If you want to have the biggest house in town – bigger than the building code technically allows – you just might have to wait for the picture-perfect opportunity.
That’s what this kid’s grandpa did, and it all worked out great in the end.
For him, anyway.
Let’s see how the story plays out…
How my grandpa built the tallest house in town.
The year was 1995.
My grandpa was always one of those coy men that knew how to make his way to the top of any situation, sometimes regardless to the cost to others…. but while shady, he was for the most part a decent human.
This story isn’t about his shady side though, it’s about how he was able to build the tallest house in town, even though it was against building code for the county.
A contractor wasn’t able to finish building a house.
A general contractor bought a property in this small town, and just started building, without getting the proper permits for the house.
The house was already framed and starting to get sheeted and had the roof built, when the building inspector was called to the property.
Of course he shut the construction down. The contractor was missing permits, and the house was too tall for what code allowed.
So, the job was red tagged and shut down. The general contractor couldn’t afford to tear down the house and rebuild, so he just walked away.
His grandpa goes to an auction to buy the house.
My grandpa heard about this and went to talk to the bank to see if he could buy the property.
He offered them $250k for it, but the bank denied his offer and said it was going to be auctioned off.
He decided he was going to show up for auction.
Day of the auction, the only other person who showed up, is another contractor from town, who my grandpa knew.
His grandpa didn’t have any competition at the auction.
He talks to him and basically lays it out like, “I really want this property, and if you will just walk away from this one, I will make you a partner in the next property I buy.”
And in a small town like that, my grandpa swears a gentleman’s promise, and the other contractor walks away from the auction.
They start the bid at $200k, and my grandpa offers them $100k.
The bank ended up selling for way less than my grandpa originally offered.
The inspector comes to look at the house.
So, he owns the lot, and instead of demolishing the house that is half built on it… like the county inspector wanted, he just decided to bring all the mistakes to code, keep everything revealed for the inspector, and continued to build on the house.
The county inspector hears that instead of being torn down, my grandpa is continuing to build on the house, and drives out there immediately.
When he confronts my grandpa, my grandpa shows him that he has brought everything to code.
The inspector tells him that the house is still too tall for what the code allows, and needs to be demolished to a legal height.
He lived in this house for awhile.
My grandpa simply replied, “well that’s easy. I’ll just import in some dirt, to put around the first floor of the house.”
The inspector became frustrated, and left him to build.
My grandpa was smart like that, but then, the whole reason I know this story is because my grandpa let my family move in with him after this house was built, and while my dad was paying grandpa rent for us to be there, grandpa drained the equity out of the house, didn’t pay the mortgage, and bailed to leave us homeless once the house was foreclosed.
So, it’s like I said… he was a very clever man, but a little bit shady also.
That’s cool how the grandpa got his way but not so cool that he left his own family homeless in the end.
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…
This reader shared a story about garden sheds.
Another reader thinks the grandpa is completely shady.
This reader doesn’t think the grandpa was a good guy.
Another reader shared a story about his own grandpa.
This grandpa really seemed like a bad guy in the end.
But I guess that’s the way it goes.
If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.