05/11/2012 Day 33- Never pull a permit

The first bomb of the project was received by voicemail on Wednesday night. Mike the job foreman had the city of Newark inspector on site for another inspection...and this time the results weren't all that good.
Our home was built in 1957 and the pool was originally installed in about 1985. At that time, the home owners installed a pool shed that runs down the entire length of the property and connects from the side of the house to the fence. They also installed a bathroom- both of which, I am told is now illegal.

Shed entrance from the front yard

Shed entrance from the back yard

The bathroom

So how does an inspection for a deck pool replaster and new deck turn into a code violation that will require me tear down a shed? Your guess is as good as mine and that's a great question for the city of Newark.
It's bullshit like this that city inspectors pull that give them a bad name. I was careful to choose a contractor that was reputable, and that would be held to high standards by having to pull permits. I paid the $500 for the permit to get it done right- but if I would have known that the asshole inspector would have been snooping around the rest of my property pointing out shit that was done 30 years ago, I would have never have pulled a permit.
What pisses me off even more is that I feel like the scapegoat for the entire neighborhood- our shed is neat, clean, and esthetically integrated into our property and one wouldn't even notice it from the street. There are at least a dozen neighbors who leave their garage doors open to reveal their illegal garage living room/ dining room/ disco hall eyesores to anyone walking down the street- and they're houses are fine? What a crock of shit!
No wonder people choose contractors that don't pull permits. No wonder city inspectors have a bad rap...and now it's gonna cost us thousands to remove it...
And to top it all off- when I called them and asked them exactly what needed to be done- they couldn't tell me. They told me that it would be inspected after the job- nobody will come out before to let me know if the electrical for the pool will be the next thing they tell us about...and then that the fence is too high...and so on. At least provide the common courtesy of guiding or helping people that you just screwed- give the inexperienced homeowner help, walk them through why you can't have a shed like this and more importantly how to fix it- then and maybe then they'll get some respect.
City of Newark- if you are reading this, this is precisely why people go under the table and avoid pulling permits- people are afraid of getting screwed for something that was done 30 years ago. I hope you go home and sleep well at night dreaming about how you saved the lives of the family on San Antonio street...how you did good for the city and the common good of the residents of Newark by making me tear down my pool shed.