When renovating a house you can do what you want, when you want. Apartment strata living is a more delicate dance – if I ruin my plumbing, a few dozen or a few hundred people will have my head. In Canada, at least, most apartment buildings have strata councils to keep their structures in working order.
They govern all that ‘common ground’ stuff:
- whether or not you can have barbeques on the balcony (fire hazard?)
- whether you can install in-suite laundry (capable pipes and water supply?)
- what are acceptable floor coverings (sound barriers?), etc.
I’ve heard total horror stories from friends: major strata grief for having the wrong colour curtains, for storing bikes in their parking spot and for putting up Christmas lights too early. I think we’ve got a good one – early signs indicate they’re a nice bunch of reasonable people – but we still have to request strata permission to renovate our suite.
I resented the permission-process at first. You finally own your own place and then – very first thing – need approval to so much as paint a wall. It’s like getting to high school, only to learn about the hall pass.
So, a week after moving in, I suppose that puts us at day 11. What have we got to show for ourselves? A rather slow start, actually. Just one wallpaper-less wall and totally lopsided shoulder muscles. We finally sent off our renovation request letter to our building’s strata council. Like anything you put off for days – it wasn’t that bad.
Mellowing in my old age? I guess it keeps the building safe. If Debbie Demo wants to knock out walls or mess with the plumbing, she has to prove her process legit with permits, contractor details, plans, etc. Our letter was merely a bulleted list of “cosmetic alterations”.
We’re removing wallpaper and replacing kitchen counters with new. Carpet will be replaced with laminate and the underlay will be of, or better than, the grade specified in strata council requirements. All alterations will be surface only and we’ve noted your given hours for construction noise. Thanks.
Soon we should get confirmation that the popcorn ceiling has no asbestos (which it shouldn’t – but who wants necrotizing lungs?). Just a little more waiting.
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Photo credit (from L-R) to D. Sharon Pruitt, Amber Dawn Pullin and Michael via Flickr Creative Commons.
Hey, you want a s'more? Some more of what?
good luck with that popcorn! We had it all over the house- luckily our asbestos test came back negative and we attacked it full force. It’s pretty nasty stuff- we scraped it off and also had to use joint compound on some of it as when scraped, it was really unlevel. They make it look so easy on You Tube!:) Good Luck and great blog!
Here is our own popcorn journey- just the start of it! http://brickandbrack.net/2009/10/24/popcorn-paranoia/
Oh, fantastic – thanks for the link! Can’t wait to spend some proper time reading your blog later tonight. Especially as it’s of the been-there-done-that variety. And, yes, YouTube does seem to set the expectations pretty high both for time commitment and messiness factor. All the best, thanks again!