'All I wanted to do is build a house' (2010)
I&#x27;m torn on building codes.<p>They increase the cost and duration of building a new dwelling by exorbitant amounts and limit the creative freedoms of the builder into practically following cookie-cutter templates (esp in terms of materials).<p>On the other hand, they theoretically provide some semblance of assurance that when you buy a new property that it was built to a certain standard. Unless it was grandfathered in, or the builder &quot;knew somebody,&quot; or work was done without a permit after the dwelling was built, or ...<p>As somebody fully capable of building my own house though, damn do I wish they didn&#x27;t exist. It means putting off that dream for an untold number of years of further saving and wasting money on rent instead of being able to buy a piece of land, and slowly progressing from a shack to a beautiful home worthy of a family. That ship sailed long before I was born, and instead of providing their purported benefits, building codes just feel like another tool to oppress the not-wealthy.