What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

Live free or die! Paying taxes.

 

No sales tax and no income tax is great. Don’t eat out or stay in a hotel cause those have a hefty fine. Property tax is crazy there. It all averages out in the end.

 

Well, yes it is not great. Sadly, there are a lot of people out there that really don't have any idea what they are doing when it comes to building and renovations. I've seen it first hand many times. Permits and inspections can save your bacon should something bad happen. Insurance companies will look at where to point the finger too. Unpermitted work is certainly frowned upon.

We even have to get a burn permit and a dumpster permit for renovations. I could go on, but the city is fair and the inspectors and fire dept are very good to deal with.

Even better is that our police and fire have good equipment and very good response times. I really have no complaints as I look at the big picture.

 

Another joke...

A man hasn’t been to church for a long while and decides he’d better go to confession before starting to go again. When he enters the confessional box he’s amazed to find that it’s got a bar lined with finest whiskeys and a huge array of the finest cigars.
As he’s looking at this in wonder, the priest comes in.

The man says, “Father, forgive me, it’s a long time since my last confession. I must say though, that the confessional box is much better than it used to be.

The priest says, “Get out,you idiot. You’re on my side.”

 

Had a bunch of button mushrooms appear in the back yard from the rain. Look good but I don't think I'll give them the taste test.

 

That is interesting, I've never had them say they wanted to come in. They may ask questions about any updates, but they don't come in, Funny, my current house they still say has a shingled roof. I've had a standing seam roof since summer of 2014 - one would think they could tell that just by driving by during re-assessment. Course I didn't have to get a permit to replace that or the windows, so that may be the key.

 

It's the norm on the east coast - safety, electrical, plumbing and fire codes have to be inspected to. Of course around here the norm seems to be to try to use extension cords or lamp wire to run new outlets and garden hoses for plumbing if they can get away with it. That may be a bit of exageration, but the inspectors I have dealt with literally checked for just that. Once they moved insulation out of the way, saw actual electrical wire and real plumbing parts, they were good.

I was wicked surprised to find out the college town next to me just enacted the requirement for building permits this year (which in turn leads to inspections).

 

Mobile home was probably on city water and sewer, plus well within the fire protection district. City services usually make the value go up regardless of the shape or size of the building

 

All I gotta say is I pay less in property taxes than I would in income tax if I lived in another state.

 

I was actually lucky enough to get some money back after they re-assessed our house and raised the tax almost $1000.00. They had our pea gravel firepit area, path and patio listed as concrete so they took 30% off the tax hike. Although I believe that anyone that fought the new number received the 30% discount.

 

Jon better keep his back to the wall when they come to "inspect" .

 

Got the sinks plumbed and frame for mirrors started last night. Going to try to get all the mirror frames done tonight.

 

That looks so much better with the countertops in place. Nice job.

 

Spent the day mending fences, mostly targeting keeping the rabbits out. Then I noticed all the two toed hoove prints in the fresh tilled soil where I planted late carrots. Then I noticed, as I went to replace the pole beans that the rabbits ate with some fresh new starts, that the eaten ones had little sprouts on the pathetic little sticks for stems, so I had to build another trellis for the new batch. I might have a lot of pole beans in October. If I can keep the deer and rabbits off 'em.