In Concord, MA the house can be no taller than 35′ from the ground (without getting a special permit), where the ground is measured as the average of the ground level of two lowest points of the basement/foundation.

The engineering firm has measured the elevation of the ground level to be 124′. The previous massing was based on a ground level of 127′, three feet higher, and the previous massing used all of the available height. This means that the proposed roof peak is now 3′ too tall. Sigh.

The architect and Daphne are discussing how to deal with this. We can reduce the slope of the roof, which would lower the peak, but that causes some problems with the design of the whole roof, and may also lead to a propensity of ice dams forming (although Daphne says ice dams is not the issue). We can just push the attic down such that rooms in the second floor would have sloped sides near the walls. This is probably not a problem if we only drop down a foot or two, but once the height of the side wall gets lower than 6′ we start to have problems with doorways, furniture, etc. Discussions are ongoing. Watch this space.

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