OK, OK, I'm cribbing a title line, but that's how we feel.
We've been trying to build a home on Camano Island for over two years now.
About 7 weeks ago, after our permit had been with Island County Planning for 7 months, they told us they'd come to a decision. But they wouldn't tell us what it was. And they wouldn't tell us when they could tell us.
We'd been struggling with this Planning Department for a long time. Ever feel like you badly need to just break something? Yeah. Friends would ask how things were going, and we'd just shrug our shoulders. At one point we considered having T-shirts made with the words "No, not yet!" on the front.
Finally, we received their determination. It was a page long and said we could build (Yay!) but we had to raise our foundation height 2" because we were in a brand-new determined flood plain. Two inches.
We were pretty invested at this point, so we had drawings redone and reengineered for the new foundation extension and flooring.
Then, with happy hearts (see previous posts and pics), we went off to empty out the house so it could be deconstructed and we could begin building our new home.
We spent several days emptying everything out of the house. Huge props to our adult offspring and SOs for pitching in with a will - we couldnt' have done it without them. We gave a LOT of stuff away and stuffed everything else into a heated storage unit.
Yesterday, after all this work, we received word from Island County Planning that they'd made an error - we needed to raise the foundation 2 FEET, not 2 INCHES. This was based on a pre-emptive US Army Corps of Engineers survey that had been done that contradicted the FEMA survey. See how weird this shit can get?
After some conversation, Bonney and I realized we couldn't build the foundation 2 feet higher - it would look incredibly stupid and ugly. It would also have way too many stairs for a home where we hoped to live to a ripe old age.
When I tell you that Bonney was in tears, I also tell you that this was breaking my heart.
We went to bed. Slept poorly, woke early, sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating buttered toast (a sovereign remedy for most ailments). Then we got a call from our builder; our architect had rung in on this. As it happens, the Corps of Engineers used an incorrect datum point for their survey.
The result? We didn't have to raise our foundation 2 feet. We didn't even have to raise it 2 inches.
You might think we'd be dancing in the streets - and we *do* like to dance - but we're really feeling whipsawed. On my part, I just don't know how I feel, I'm only mildly glad that we'll be able to build our home and am still infuriated at a county planning division that took over 200 days and much heartache to issue a permit. Unlike in the private sector, we have very little recourse outside the courts to recover any of the money we spent due to Island County Planning's errors.
OK, we're going for a walk. If you see a couple walking in Seattle holding hands spontaneously burst into a few steps of Merengue - it's probably us!
We've been trying to build a home on Camano Island for over two years now.
About 7 weeks ago, after our permit had been with Island County Planning for 7 months, they told us they'd come to a decision. But they wouldn't tell us what it was. And they wouldn't tell us when they could tell us.
We'd been struggling with this Planning Department for a long time. Ever feel like you badly need to just break something? Yeah. Friends would ask how things were going, and we'd just shrug our shoulders. At one point we considered having T-shirts made with the words "No, not yet!" on the front.
Finally, we received their determination. It was a page long and said we could build (Yay!) but we had to raise our foundation height 2" because we were in a brand-new determined flood plain. Two inches.
We were pretty invested at this point, so we had drawings redone and reengineered for the new foundation extension and flooring.
Then, with happy hearts (see previous posts and pics), we went off to empty out the house so it could be deconstructed and we could begin building our new home.
We spent several days emptying everything out of the house. Huge props to our adult offspring and SOs for pitching in with a will - we couldnt' have done it without them. We gave a LOT of stuff away and stuffed everything else into a heated storage unit.
Yesterday, after all this work, we received word from Island County Planning that they'd made an error - we needed to raise the foundation 2 FEET, not 2 INCHES. This was based on a pre-emptive US Army Corps of Engineers survey that had been done that contradicted the FEMA survey. See how weird this shit can get?
After some conversation, Bonney and I realized we couldn't build the foundation 2 feet higher - it would look incredibly stupid and ugly. It would also have way too many stairs for a home where we hoped to live to a ripe old age.
When I tell you that Bonney was in tears, I also tell you that this was breaking my heart.
We went to bed. Slept poorly, woke early, sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating buttered toast (a sovereign remedy for most ailments). Then we got a call from our builder; our architect had rung in on this. As it happens, the Corps of Engineers used an incorrect datum point for their survey.
The result? We didn't have to raise our foundation 2 feet. We didn't even have to raise it 2 inches.
You might think we'd be dancing in the streets - and we *do* like to dance - but we're really feeling whipsawed. On my part, I just don't know how I feel, I'm only mildly glad that we'll be able to build our home and am still infuriated at a county planning division that took over 200 days and much heartache to issue a permit. Unlike in the private sector, we have very little recourse outside the courts to recover any of the money we spent due to Island County Planning's errors.
OK, we're going for a walk. If you see a couple walking in Seattle holding hands spontaneously burst into a few steps of Merengue - it's probably us!
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