The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

That is ice cream

 

[drumstick diva]

YES, that is the essence of cheerfulness- thank you for reminding me Alaskan. I didn't like the prices on ice cream today so now I have to go till Thursday for a chance to refill my stock.

 

[Alaskan]

YES, that is the essence of cheerfulness- thank you for reminding me Alaskan. I didn't like the prices on ice cream today so now I have to go till Thursday for a chance to refill my stock.

Clearly why you were feeling sad.


I too went shopping today... Almost choked when I saw the bill...but I paid anyway. I had splurged a bit, only the two youngest are home, and they so sweetly said "we noticed that you are almost out of your special ice cream, you should buy more" (children eat the least expensive ice cream, I eat good ice cream... My kids are so good that they are happy with the arrangement... No idea why I got so lucky in the kid department)

Since the youngest kids have a smaller repertoire of things they can cook (dry grilled cheese , excellent quesadillas, and dry eggs :/ ), and older kids and spouse are all gone for over a week... I bought some frozen ready made stuff. I was thinking food would be nice..... I didn't want to cook, I did want to eat....

Sheesh, I now remember why I never buy the premade stuff.... Crazy expensive.

 

[Alaskan]

Holy potato brains!

Everyone is sleeping.

 

[Alaskan]

Or maybe wholly potato brains... Or full of holes potato brains... all do apply in this case.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm still here Alaskan - I had no idea you have launched some of your kids. Who's going to do all the slave labor for you? LOL. Are you a grand parent yet?

I've hear Alaska is the place women go to meet men & get married. (many more men than women) I'm too old to make the trip. As long as they still make ice cream I can hold it together.

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:

Officially, it's R - 15, but as you said, there are ways around that. However, anyone intending to build here has to get past fun things like a county water system that is already at carrying capacity, no sewer and land that won't pass a perk test, land that technically falls under the definition of '"wetland," easements dating back decades, etc. Grease the right palms, and you can get past almost anything, of course, but how much can you reasonably expect to build on 4 acres? We have had some apartment complexes and town home developments that have been built close to here in recent years, but they are all on the main road; they don't have to weave their way through a quiet neighborhood to get to it.

On 4 acres? In the neighborhood where I last lived? 40. Minus the 15' wide road of course. And that would be single family homes, more if you made duplexes or triplexes. Way more if you put up multi story apartments.

So it is currently zoned R-15 but he has only 4 acres? Maybe the lot existed before the zoning. Land doesn't have to pass a perk test - mound systems are common. There are 3 houses just built on a rural road we travel. Spring 3 years ago the entire "parcel" (now split into 3 ~5 acre lots) that wasn't soggy was under water. The last house, nearly finished, must have an ejection pump because they put the HUGE mound in the FRONT yard, the high point of their lot. The other 2 houses have their mounds on the side. But I bet they still need ejection pumps. Around here the only thing that would likely save you is Vermont's serious "no building in or near a wetland" laws. Except for the well heeled developers who buy some undesirable land and convince (read money, new property taxes if nothing else, I presume) the "powers that be" that they can turn it into a wetland and then they can fill in and build on an existing natural wetland in a "desireable" location.

Sorry to be such a downer and I hope none of this comes to pass with your neighbor's 4 acres but I am soured on the legal system after seeing it "work".

I'm still here Alaskan - I had no idea you have launched some of your kids. Who's going to do all the slave labor for you? LOL. Are you a grand parent yet?

I've hear Alaska is the place women go to meet men & get married. (many more men than women) I'm too old to make the trip.

As long as they still make ice cream I can hold it together.

Al did say the spouse and 3 older kids were gone for a week. I trust there won't be any grandchildren to come home with them in that time. The oldest is, I think, 16 or 17??

 

[ronott1]

On 4 acres? In the neighborhood where I last lived? 40. Minus the 15' wide road of course. And that would be single family homes, more if you made duplexes or triplexes. Way more if you put up multi story apartments.

So it is currently zoned R-15 but he has only 4 acres? Maybe the lot existed before the zoning. Land doesn't have to pass a perk test - mound systems are common. There are 3 houses just built on a rural road we travel. Spring 3 years ago the entire "parcel" (now split into 3 ~5 acre lots) that wasn't soggy was under water. The last house, nearly finished, must have an ejection pump because they put the HUGE mound in the FRONT yard, the high point of their lot. The other 2 houses have their mounds on the side. But I bet they still need ejection pumps. Around here the only thing that would likely save you is Vermont's serious "no building in or near a wetland" laws. Except for the well heeled developers who buy some undesirable land and convince (read money, new property taxes if nothing else, I presume) the "powers that be" that they can turn it into a wetland and then they can fill in and build on an existing natural wetland in a "desireable" location.

Sorry to be such a downer and I hope none of this comes to pass with your neighbor's 4 acres but I am soured on the legal system after seeing it "work".

There is a new building going up in Davis, California where I work. It takes up two lots--Regular City lots so not much space. It will be 5 Stories with a basement parking garage. It will be 14 Condominiums--Each will sell for a nice chunk of change there. The owners will make a lot of money off of a small piece of land.

 

[Bunnylady]

So it is currently zoned R-15 but he has only 4 acres? Maybe the lot existed before the zoning. Land doesn't have to pass a perk test - mound systems are common. There are 3 houses just built on a rural road we travel. Spring 3 years ago the entire "parcel" (now split into 3 ~5 acre lots) that wasn't soggy was under water. The last house, nearly finished, must have an ejection pump because they put the HUGE mound in the FRONT yard, the high point of their lot. The other 2 houses have their mounds on the side. But I bet they still need ejection pumps. Around here the only thing that would likely save you is Vermont's serious "no building in or near a wetland" laws. Except for the well heeled developers who buy some undesirable land and convince (read money, new property taxes if nothing else, I presume) the "powers that be" that they can turn it into a wetland and then they can fill in and build on an existing natural wetland in a "desireable" location.

Sorry to be such a downer and I hope none of this comes to pass with your neighbor's 4 acres but I am soured on the legal system after seeing it "work".

This whole area was agricultural at one time. In the 60's, someone came up with an idea of of "mini-ranches," and divided it up into roughly 5 acre parcels. Quite a number of people bought in as an investment, but found the restrictions annoying enough not to actually build on the lots at that time. Zoning came decades later. Our lot, and that of our neighbor, are on the perimeter, so are odd shapes and sizes.

There's a lot of "ya gotta catch me first" going on in development around here, but there are also a lot of people downtown who really just want to collect their paychecks and go home; they don't want to help you achieve what you want to do, they just want you to go away. They get grumpy and obstructionist if you ask them to do their jobs - while it's possible to get things done in spite of them, this requires time and money, and that is my point - there's only so much money to be made on such a small parcel, so at what point does the whole thing become too much hassle to be worth it? Water and waste disposal have become huge issues in this area (hurricanes have caused epic flooding in recent years, and they came close to water rationing during a recent dry spell). We are on the coast; wetlands are taken so seriously around here that when the county created the well field behind us, the semi-permanent puddles on the dirt road were measured and charted and a wetland was created to replace them since improving the road eliminated them.

Yes, there is a lot of pretty dense housing not too far from here, and more going up every day, but would the neighbors who raised such a stink that they convinced Walmart to build elsewhere sit still for that on their back doorsteps? Tough call.

 

[chickadoodles]

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