Imagine building a house, but the building inspector tells you that the building code doesn’t allow you to build a house that tall. Would you tear it down or find a workaround?

In this story, one contractor is in this situation and decides to abandon the project. That’s when things really get interesting because another man decides to buy the property.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out from the perspective of the new homeowner’s grandchild.

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 thst 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.

It started with a contractor who failed to get the proper permits.

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.

Grandpa wanted 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.

He knew just what to say.

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.

Grandpa did not tear down 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.

Again, he knew just what to say.

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.

It’s awful that the grandpa would leave his family homeless, but he was clever by avoiding tearing down the house.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is a good point.

Another person isn’t a fan of the grandpa.

One person is reminded of their grandfather.

Another person is reminded of homes in Cairo.

Prioritizing your family is better than being clever.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.