How Low? I Mean, How High?

There are so many factors affecting the building of a house.  City and county ordinances, FEMA, code, neighborhood restrictions, wind, water, sewer, electricity, and most of all the sun and shade.  Throughout the building of this house, I am sure there will be other posts dealing with these factors as they arise.  It is inevitable.

Living in the coastal region means the land is flat, right? Oh, how wrong you would be.  The elevation hub came back today from the engineer stating the lowest portion of our property is 4.04 feet above sea level. Well hell, New Orleans is below sea level and a gazillion people live there, even after the hurricane, so I can live here easy peasy.  Hah!  That's what I get for thinking.

After buying the property, before the ink had even dried, it was discovered we missed something VERY crucial in the survey.  This wording, no bigger than a floss packet, should have had a neon flashing lights pointing to it, not a just enclosed in a tiny box.  Our lovely property is located in flood zone AE7.  Holy crap, how the hell did we miss that?  Apparently, our due diligence of 30 days was not diligent enough.  We looked at tidal plains and national wetland inventory, but not flood zones.  How, how, how could we not have thought of that? I mean good golly hello we live within a mile of the bay. Flood zones should have been the first thing considered but it never once did in the year and half of looking for land.

Flood zone AE7, as designated by FEMA, means floor substructure must be 7 feet above sea level.  This does not include any city or county regulations, such as all structures including auxiliary buildings over 200 square feet have to be 18" above grade.  While I know there are no posts discussing our home ideas, let me tell you, it was not a home in the stratosphere like this home that I saw in another city on the bay.  While this house is made of concrete and glass and looks to be hurricane ready, I cannot nor do I want to climb those stairs daily.

 

So what does that mean for Plan473?  It means 4.5 feet.  Our home will be tall enough allowing the kid to play underneath.  Sure he will be out of the direct sun so that a plus. It will now be tall enough to allow for outside storage of kayaks and such things.  That's good because they are out of the direct sun too.  But it may even be tall enough to allow me to park my little shoe of a car; which my the way, I whole heartily and lovingly refer to as my beep-beep.  My beep-beep, as in the roadrunner and coyote cartoons.  Jesh.  It won't be tall enough to park the truck under but it will be tall enough that if the truck is backed up to the deck of the house, the tailgate will be flush.  Ok, so loading and unloading of goods just got easier too.  Positive, positive, positive.