Weather where you are?

martymoose said:
How is that new shed coming along Paul?  Can we have a shed thread?
Click to expand...

Hi Marty

not much to report on the shed efforts, unfortunately. I have had 5 plans drawn, each less grand than the last, and each of the 5 have been rejected in succession by the City of Calgary. Too big, too tall, too much like commercial business premises in a residential area, etc., etc.

I put up an 8 foot by 10 foot storage shed beside the single garage on one side, and a 10 foot by 20 foot storage shelter on the other side of the garage, both short term stop gaps, and I unfortunately still have a 40 foot cargo container in a storage yard for most of my big tools. Very frustrating.

The existing garage is an uninsulated and unheated small single, with an open but roofed carport attached. Current "make do" for the coming winter is an application to the City to at least let me enclose the car port and knock the wall out between garage and car port, would get me a basic double garage size at least in the short term. I have already had a gas line run, electrical service to go into the same presently open trench this week, and I have started stripping out the garage and car port to join them regardless at least for this winter, then I can continue my efforts to get something significant approved, or I may have to move outside the City, bloody hell...?.
 
SimonR501 said:
This may sound flippant Paul, but could you not get the Council to tell you what their ideal garage would look like?
Click to expand...

If it is like the regulations where I built my shop then the rules are buried and scattered throughout their website ........ and going to their administration offices I was told all the rules are on the website. I was finally able to get a contractor that knew the system and how to interpret the ambiguous rules. We were able to build the shop by following the rules and limitations that he knew had to be met ....... and pushing the limits on others (maximum height is 16'4" but only one floor is permitted. I was able to build a mezzanine with a trap door and retractable ladder. The inspector didn't like it but he couldn't find any rules broken. Definitely a case of "better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission". It would not have been approved if I had asked,)

Where I work is in a "permit not needed" zone. A relatively remote area where the nearest inspector is a 3 hour drive away. The only inspection required is electrical ...... but very few even bother with that inspection. I should move here .......
 
Most builders have to comply with some kind of planning scheme or set of local council rules.

My house is located on the border of 3 different planning schemes:
There's the normal Council planning scheme that applies to everyone.
Then there's a special planning scheme for my street because it's an esplanade on the foreshore which has some kind of special scenic status.
Finally there's a special heritage planning scheme because I live next door to a historic site (an old 19th century fort).

The areas subject to the different planning schemes are not so much bordering as overlapping. Consequently, any alteration I do to my house has to comply with all three! Not only that, but I have to make application to each scheme separately, which naturally means a separate application fee for each. I can't even put up a clothes line without filing 3 different building applications and coughing up about $1000 in application fees.  So you guys who have to work under one set of rules, count yourselves lucky!

Actually, I did put up a rotary clothes line, but I did it on the quiet and nobody has noticed. If anyone asks, I'll just say it was there when I bought the house.

When I built my shed, I figured I wouldn't get away with the sneaky approach, so I did it by the book. There was so much paperwork involved that I thought I should hire a legal secretary. The shed was eventually completed and has been in use for about 15 years but the paperwork still isn't finalised. I've yet to receive final sign off from the building inspector. When I notified the council that the work was complete and ready for final inspection, I never heard back from the inspector. I think he's so confused by the sometimes contradictory requirements of the different planning schemes that he's filed it away in the "too hard" drawer. It might come back and bite me on the bum one day, but as far as I'm concerned, I did my part.

After the experience with the shed, any subsequent alterations I've made have been without any kind of approval. Like Jim I figure it's better to act stupid and ask forgiveness after the event than go through the hassle of getting permission. Most of the work has been internal renovations anyway. Much of which is not visible from outside, so they'll probably never know anyway.
 
Put my 20 x 40' shed up about twenty years ago expecting to get hammered by the council and to seek forgiveness, been waiting all this time to find somebody to seek absolution from.
 
I built my 12 x 8 metre shed 22 years ago without approval.
It was included on my house plans as an existing shed and nothing was said.
As for my house, there are 3 reporting stages, pouring concrete, top plate, and lock-up where they sign it off if all ok.
Also there is the health inspection for the septics.
Well I gave them notice when pouring concrete footing, no show, reached top plate ready for the roof, no show.
I installed my own septics and drainage, left all the pits open for inspection, called them to say they're ready and she
tells me to take a bunch of photos and email them with an "as constructed" drawing and 2 weeks later I get the approval for use permit.
As I have done pretty much 100% of the building including milling all the timbers and making timber doors and windows etc the house has taken quite some time to get where I am.
So my Owner Builder license expired after 2 years and 3 1 year extensions later they told me it was the last so the pressure was on to get to lock up.
I got the letter last november informing me my license was up and that it wouldn't be extended and bla bla bla!!!
I stretched it over the xmas/newyear period then sent of the completion form saying it will be completed end of January even though the kitchen windows still need making, still no running water or kitchen sink, no gyprock on the walls etc, basically not ready to be lived in. Figuring when they come and seeing how close it is they would maybe give me some more time to get to lock-up. Well 8 months later I still haven't heard from them!! though I did get a rates bill charging me from 1st Feb to 30th june which is the end of the council rate billing period.
Just payed the current rate year and they have charged me a residential rate. So I have managed to stay under the radar which is really lucky as my house isn't quite like the plans as I did alot of making it up as I go 8) Anyway been living in it now for the last 4 months but still heaps to go to before finishing yet. I'm 120 km away from the shire offices :D

 
Sorry Grant, pictures are too hard since the demise of photobucket. Can't be fuck trying to reduce them and Flickr, well I just can't get my head around it so that's the end of my photo posting. I have a very limited attention span when it comes to figuring out computer shit. Rather spend my time doing creative things.
Come back for a holiday, even have a spare room for ya and bikes to ride!!
When I get around to down loading pics from my phone to my computer I'll email you directly some shots. How about that?
 
Rob, would be great to meet you again, but my simplified lifestyle also involves simplified bank account.
Whichever way is possible it would be great to see the house progress.
I migrated from Photofuckit to Flickr without drama.
 
motoddrob said:
Sorry Grant, pictures are too hard since the demise of photobucket. Can't be fuck trying to reduce them and Flickr, well I just can't get my head around it so that's the end of my photo posting. I have a very limited attention span when it comes to figuring out computer shit. Rather spend my time doing creative things.
Click to expand...

Rob,
I have found a very simple way to reduce them using windows photo viewer.
Right click on the photo you want to reduce and select open with, select Windows Photo Viewer.
Once the photo opens you will see a tag "e-mail" up the top.  Click on that and it will give you size options.
Choose a size (it will give you the estimated total size once you do. Once happy with the size click attach.

Now go to your e-mail and you will see a draft e-mail with your photo attached at the reduced size.
Save that attachment wherever you want and then delete the draft e-mail.

All in all it just takes a couple of seconds and no need for web based hosting accounts.

I hope all is well over there in the "shaky south west"  :D

Cheers
Bruce K
 
There's an easier way than that Bruce. And you get better control over the photo size.

Open the picture with the Microsoft Office photo viewer (assuming most people have MS Office installed). Right click and select "Open with" then select "Microsoft Office 10".
I've set it as my default viewer for opening jpg or jpeg files.

When the picture opens, go to the drop-down menus along the top, select "Picture", then "Resize"

A box appears on the right side of the picture asking you how you want to resize it. Simplest way is to apply a percentage, like 20% of original, or whatever % you need to get it down to the size you want.

After you've re-sized it, click "File/Save As" and save it with a new name. If you just click on "Save", it'll save it to the same file name as the original, overwriting it with the resized photo. I'm assuming you want to keep the original high resolution photo.

For attaching files here, you need them to be less than 200 KB. The resize tool doesn't tell you how many KB the file will be after you've saved it, but it does give the pixel numbers. 200 KB is somewhere around 800 x 600 pixels.

The only way to be sure it's under 200 KB is to find the re-sized photo file in Windows Explorer and hover the cursor over the icon. A little info box will appear and tell you how big it is in KB. 
 
On the North Shore we are feeling the dying end of Florence.

About 28C in day and 15c at night and up to 80 mph wind gusts and Lightining.

Avoid dark clouds - Gotta love the Cambrian Shield.

Looking forward to a great Fall through into October and November with my Jeep TJ Sport.

We had one HOT Spring and Summer.
 
H Grant, pretty much in the same situation, prefer to work 2 hours a day and live a much simplified/ self sufficient life in my little piece of paradise.
I've managed to build my house without debt and still keep my SFC, Motodd and the GS BM at the expense of O/S travelling.
Having said that I'm off to Thailand for October for the MotoGP and family stuff, first O/S trip in 6 years and funnily enough I not over excited about it.
Airports and planes do my head in! Much prefer to jump on the BM and go bush with a couple of mates far away from people and cars.
I'll revisit my Flickr account and see if I can figure out how to attach photos and take it from there.

Bruce, I tried what you suggested and it worked so there is one option.

Cam, I don't have Office on my computer, haven't had a need for it since dropping out of the main stream of life!!! 8)
 
motoddrob said:
Cam, I don't have Office on my computer, haven't had a need for it since dropping out of the main stream of life!!! 8)
Click to expand...

I must admit that since I retired, about the only MS Office application I use regularly is Excel. And that's usually for doing technical calculations related to bikes or some other engineering project. Although I do get the occasional bit of paid engineering work for which it comes in handy.
 
Don't want to be rude Dellerto but back in 98 MS Office and Excel was main stream.

Then came along "MPG4C32.dll" - Changed the Internet to this day. Only available on the Win98 Gold Edition as an option.

That DLL fucked STD Mpeg2/AC3 Video and gave dynamic AVI Mpg4 Video to the populaces in the form of DIVX, XVID, 264 and 265 encoding. Say AVC/ACC.MP4. MS never laid claim for this Encoder other then they offered it as an option where you copied the DLL to Windows/Systems and registered it and a 3rd Party App like VirtualDub used it.

Plus we can screen capture and edit whatever presentation and upload the garbage.

Beautiful weather on the the North Shore for Riding save for some outbursts that you should run away from or stay put ;o)

Dying End of Florence had her revenge on Ottawa and Haul.

PS:

In the last week temps have fallen to 22C day to 10C at night with blustery rain clouds.

Still very acceptable in the Cambrian Shield.
 
October 2, 2018 Calgary Alberta Canada. First real snow of the year, and expected to snow for another couple of days, bloody hell...?

Paul LeClair
 

Attachments

  • Oct 2 2018 snow2.jpg
    Oct 2 2018 snow2.jpg
    86.3 KB · Views: 8
  • Oct 2 2018 snow1.jpg
    Oct 2 2018 snow1.jpg
    86.9 KB · Views: 6
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top