My Dad had a detached game room. He'd use it to play pool, play video games on his PS2, and sleep away from noisy kids when he had night shifts.He survived a massive stroke and his gameroom fell into disuse, then as storage. 10 years passed, and I am now a young adult without the financial ability to move out.So, with his permission, I cleaned it out, put on some paint, and put down used flooring over the plywood. It's basically a room with electric and AC, but it's free rent and I don't feel guilty about having my boyfriend over at night. I'm planning to stay another 3+ years while I save up money.In the meantime, I was going to make improvements to the building, like releveling old pier foundation, replace the deck connecting it to my parents' house, and get the electrical wiring repaired/replaced. I was going to add trim and moldings and install cabinets for storage. Anything I could do to make it nicer and safer.The problem is, I'm in the process of contacting the servicemen who will be doing the large dangerous jobs, and looking into permits for doing so. Now I'm scared witless, because I need to get the building releveled before I replace the deck, and the deck is in really rough shape and not up to code. In addition, I have serious doubts that the building is certified for occupancy, and I've been sleeping in it for a year now. I also read that not having it up to code can be a class one misdemeanor and I cannot afford any legal fees.I'm afraid of being fined or charged for wanting to fix up an old building to avoid paying rent. I had a budget of 2k in mind but now I'm worried it's going to be much much more. I feel like I might have to abandon it all together and move back into a much smaller bedroom in my parents' house. I'd rather have a semi-independent living space.I guess I'm just seeing advice about this in general, whether I should keep pushing forward and navigate the permits. I don't mind working hard and paying to improve my building, but I wonder if it's just not realistically viable to do so.This was my hypothetical costs for these projects that need permits:Releveling: $500 Electrical maintenance/repair: $500 Deck: $800-1000 via /r/DIY http://bit.ly/2IABJhS
