had 2 layers up there. The patio was in bad shape - tear off including the plywood. We have a hip roof with, I think, 5 valleys.


Ok I can see the expense with that, probably had a decent bit of OSB replaced as well. Multiple layers adds a good bit of cost as well


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## Shari (Feb 2, 2013)

velvetfoot said:


> Ok, back on whatever track.
> Here is a pile of logs at the end of my driveway.


 
.....and nobody snitches it?  I had problems with the previous family that lived behind us snitching wood from my stacks.  The new owners are fine but I put a 6' fence around the stacks anyway - looks a little neater for the neighbors.

Are those tall trees casting a shadow across the road?  

I've heard some die hard scroungers use satellite images to scope out deadfalls and then contact the land owner for scavenging.  That's a new way to use technology!


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## begreen (Feb 2, 2013)

Why lookee that. They shot this picture last summer, right after we split up a big load of fir. These satellite pics are getting a bit spooky. You can even see the clothes on the line.


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## 711mhw (Feb 2, 2013)

Shari, I have not noticed your post here before but I'd like to say that in reading this one, you sure sound like a trooper! If I were closer, I'd come over just to give you a big "pat" on the back! Glad to hear that things are all coming together for you guys.


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## velvetfoot (Feb 2, 2013)

Shari said:


> .....and nobody snitches it?



It's harder to steal logs.


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## Shari (Feb 2, 2013)

Somewhere on the net there are 'historical' satellite images - like from back in the 1950's-60's.  Those images are really interesting when you compare to what the same area looks like today.


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## BrotherBart (Feb 2, 2013)

On Google earth you can see my cat sleeping next to the wood stacks.


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## Lumber-Jack (Feb 2, 2013)

Shari said:


> Somewhere on the net there are 'historical' satellite images - like from back in the 1950's-60's. Those images are really interesting when you compare to what the same area looks like today.


Google Earth has a history slider where you can change the view of the area you are looking at to an older images from their data base.


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## firefighterjake (Feb 2, 2013)

Seasoned Oak said:


> One of my best friends(a roofer) Has hundreds of bundles of odds and ends in shingle leftovers from jobs.Probably a lot of roofers have that,unless they throw everything away. AS long as you dont care about the mix and match colors. possibly for the barn shed ect.


 
That's kind of what I did for my woodshed roof . . . there are two or three different colored shingles in it that I had left over from a job, bought another lot and scavenged from my old camp.


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## firefighterjake (Feb 2, 2013)

Bret Chase said:


> The cost of shingles has exploded over the last 10 years.....
> 
> I need to replace mine.. and I am dreading it... I have shingled literally acres of roofs, and I am completely capable of doing it myself.... however coming up with 50 square of roofing materials (house, el (shed) and barn) is going to be tough...


 
I was quite surprised when I got quotes this Fall . . . due to the pitch of the roof there was no way I could do it . . . turned out that going with asphalt was pretty much the same as the quotes I got for metal . . . forget the size of the roof, but the quotes for my house were between $7,900 and $16,000. Went with a guy I know . . . he should be finished tomorrow . . . ended up being a bit more due to a bad roof line . . . but it doesn't look half bad. The guy did a nice job.


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## StihlHead (Feb 2, 2013)

Bret Chase said:


> $200 a square is a steal here for a strip and reshingle... just getting rid of the stripped shingles has gotten stupidly expensive...


 
That expense (dump fees) has pretty much taken me out of buying and remodeling foreclosures here. Dump fees are beyond ridiculous here, to the tune of $100 a PU truck load (if not more). Dumping construction material is now 2x the cost now over 'plain garbage'. When I re-roofed my house in California, it was $20 a PU load at the dump for asphalt shingles. Concrete and dirt were free to dump as they needed that stuff to tamp down the trash with. Not so here. I take as much stuff as I can to the Habitat ReStore and/or post stuff for free on CL. In San Diego we just left the construction debris out in the yard at night with a FREE sign and it was gone the next day, usually taken south of the border for building materials in Mexico. Naily 2x4s, broken doors and windows, broken furniture... all gone the next day, like magic.  

Permit fees are another issue, and the time to get the permits approved. Also the subsequent increase in property taxes from permit work are ridiculous. They are just waiting there salivating down at the tax office every time I go to the 'fancy new modern bazillion dollar facility' county permit office to file for or pick up approved permits. My garage replacement here incurred a WHOPPING $35,000 increase in property value, almost as much as the house itself. I protested, as it only cost me $10,000 to build. Its a one car garage, attached to a $40,000 mobile home for Ch***t's sake. WTF? No way I can sell this place for what they have it valued at. 

Government = malignant metastasized evil entity... endlessly growing to devour everything and everyone in its path.


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## StihlHead (Feb 2, 2013)

begreen said:


> Why lookee that. They shot this picture last summer, right after we split up a big load of fir. These satellite pics are getting a bit spooky. You can even see the clothes on the line.
> 
> View attachment 91912


 
Spooky, yes. The county is using satellite photos here to bust people with non-permit buildings on remote property (like mine). So now that my garage remodel has the final on it, I have started a 200 sq ft 'accessory' building boom on my property, all at least 6 feet apart for fire requirements, and 10 feet from the property lines. No permit required, no tax increases, no inspections, no one can complain about them.


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## nate379 (Feb 2, 2013)

Glad so far the .gov mostly minds their own damn business here.  Don't need permits.


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## StihlHead (Feb 3, 2013)

Yah, you have no state income tax in Alaska either. Oregon is tied for 4th with New Jersey for worst states for income taxes.


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