The Flooding of My Basement and the Uncertainty of Zoning Approval

As I walked over to turn on the water, I noticed something peculiar. There, in front of me, was what appeared to be a dead mouse. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence, but as I looked around, I realized that this was not an isolated incident. The floor seemed to be sagging, and there were cracks everywhere. It dawned on me that my basement had flooded.

I couldn't believe it. All this time, I thought the floor was solid. I had even been down here more than you, thinking it was perfectly fine. But now, it seems like the work done here was not up to par. The warp right there was not present, and I'm starting to think that something has been buried beneath the floor.

The flooding has caused quite a bit of anxiety, especially since my next zoning or planning board meeting is scheduled for January 28th. However, this means that by February/March, I won't be able to dig in and start working on the property as planned. This presents a significant problem, especially since there's still much work to be done.

As we navigate through the process of getting my house approved, there are several decisions that need to be made regarding zoning regulations. The question remains whether I need a bulk variance or a use variance. A bulk variance would allow me to increase the size and shape of my garage, which is something I'm currently planning to do. On the other hand, a use variance would require me to convert my garage into something entirely different, such as a CVS.

Fortunately, my historic review has been passed, which was an important step in this process. However, there are still several items on the checklist that need to be addressed by my experts. This means that the process is not going as smoothly as I had hoped, and I'm starting to feel frustrated with the cost and complexity of it all.

Every bill I receive seems to bring me more anxiety, especially when it comes to costs. Why are the prices increasing? What am I paying for, exactly? The process of working through this has become like a game of musical chairs – I need to commit to one option or another, but either way, I'll be wasting money on something that's already been invested in.

In light of this, I've decided to see the project through and hope that all my experts can cross every T and dot every i. That way, I can finally get a loan to build the house I've always wanted. The uncertainty is still there, but at least I have something to look forward to – the opportunity to start building my dream home.

The property has several non-conforming elements that will need to be addressed during this process. However, in the end, I'm excited about the possibility of making my new house more conforming with historic regulations. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make for the chance to build something truly special.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right everybody Rob Freddie here and here's a house update so when I said I bought a house I did when I said I was going to modify the house I am when I said it was going to start soon I was wrong and the process is a little bit longer and much more costly than I was expecting there walk through that Lowe's was having a Black Friday sale so I went in like oh well you know what let me just start buying up some stuff I bought a new refrigerator two dishwashers that's one for the the kitchen and the ones for the basement because it's gonna be like a wine cellar and another social space down there so I'm like let me put a dishwasher down there so we don't to bring all the glasses up and down the steps every time I'm gonna be ah I got an oven a microwave a wine fridge all sorts of like fun stuff just to back it off because I'm gonna need it in a couple of months anyway if I could say 40% great so next thing I did was oh I also got a washer and dryer this is the old washer and dryer this washer was out of my rental house and I took it out because it sucks and when I say it sucks it's got like mold on and everything like that normally screw this like I'm tired of dealing with this I ended up putting a new watt the new washer in the other house temporarily and then when I move out I'll switch him back again because that but I also there was a tax credit so I got rid of the fridge here and I mean I can install the new fridge we don't really need a new fridge here at the moment but I got 50 bucks for that and they hauled it off so it was like less space in my dumpster so Jimbo calls me up and he's like hey Rob this is my Jimbo voice so these guys took the fridge out and there was water spraying all over the place because when they disconnected the fridge this water line is just like so they went and turned off the water downstairs and Jimbo took the I'm taking the frig out is like Jimbo you're getting evicted which sort of maybe not really so they turned the water off and Jimbo was moving out anyway you want to move back down to his parents place in Maryland I know I know I told him not to but that's Jimbo's decision so next thing you know the next day I go this is moving day the day he's moving out the day after I had the fridge picked though he says that he wants to turn the water back on so he can shower and I'm like I will whatever it's one day come over my other house and shower next thing you know she's like up no I found out these guys are just dummies there's a water turn off onto the sink so I turned on the main water and I just turned off this under the sink as we go okay then Jimbo is a pretty resourceful guy then I fly down to the Bahamas down in the Bahamas when I land in the Bahamas I get a call or text or voice and I don't remember what it was from Jimbo but the summary is your basements flooded my what do you mean my basements flooded and he's like there's like five inches or six inches of water in the basement now six inches of water is like that but remember a basements pretty big so you're talking like a thousand square feet of six inches of water that's a lot of water and he's like well yeah I was in the house and the heat wasn't working so I went down to see what's going on and there's water all over the place and I'm like well Jimbo isn't it kind of convenient that you were just you just turned on the water and then the basements flooded with water and I thought like he thought he turned this off and this is flooded the house and went down into the basement luckily that wasn't the case I still don't know what it is we'll go down and see if it's still wet that was about a week ago we'll see if it's still wet I'm not a really a germaphobe but I rather touch this stick than that so what I'm confused way yes oh the rug I don't know where that was I think it was already on top of us why do we keep because I didn't feel like throwing it anywhere else you see when I went down here last when because there is so much water it looked like the floor and I just and I went but no there's no there was all water here and I stepped down because it looked like the floor all right so good news Jimbo is that there's no longer water here it does smell right so this is filled with water so where did the water come from right here this is where it was originally draining yes this is like a pressure it's a pressure release I'm guessing oh yeah and like even like look at this blast spray around it that was that was coming out hot did you crank the heat up to like a million degrees like thermonuclear oh no no not at all I think it's overflow from the hot water heater and for some reason it kept sucking water in thinking it needed more to refill and that's why I was draining out of here if that makes any sense so that caused water to go up it was about probably about there yes and I waded through it yeah like just to think I'm gonna be like drinking wine in my wine cellar down here at some point in time and I mean it's a nice dry Jace yeah Jimbo this was underwater just Pig 220-240 whatever it is not the worst electrical box not a bad basement not and this is a this dis basement to be this dry I don't know where on water 1 somebody's crunched up glasses well soon we're gonna see the dead mouse yeah yeah it's over by the way as I stepped on something see this I'm not really confident that that well dead mouse carcass was over there I want to know what ate the dead mouse so like the water just bleeds into the ground here I guess because it doesn't have a sump pump because it doesn't get wet enough but it does have a hole so all the water that's in the basement but like there's not even any puddles well there's all what over there rub where isn't that all wet right there wet this a little damp somebody where he's dead mouse Jimbo you're making this big deal about well now I mean I when I went to go turn the water back on wait and when I turn the water off when I was waiting through this I went over here and I looked right over here and I was like oh there's the dead mouse there I don't know where the mouse has gone since it has floated somewhere else I'm guessing I feel like there's a lot of custom support egde down here I feel like they like this log here I don't think that was I feel like the floor either they started to give away and so this wonder what's under there I think they buried somebody into this about the shape of a body still no dead mouse so Jimbo you're really excited about this dead mouse no I mean it's like seeing this is all gonna be redone so this makes me think I got it almost dig up the basement cuz I thought this was perfectly solid all the way across this either has to be repaired or read this work was not here what this warp right here was not here I'm dead serious this was not here it has to have been the work in the floor and I don't remember it neither do I and I was down here more than you so anyway long story short place is flooded my next zoning or my next planning board meeting is going to be January 28th so I'm gonna have owned this place and you can't really dig in february/march so I'm gonna have owned this place for a year and not have been able to do a damn thing with it even if the planning meeting goes according to plan which we'll see there's a question as to whether I need a bulk variance or a use bearings so essentially there's there's a question as to whether I need a bulk variance or a use variance based off of the garage is going to be larger and I'm thinking I need a bulk variance because the bulk variance means I'm going to have a garage same structure same principle use which is storing personally on cars it's just going to be bigger or a different shape or be moved that would be a bulk variance a use variance is essentially I'm gonna turn my garage into a CVS which I don't really plan on doing however that is an argument that I have to make during the zoning meeting other than that there's a lot of there's a lot of things I passed my historic review which was important because the property is going to look proper but there's a bunch of stuff on the checklist that just wasn't done properly that my experts have to address so process isn't going as I had hoped it's double what I thought it would be and not a big fan of that I'll be honest the cost what am i cool yeah I'll just pay for this okay okay now every every bill that I get really annoys me because I'm like well I don't want to pay more money for this we've already covered this why is it costing more and more and more and now I'm hiring this guy and I'm not hire that guy and it's it's like you got to commit to it now it's not like ah whatever just sell the property it's too much of a pain in the butt because if I do that then I'm wasting a lot of money that I just put in to get the property and do all this play like I the planning board the plans the architectural drugs I can't get anything back for that so I'm gonna see this project through and hopefully and I'm crossing my fingers and have all of my experts crossing the T's and dot in the eyes that everything reads correctly and everything passes through January 28th and then January 29th we're celebrating and we're gonna be jumping up and down and saying hey we get to finally go get a loan to build the house so there's your update Jimbo flooded my basement doors closed winters here my house is still here my new house is gonna be nice I can't wait to share that with you I'm very excited about that there's a lot of stuff that exists on this property that will not that's non-conforming so I'm gonna actually make this happy my new house is going to be more conforming than my old house as far as the historic is concerned so I'm excited stay tuned there's your house update I wish I had more to show you or any sort of demo or construction or plans but I'll hold that all till I get all the approvals and I know what the final plans are gonna be because it just makes me cry looking at stuff and this is a vision one this is revision to guess what revision one revision two it cost me $10,000 to make those changes and that's the only change and that's running out of lint see you laterall right everybody Rob Freddie here and here's a house update so when I said I bought a house I did when I said I was going to modify the house I am when I said it was going to start soon I was wrong and the process is a little bit longer and much more costly than I was expecting there walk through that Lowe's was having a Black Friday sale so I went in like oh well you know what let me just start buying up some stuff I bought a new refrigerator two dishwashers that's one for the the kitchen and the ones for the basement because it's gonna be like a wine cellar and another social space down there so I'm like let me put a dishwasher down there so we don't to bring all the glasses up and down the steps every time I'm gonna be ah I got an oven a microwave a wine fridge all sorts of like fun stuff just to back it off because I'm gonna need it in a couple of months anyway if I could say 40% great so next thing I did was oh I also got a washer and dryer this is the old washer and dryer this washer was out of my rental house and I took it out because it sucks and when I say it sucks it's got like mold on and everything like that normally screw this like I'm tired of dealing with this I ended up putting a new watt the new washer in the other house temporarily and then when I move out I'll switch him back again because that but I also there was a tax credit so I got rid of the fridge here and I mean I can install the new fridge we don't really need a new fridge here at the moment but I got 50 bucks for that and they hauled it off so it was like less space in my dumpster so Jimbo calls me up and he's like hey Rob this is my Jimbo voice so these guys took the fridge out and there was water spraying all over the place because when they disconnected the fridge this water line is just like so they went and turned off the water downstairs and Jimbo took the I'm taking the frig out is like Jimbo you're getting evicted which sort of maybe not really so they turned the water off and Jimbo was moving out anyway you want to move back down to his parents place in Maryland I know I know I told him not to but that's Jimbo's decision so next thing you know the next day I go this is moving day the day he's moving out the day after I had the fridge picked though he says that he wants to turn the water back on so he can shower and I'm like I will whatever it's one day come over my other house and shower next thing you know she's like up no I found out these guys are just dummies there's a water turn off onto the sink so I turned on the main water and I just turned off this under the sink as we go okay then Jimbo is a pretty resourceful guy then I fly down to the Bahamas down in the Bahamas when I land in the Bahamas I get a call or text or voice and I don't remember what it was from Jimbo but the summary is your basements flooded my what do you mean my basements flooded and he's like there's like five inches or six inches of water in the basement now six inches of water is like that but remember a basements pretty big so you're talking like a thousand square feet of six inches of water that's a lot of water and he's like well yeah I was in the house and the heat wasn't working so I went down to see what's going on and there's water all over the place and I'm like well Jimbo isn't it kind of convenient that you were just you just turned on the water and then the basements flooded with water and I thought like he thought he turned this off and this is flooded the house and went down into the basement luckily that wasn't the case I still don't know what it is we'll go down and see if it's still wet that was about a week ago we'll see if it's still wet I'm not a really a germaphobe but I rather touch this stick than that so what I'm confused way yes oh the rug I don't know where that was I think it was already on top of us why do we keep because I didn't feel like throwing it anywhere else you see when I went down here last when because there is so much water it looked like the floor and I just and I went but no there's no there was all water here and I stepped down because it looked like the floor all right so good news Jimbo is that there's no longer water here it does smell right so this is filled with water so where did the water come from right here this is where it was originally draining yes this is like a pressure it's a pressure release I'm guessing oh yeah and like even like look at this blast spray around it that was that was coming out hot did you crank the heat up to like a million degrees like thermonuclear oh no no not at all I think it's overflow from the hot water heater and for some reason it kept sucking water in thinking it needed more to refill and that's why I was draining out of here if that makes any sense so that caused water to go up it was about probably about there yes and I waded through it yeah like just to think I'm gonna be like drinking wine in my wine cellar down here at some point in time and I mean it's a nice dry Jace yeah Jimbo this was underwater just Pig 220-240 whatever it is not the worst electrical box not a bad basement not and this is a this dis basement to be this dry I don't know where on water 1 somebody's crunched up glasses well soon we're gonna see the dead mouse yeah yeah it's over by the way as I stepped on something see this I'm not really confident that that well dead mouse carcass was over there I want to know what ate the dead mouse so like the water just bleeds into the ground here I guess because it doesn't have a sump pump because it doesn't get wet enough but it does have a hole so all the water that's in the basement but like there's not even any puddles well there's all what over there rub where isn't that all wet right there wet this a little damp somebody where he's dead mouse Jimbo you're making this big deal about well now I mean I when I went to go turn the water back on wait and when I turn the water off when I was waiting through this I went over here and I looked right over here and I was like oh there's the dead mouse there I don't know where the mouse has gone since it has floated somewhere else I'm guessing I feel like there's a lot of custom support egde down here I feel like they like this log here I don't think that was I feel like the floor either they started to give away and so this wonder what's under there I think they buried somebody into this about the shape of a body still no dead mouse so Jimbo you're really excited about this dead mouse no I mean it's like seeing this is all gonna be redone so this makes me think I got it almost dig up the basement cuz I thought this was perfectly solid all the way across this either has to be repaired or read this work was not here what this warp right here was not here I'm dead serious this was not here it has to have been the work in the floor and I don't remember it neither do I and I was down here more than you so anyway long story short place is flooded my next zoning or my next planning board meeting is going to be January 28th so I'm gonna have owned this place and you can't really dig in february/march so I'm gonna have owned this place for a year and not have been able to do a damn thing with it even if the planning meeting goes according to plan which we'll see there's a question as to whether I need a bulk variance or a use bearings so essentially there's there's a question as to whether I need a bulk variance or a use variance based off of the garage is going to be larger and I'm thinking I need a bulk variance because the bulk variance means I'm going to have a garage same structure same principle use which is storing personally on cars it's just going to be bigger or a different shape or be moved that would be a bulk variance a use variance is essentially I'm gonna turn my garage into a CVS which I don't really plan on doing however that is an argument that I have to make during the zoning meeting other than that there's a lot of there's a lot of things I passed my historic review which was important because the property is going to look proper but there's a bunch of stuff on the checklist that just wasn't done properly that my experts have to address so process isn't going as I had hoped it's double what I thought it would be and not a big fan of that I'll be honest the cost what am i cool yeah I'll just pay for this okay okay now every every bill that I get really annoys me because I'm like well I don't want to pay more money for this we've already covered this why is it costing more and more and more and now I'm hiring this guy and I'm not hire that guy and it's it's like you got to commit to it now it's not like ah whatever just sell the property it's too much of a pain in the butt because if I do that then I'm wasting a lot of money that I just put in to get the property and do all this play like I the planning board the plans the architectural drugs I can't get anything back for that so I'm gonna see this project through and hopefully and I'm crossing my fingers and have all of my experts crossing the T's and dot in the eyes that everything reads correctly and everything passes through January 28th and then January 29th we're celebrating and we're gonna be jumping up and down and saying hey we get to finally go get a loan to build the house so there's your update Jimbo flooded my basement doors closed winters here my house is still here my new house is gonna be nice I can't wait to share that with you I'm very excited about that there's a lot of stuff that exists on this property that will not that's non-conforming so I'm gonna actually make this happy my new house is going to be more conforming than my old house as far as the historic is concerned so I'm excited stay tuned there's your house update I wish I had more to show you or any sort of demo or construction or plans but I'll hold that all till I get all the approvals and I know what the final plans are gonna be because it just makes me cry looking at stuff and this is a vision one this is revision to guess what revision one revision two it cost me $10,000 to make those changes and that's the only change and that's running out of lint see you later\n"