Notes
Rental Property Plans
- Good tenants: clean, no money issues, good neighbors
- Reluctant to evict, but only legal grounds are owner move-in (self
or immediate family: Erica, Michelle)
- Grandchildren don’t qualify, only direct family
- Selling now would trigger $67,000-$70,000 in income tax
- To avoid it: move in for 2 years first, then sell
- Plan: move into rental, don’t list current house until settled
- Current house feels too big now that the family is grown; stairs increasingly difficult
- Considering options: townhouse (grandma’s suggestion), or a
single-story house with no stairs
- Not ready for a townhouse yet, but open to it
Building Inspector Stories
- Built current house; had major conflicts with multiple inspectors
- Kevin (building inspector): tried to measure foundation with a tape
measure, which is not permitted when site surveyors have already
certified the work
- Banned from the property after the dispute
- Rudy (plumbing inspector): rejected plumbing over unfinished layout
(dishwasher/stove positions not marked when he visited)
- Crumpled the rejection notice at city hall in front of manager Peter; Rudy also banned
- Lorne (foundation inspector): tried to enforce tie-hole filling
beyond what the code requires
- Code only requires filling if honeycombs are visible; Lorne backed down after the code book was produced
- Key principle: knowing the code in and out meant inspectors had no
grounds to push back
- Never actually read the code book, learned it entirely through experience and conversations with contractors
Deck Railing Code Tangent
- Railing height rules changed around 2006
- Old rule: 42-inch railing required if deck is 6 ft off the ground
- New rule: 42 inches if above 5 ft; 36 inches if at or below 5 ft; no railing required if under 2 ft
- Even the city manager (Peter) didn’t know the updated threshold until looking it up
Graduation Ceremony in Medicine Hat
- Attended granddaughters’ (twins) graduation; two evenings
- 400 students from one school; twins seated in the second-to-last row
- Ceremony involved students leaving then re-entering in a procession
(“marching”)
- Described as more of a fashion show than a formal march
- Second evening was worse than the first
- Wouldn’t have gone if not for the granddaughters; endured it for them
- The twins turned 1 around the time Chris and Courtney started dating
Birthday and Aging
- Just turned 81 on June 25th (Thursday); calls a neighbor born July 2nd his “twin”
- Perks of being over 75: no need to remove shoes at airport security, access to a separate screener
- Arthritis worsening after 75; noted as the one privilege old age doesn’t spare you from
Transcript
Speaker AThat's just a bro. Just what broke my heart.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ATo go and tell them they are clean. Nice, clean tenants.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AI don't walk in their house for truth. Yeah. That's how nice it is.
Speaker BOh, that's good.
Speaker AAnd the yard looks good. No problem with the money situation. Good neighbors. Very good neighbors. That everything together. You know, I wish I didn't have to do it. But you know what? For us to get them out. The only way I can get them out if we want to move in ourselves.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AOtherwise can't evict them anymore. Or if one of my family members like Erica or Michelle, I want to move in there.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ANot your grandchildren. Really. Grandchildren don't count.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AOnly family.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ASo I. Well, we won't wait and see. And we have to size down. We can.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker AThis house is too big.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AWe had a good time deal with a family, big family. So stuff doesn't happen anymore. And walking those stairs up and down, that's too much. It's getting harder every day. So.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AWhat we would like to. Not that I want to move in there, but I sell it now. It's. That's our business. So we sell it now, we're looking at 67, $70,000 tax on it.
Speaker BIncome tax on that one. Yeah, but you go move there for a year. Right.
Speaker ABut if I move there now, these days I have to live two years in there. Two years.
Speaker BReally?
Speaker ASo. Okay, what. What we have planning doing is move in there, not put this for sale.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AI'm not putting this up for sale before I know where I can go. Yeah, yeah, but why? I sell this, lived there for a while, then settled out and. Yeah, well, I don't know what to do. I don't want to move into a townhouse, but grandma's started to talk about it.
Speaker BReally?
Speaker AWhy don't we move it to a townhouse and we don't have to worry about nothing.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AI am not, not quite ready for moving to townhouse, but. But we'll see.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AWhat I would like is well buy a house. Like no stairs to go.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AOkay. Like a renter. Building a house. It's a lot of frustrating, a lot of work. I don't want to have nothing with building anymore.
Speaker BNo, you can be done.
Speaker AI am done with fighting with those engineers and with those building inspectors and with all the cold situation when we built this house, by the time we were done, I thought it would have a nervous breakdown.
Speaker BThis one.
Speaker AYeah. Well, two inspectors are not allowed to come here anymore. Really? Yeah. Are you making some coffee? I was gonna make a coffee.
Speaker BDo you want one?
Speaker AYeah, sure.
Speaker BYeah. You just told them they weren't allowed
Speaker Ato come anymore, huh?
Speaker BDid you tell the inspectors they weren't allowed to come?
Speaker AOkay, I'll have my own too. Like not two cups of one. Only one cup from one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was a one family inspector on frame inspector. You know, when you know the code, what you're looking for. Just another when you. When you know the code. See there so much stuff, they try to force you what's not even code, right? I don't know. I probably told you when we built the footing here, see, it was engineered and everything.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AAnd see, to lay out the forms, you hire the switch surveyors. Okay? They lay out your whole platform like you did your pins there. Yeah. You go by that and then. And that's all the paper now, that cost me 900. Really.
Speaker CSo.
Speaker ASo we built the footing here, and this was Wednesday, and the engineer was here. He said, you record now. So I couldn't get foot inspector until Monday. I phoned in the city hall, talked to the manager, Peter, and I said, peter, who has the rights to tell me that I can't fort Said, I have done everything by code, site surveyors, and everything's done by code. Well, he said, really nobody? He said, it's a bylaw. You know what I said, they can shove the bylaw and you know where. Next day, by noon, we had the port, okay? Then the building inspector comes around and he said, you must be a good friend of Peter. I said, kevin, listen, this has nothing to do with being a friend of Peter the manager. I said, I have done everything by code. I said, I got a piece of paper here. It cost me $900 for the site surveyors. And I said to him, why didn't you get. We don't take from that water, fresh water. They told us we should not drink that water anyways. I said, get your ass out of your car and go and look, the hubs are still there. See, when you. When they have the pins, you put a little piece of pipe over it. When they pour concrete, it falls on. But the pin that's there is still clear. You want to use a pin for laying out the foundation, right? Okay. He just throw it up, but slipped past and he was gone because he didn't want to face me any longer. Then later on, I had done the foundation. And when you have a site surveyors these days, you put your forms up the site surveyors come and they measure everything out, make sure everything is where it's supposed to be.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AAnd the building inspector is not allowed to run around with the tape measure and measure. Okay. He did that. He went around with a tape measure, and that's a no. No.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ABecause it's done by such surveyors. Yeah, that's by code. You can. The inspector has no rights. Right. So I just told the department that Kevin is not allowed on my property. And the plumbing inspector rejected my plumbing. Really? See, I have a little bit. Yeah, just a very little. All these years on, I built the house. I did it right away. I prepared for. If people want to finish out, you know, for the plumbing for that. The only mistake I made here is I had written down where the dishwasher would go and the stove and all that marked on the floor. And I wasn't here when he came. So he had rejected. Where is the blueprint for the. See, he had in mind to finish it out later because we didn't know if he would have enough money to do everything right away. Okay. So we want to do it later. I just prepared it. And so he had to reject the plumbing. Okay. I went into city hall, talked to the manager, Peter is his name, and had this piece of paper here. And I said, what I have here is a piece of junk. The Rudy has rejected the plumbing just because. Da da da, da da da. I said, I went like this, crumbled it. And I said, you can give it to Rudy and he could shove it and you know where. Oh, I was mad. Yeah. I said, Rudy is very lucky that I wasn't upset because he would have run for his life. And so I said. I just said, I want to. I don't want to see Rudy on my property ever, because he's going to run. Yeah. Certainly didn't. So I just went home and continued. You know, when you do everything but code, they. They. They have no rights to do anything. When. When you do everything but code.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AThey have one time. You see what they have when you have your foundation finished and they come and measure everything. This was in hope. They had all that first. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Then first of all, he came there and brilliant Parker said. What was his name? Lorne. I said, lorne, what you are doing is ridiculous. Wasting time. This is all done by search service. You have everything in your office. Why are you wasting time here to come and do that? I said, on the other side of town, probably somebody is waiting for you to make footing inspection at the kid poor. No, I said, you come and waste time here. I said, it's enough. No more of that. I don't want to see any more of this. Okay? He left. Really. He didn't do it anymore. Not same. Same foundation. See, they want to try to make us fill all those, what they call, tie holes. You know, you tie little nut. And it says in a code book, you only have to do some filling. If you have honeycombs in your concrete that you can see through.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ATo fill up with putty.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker AThat's all it says in the code. He comes up and he said, john, you didn't fill the tiles. I said, lorne, I don't have to. Yes. I said, no, I don't get the code book out. He took the code book out? Yeah. Says here, only if you have a honeycomb, then you have to putty it. That's all it says. They didn't do it anymore. See, I have never read the code book, but I knew the code book it enough.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AJust with dealing with inspectors. So they said, this is code. That is code. Talk to other contact us. We talked about what code is, what code is. I knew the code in and out.
Speaker BNever read it.
Speaker ANever read it.
Speaker BWow.
Speaker ASo then when we did here, see, for years, up till 2006, it was, if your sun deck is six feet off the ground and your railing has to be 42 inches, okay, they changed the code later on. If it's 5ft, see, my deck is not even 5ft off the ground. So I went into city hall to the manager, Peter, I said, peter, I want to know something. See, I didn't know exactly what I thought. I was still six feet. So. And he looked at a code. He said, john, you know what? I have been in this business for years and years. I didn't know what the code was. He looked at her and said, five feet and always six feet before. So I knew very well what the code of this was. So if you're from the ground level, if her top third deck was 5ft, then you can go 36 inch railing. Okay. But if it's above that, 42 inches, 3 foot 6.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker ASo that's. Those are all kind of codes, you know, You. You have to know. Okay.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CHey.
Speaker DHey.
Speaker CThe kids were seeing.
Speaker AOr if your. If your deck is only 2ft off the ground, you don't have to have no railing at all. What. What do you. What do you want there again? Looking for. You're looking for garbage. You shouldn't drink coffee.
Speaker CYou shouldn't drink coffee.
Speaker AYeah, I'm over age. Right. I'm over 70. Then I can drink coffee anytime you want. It's a free thing. Hey, Courtney, I thought.
Speaker CAre you not having coffee?
Speaker AAccording. If I have 70 over 75 and I go to the airport, I don't have to take my shoes off anymore.
Speaker CReally?
Speaker AGoing to the screen out there. Wow.
Speaker CLuxury.
Speaker AAnd go to a different screener. When we went a couple years ago to Mexico, we were with Eric and Jan and them and who else was there? And so he said, you can go to a different screener. No, I said, I'm gonna be good with my family. Okay, you can go to the screen.
Speaker CWell, that's cool.
Speaker AOh, yeah. There is a. There is a lot of privileges when you get old. The only privilege you don't get is you're not free from arthritis. Yeah, that seems to be. It's getting worse after 75. No, don't get old, Courtney.
Speaker CI'll try not to.
Speaker AThat's hard.
Speaker CI'm already feeling very old.
Speaker AWhat's the difference in age between you?
Speaker BA little over two years. Two and a half.
Speaker AOurs is two little. Yeah, just over two years from June to August, right? Yeah. We have natural friends. The lady was in the house with grandma and her shoulder replacement. And we go with all the coffee, and a couple of weeks we had coffee and she was telling she was 80. I said, you're 80. So am I. Oh, I said, when? July. I think the second. Oh. I said, I'm June 25th. So we call ourselves now twins.
Speaker BBecause you just turned 81, right?
Speaker AYes. Yeah. On Thursday.
Speaker BHappy birthday.
Speaker CYeah, we tried, but you guys were so busy partying in medicine hat, we couldn't get a hold of you.
Speaker AOh, that was boring. You know, you sit there, you sit there and so many times, people the speakers there. And almost the same. You listen to the same thing over and over again, you know? Well, I tell you, if it hadn't been for granddaughters, I wouldn't have gone.
Speaker BWell, they would have been w too, Right. So almost last. Their last name.
Speaker COh, that's a long way. You couldn't even get up and leave halfway.
Speaker DNo, no.
Speaker AYou said we have to in order to see them. We had to the end. They were set in the second last row.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker DWow.
Speaker A40 students.
Speaker B400.
Speaker AThat's just 400. And just from one school.
Speaker BThat's crazy. Crazy.
Speaker AAnd the second evening. Oh, it was even worse.
Speaker DThat was a joke.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker DMarching.
Speaker ASee, they all come in and they all sat down first.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AThen all of a Sudden they have to go like they have a Coliseum hacket. Then they have to go behind the curtain. I don't know why they have to go. And then they come by marching, you know, like Chris Garrison, Nadine come together and. But they come and they walk sort of like that. You can see them. Okay, okay. They call it marching. Okay.
Speaker DShow off their clothes.
Speaker AShow off their clothes. Or rather.
Speaker DOr whatever they never had before.
Speaker ANo.
Speaker DSo it was something.
Speaker AIf I would live there, I would complain. But, hey, you know what? We survived.
Speaker BYou survived. You made it back.
Speaker DIt's only the one time that they hadn't. That Mike and Mel went to it. They had no idea what to expect. Even Kennedy said, that's a joke.
Speaker BYeah, that's funny.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker ASee, But Kennedy, they had a dinner.
Speaker DYeah, right.
Speaker AAnd I found out also. Long evening, you know, at that. But what do you do? If it hadn't been granddaughters, I wouldn't.
Speaker BI mean, that's pretty special that you got to be there after that. Yeah.
Speaker ASo we made a very hard effort to go. Yeah.
Speaker BThose girls turned one the month after Courtney and I started dating.
Speaker CReally?
Speaker AThe what?
Speaker BThe twins turned one after Courtney and I started dating.
Speaker DWow.
Speaker CThat's crazy.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker CThat's really weird.
Speaker BYeah. I've been around for a long time. Yeah.
Speaker CYou're only 37. Me too.
Speaker BNo, you have.
Speaker AYou've been around long time, too.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker AHow long? I don't know how long. How.