I understand that you cannot help worrying, but now you have indeed made me angry. 

The Nantucket authorities are now requiring insulation of the ceiling of UNFINISHED basements, no matter when the building permit was issued. The insulation technician told me in 2018 that this would be required, and I heard it in 2021 again from Martin Bourke, who spoke with someone in the building department to confirm his understanding.  That requirement is not consistent with legal principles, but those principles are worth nothing, and predict nothing. Insulating the ceiling of the basement was the purpose of the insulation, which I have placed in the ceiling without using a single nail or staple, and without in any way endangering the integrity of the electrical system, as you feared the placement of insulation would do. 

As to the lumber, the presence of lumber is irrefutable evidence of nothing. I may choose not to finish the basement, but to use the lumber for any number of other purposes. The quantity of lumber in the basement is far less than would be required to finish the basement. In fact, the purpose of the lumber in the basement is to construct a partition surrounding the spiral stairs, which I have also been told would be required, despite the fact that it was not in the plans, and which you yourself said on at least one occasion would be desirable in Belmont. The absence of such an enclosure substantially vitiates the effect of the insulation in the ceiling. Perhaps I should request the final framing inspection without building such an enclosure, being prepared to construct it if he demands it. 

I reject in anticipation any comment that I should follow the letter of law and regulation rather than acting on the basis of rumor and hearsay. 

I will not finish the basement, if I eventually chose to do so, until after the certificate of occupancy is issued. 

Your reference to my “insistence” on obtaining inspections very substantially dampens, but does not entirely quench, my new-found enthusiasm for the 3 Red Barn Road project. Remember that you say repeatedly that the most important thing is for me to be comfortable and happy. It reminds me that after the dismissal of the final appeal, you expressed the view that it would be perfectly acceptable to continue to use the house with water supplied by garden hoses rather than to have the plumbing done. I would not have been comfortable or happy. Before I insisted on satisfying the requirement for alternating current to the smoke alarms, you suggested waiting to see whether the inspector noticed the defect. Apart from whatever the safety merits may be, failure to adhere to this standard would have created significant civil and perhaps even criminal liability in the event of a fire in which someone was injured. I would not be comfortable and happy living in the anticipation of this risk. 

I could not properly rent the house without a certificate of occupancy, and would risk at least great embarrassment if I attempted to do so. In view of the history of conflict with the town, I would never be able to induce any members of the family except for Nathaniel and Sabine to stay in the house under the shadow of the worry that someone would turn up to demand that the premises be vacated immediately. 

The distance from the cement floor to the underside of the joists is 8 feet 6 3/4 inches. If the surface of the floor were elevated 2 3/4 inches over the cement floor, the distance to the joists would be 8 feet 4 inches. 

The ventilation requirement is interesting. I have been in many finished basements which do not fulfill the requirement for window space. A system of fans or a heat pump would presumably constitute mechanical ventilation. They need not be used very much, if at all. The value to the family and to potential renters would be substantial. I don’t think you appreciate this. 

Rather than very much worrying, you should be congratulating me on proposing to add, by finishing the basement, so substantially to the value you have created in building the house. 

You should recognize the value that I am already adding in bringing the construction to completion, and you should recognize that because of what I am doing, the house will be of value to the family in a way that it would not be if I adopted your posture of avoiding any further interaction with the authorities. 

I would like your help in figuring out the problem with the second floor outside light and in planning the surface wiring to the smoke alarms, if we find no unconnected wire in the circuit breaker box. 

Having said some of what is on my mind, I am no longer angry. 


Klemens Meyer, MD
Tufts Medical Center
Mobile 617-549-5539

> On May 30, 2022, at 11:02 PM, Ernst Meyer <ernstmeyer@earthlink.net> wrote:
> EXTERNAL MESSAGE - TREAT LINKS/FILES WITH CARE
>
> Thank you for letting me know. Nikola Chubrich has invited himself for 7 p.m. tomorrow night. I will e-mail you when he has left if you want to come to see me. I worry very much about your plans for the house. You insist on having a "final inspection" and at the same time fill it with
> lumber and bales of insulation which are irrefutable evidence that you are planning construction in violation of the building plans, which were
> for an unfinished basement. For such construction as you plan, the code
> requires a minimum ceiling height of 7.5 feet and absent mechanical ventilation, window openings equal to 4% of the floor area, 12.48 sq feet for each of four windows.
>
> On 05/30/2022 10:42 PM, Klemens Meyer wrote:
>> Drive from Hyannis took twice as long as usual.
>> Klemens Meyer, MD
>> Mobile 617-549-5539
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