Thanks for answering my questions. I can feel your frustration as I would be having the same going on. I do live in a city, but in 1975 when I moved here, and built my house, the codes were so lax that nobody really questioned me on anything. At the time I had a similar situation as yours. I had a one car garage with the house, but did not want to do anything except keep the wife's car there so she could come and go without getting wet, cold, etc. I do have an acre lot, but my house was positioned so that only a drive way could fit on the left side and I could not extend the garage, and it was brick which is bear to add on to anyway. (My septic was in the front yard and to the right of the house). So what I did is spend $4000.00 to build a driveway (road actually) around my house and into my back lot. I was able to build a 20X30 ft garage/shop in the back of the house so it looked like it had been planned that way, and I still had room for an 8X16 ft shed later on. You can see this in my thread. When I built the house (1975) I had to put in a septic system (cost $1,800) as the sewer was being done and was about three months away. I had to move in so I did the septic anyway. Three months later, the city fired up the sewer, and one day I got a knock on my door and a letter saying I "WOULD" hook on the now working sewer or they would cut off my water service!! On top of that, they wanted $350.00 from me "NOW" for a sewer tap fee. Remember I had a three month old well working septic system. To end it up, I got a lawyer, and we had to agree for me to pay sewer fees every month on my water bill even though I kept the septic. Later, I got on the sewer at the first sign of septic trouble. The SOB's even wanted and then finally waived the sewer tap fee when I got on it in 1998.
Sorry for the long story, but things can work out. The problem is the pain, frustration and money that most of us don't have.
Good Luck! Let us know how it goes, ok?
