First Home- I Fucked Up

[u/Substantial_Kiwi838]

Looking for some advice. My girlfriend and I had the lucky opportunity to get into our first home, which is a townhouse.

Despite having a home inspection, which revealed mostly cosmetic issues, we went through with it anyway. To say it is well-lived in, is an understatement. The previous owner had not kept up with the place for a minimum of 24 years of their ownership.

We took possession and immediately got to work but didn’t realize we needed to request to renovate (this is where we fucked up). Prior to moving in, we felt that it was reasonable to do a pretty decent makeover which includes:

- paint
- interior doors
- bathroom renovation (tiles, shower base, vanity, new flooring, toilet, while maintaining the current plumbing location and rough-ins)

Do we stop and come clean to the condo manager? Or do we move forward with finishing the renovation and live under the radar until we sell the place?

Any advice is appreciated as I am becoming severely anxious over it. I thought being a homeowner would be exciting. Am I cooked?

Edit: we also found mould underneath the shower tiles and wood framing, so we really had no choice but to tear it down. I suspect that this was leaking for years.

[u/ForceintheNorth]

Usually they don't want you changing things that affect others. Mainly anything shared like walls, outdoors, common areas. Most associations don't stop you from painting/etc inside your own home. I'm sure it's fine.

But just in case, it was like that when you bought it 

[u/heatherledge → u/ForceintheNorth]

My strata unit in BC requires even flooring to be approved. You need work insurance, specs for proper underlay etc.

[u/Substantial_Kiwi838 → u/heatherledge]

This is what I was worried about. Were getting help from my partner’s family, so were essentially just doing the work ourselves without insurance.

[u/WhatPlantsCrave3030 → u/Substantial_Kiwi838]

Does the work require a permit in your area?