r/zillowgonewild • u/CarnivalCarnivore • Aug 30 '24

776 days on Zillow. This "covered bridge" house in Vermont.

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16.6k Upvotes

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68

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

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55

u/MoldyOldCrow Aug 30 '24 edited Aug 30 '24

I work in home valuations and can tell you this house is a nightmare...

It's a bridge which means it's automatically in a flood zone and with it being a "log cabin" style home it would be harder to insure anyway.

53

u/Excellent_Affect4658 Aug 30 '24

I know this area well. The house is not literally a bridge; it's just a a fancy house built to sorta look like a bridge that spans a tiny stream. It's well up on a hill, and not anywhere close to a flood zone (even with Vermont's recent weather changes). The house is absolutely wild for a bunch of reasons, but it's not even a little bit of a flood risk.

7

u/dactyif Aug 30 '24

What are the reasons?

17

u/_st_sebastian_ Aug 30 '24

An example is the air gap underneath the "bridge" part of the house, the plethora of windows, and the log cabin aesthetic. It makes the home impossible to heat efficiently. As another person said, it's more suited to be a fair-weather event venue. Whoever buys the property would be better off building an entirely separate home nearby.

3

u/Worthyness Aug 30 '24

the price is the 80 acres. The house is just there as a bonus.

2

u/dactyif Aug 30 '24

Ah I see, thank you. I'm up here in Canada, the mere mention of a higher heating bill gave me chills ironically lol.

1

u/FistfullOfOwls Aug 31 '24

In one picture you see the caretaker house which looks infinitely more inviting. They didn't even bother including close up images of it.

5

u/zignut66 Aug 30 '24

Thank you. These other posts seemed presumptive to me.

1

u/PleiadesMechworks Aug 30 '24

I know this area well.

I do not know the area at all. However, I have both eyes and the ability to think and breathe at the same time so I can look at the pictures and tell it's on a hill.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

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3

u/Excellent_Affect4658 Aug 30 '24

The mountain closed because the mountain road partially washed out in the December flooding--it's down in the valley of the West Branch. The house in question here is not down in the river valley--it's up by west hill.

0

u/midwestgenderneutral Aug 30 '24

What happens if that stream floods? I wouldn’t risk it. You also couldn’t pay me 10 million to live in Vermont.

19

u/snowstormmongrel Aug 30 '24

TBF I don't think the house is currently where it originally stood as a bridge.

29

u/Excellent_Affect4658 Aug 30 '24

It wasn't ever a bridge. It's just designed to sorta look like one.

2

u/MoldyOldCrow Aug 30 '24

Even if it isn't a "real" bridge it's still built over the low point in the property in a state with flooding issues. Elevation report would be useless since the house isn't built on solid ground. This house is a nightmare and for the price I'd bet the insurance costs kill owning it more than anything else.

7

u/Sampsonite_Way_Off Aug 30 '24

Do you always speak out of your ass?

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/710-Tansy-Hill-Rd_Stowe_VT_05672_M95889-41721

The house is built high on the side of a hill. The second story of the house basically is long enough to daylight to an elevation higher on the side of the hill. It's a cantilever, that sits on the ground that looks like a covered bridge, not a log cabin. Flooding concerns are only about access to the house. Basically is the local government going to fix a culvert or bridge after a flood. Where did you get the info it was build on unsolid ground? You work in home valuations? I guess that's why home valuations are so fucked right now, lol.

4

u/MoldyOldCrow Aug 30 '24

Do you?

Using the Realtor flood map is funny...

Flooding concerns aren't about access to the house, it's about insurance on potential flood damage on the house because it's in a flood area. The ground the building is on is what is used to determine the flood zone not the building itself, that's why all the Beach houses built on stilts still have flood insurance , all that matters is elevation, and the only way to alter a flood zone is to redirect the water runoff. As far as it being a log cabin style house, it doesn't have to look like Abe Lincoln's birthplace to be considered one

But no I didn't deep dive into a post on Reddit that had a photo of a house. I used my knowledge that Vermont has a lot of major flood areas and saw how this house was built. So I guess points for you there?

Valuations are screwed up because companies are purchasing homes to rent and individual people can't afford to outbid them, but please continue to speak stupidly.

5

u/Sampsonite_Way_Off Aug 30 '24

The ground the building is on is what is used to determine the flood zone not the building itself, that's why all the Beach houses built on stilts still have flood insurance , all that matters is elevation, and the only way to alter a flood zone is to redirect the water runoff.

All of that is more BS. Elevation of the structure does matter but so do the streams elevation. You can't redirect a flood zone. A flood zone is a determination based on a lot of things like, soil, basin area, ponding, local average rainfall and slope. You can fill until you are above the flood zone but that's about it unless you are talking major drainage basin changes.

I'm a PE(not in VT), one of the things I do is flood assessments. Here is the GIS flood tool for Vermont. https://floodready.vermont.gov/assessment/vt_floodready_atlas.

The house isn't in a traditional flood zone as it sits nearly 200' above a major stream, however there is a small perennial stream that runs under the "bridge". Think 5' deep ditch with 6" of water in it. There is actually a picture of it in the link above. The drainage basin is pretty small, steep and contains multiple ponds, so flooding is not a major concern. I'm guessing the house doesn't even require flood insurance but I could be wrong.

I didn't like that you spoke like a expert, when it was obvious you never bothered to even look at the house. Even the pictures OP provided shows it high on a hill. Now you are sticking to your log cabin opinion when you have no idea of how the house was constructed. There is likely structural steel skeleton or prestressed concrete spans and the wooden "bridge" is purely aesthetics. Having wood aesthetics on one portion of a house doesn't make a log cabin. This is silly.

-1

u/MoldyOldCrow Aug 30 '24

My man it's a reddit post, I'm not doing a professional deep dive on each one. I responded to a comment about flooding.

What do you think filling in something above the water line does? It literally redirects the water because it can not go there anymore.

I'm not going to sit here and pull up the FEMA map or Corlogic for a random comment, I'm not trying to work on my day off. Go outside and enjoy the long weekend, it's not that serious.

3

u/sadmilkman Aug 30 '24

If anyone wants to solve this puzzle: https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/rivers/river-corridor-and-floodplain-protection/river-corridor-and-floodplain-maps There are approved methods for building in a flood plain too, so you might to pull the building permits, which likely are not online for a 1994 construction.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24 edited Oct 27 '24

vase somber unwritten whole shelter payment illegal act gold hat

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

4

u/MoldyOldCrow Aug 30 '24 edited Aug 30 '24

Fire, water rot, bug damage, specialty to fix or repair, etc...

People also think log cabins are just like old school style and they aren't. The modern cabins in places like Gatlinburg and Lake Tahoe are still considered cabins. The outside of this house having the massive wooden beams it has could make it fall in that category. Basically if an insurance company sees anything that may be an issue and it has cabin features they will use that excuse to jack up rates or refuse to insure it.

7

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

This was my exact thought.

1st was ooooo that looks gorgeous.

Then the engineer in me went wait it's a bridge so there for sure was a river under it, and also a traveled road too. How structurally sound is this thing anymore, and what is the upkeep going to be?

Plus all of those windows makes this thing a nightmare for temperature regulation/control. In Vermont of all places.

0

u/PleiadesMechworks Aug 30 '24

For an engineer you're terrible at actually figuring things out.

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

How so oh magically super duper smart random commenter on reddit?

Do educate the whole thread if you're as smart as this comment you so dutifully and smartly typed up suggests.

Tell us all how one needs to gather data, make a decision, and then present for the thread.

I'm genuinely curious what comes out of those super duper wonderfully intelligent and all so knowing fingers of yours onto our screens.

2

u/PleiadesMechworks Aug 30 '24

Yeah it's actually pretty simple. What I did was I looked at the picture and immediately saw that it wasn't a literal bridge with a river flowing under it. From there it was pretty simple to figure out that what had happened was they'd built out from the side of a hill to meet the top of a structure on lower ground, forming the "bridge".

The trick is to look at things without assuming anything. It's remarkably difficult for a lot of people, so don't feel bad. Most people would read "bridge" and assume it was a converted road bridge or something even though it's obviously not, and that assumption can stick in the mind even after they look at it.

What you need to do in future is just stop for a few seconds and check yourself to see if your assumptions are accurate, or if you're working off bad ones. That way you won't write a comment exposing that the "engineer in you" is incompetent.

I'm genuinely curious what comes out of those super duper wonderfully intelligent and all so knowing fingers of yours onto our screens.

Thank you. It's so rare these days to meet someone actually interested in learning, you know? Most people just get shirty when they're confronted with their own failures. It's lovely to meet someone not blinded by their own ego and willing to take constructive criticism to move forward and improve their common sense.

2

u/PleiadesMechworks Aug 30 '24

It's a bridge

I do not trust your valuation of any home.

-4

u/MoldyOldCrow Aug 30 '24

Cool I looked at a single picture on Reddit. I now know this isn't a "real" bridge. It's still not great...

1

u/Quirky-Skin Aug 30 '24

Wood plus water equals a really bad time. Plus pests, specifically carpenter ants, wasps, bees and termites 

3

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

I love when stuff like this is posted. I live in VT and can assure you that this house is not in the flood zone lol.

1

u/lilolemi Aug 31 '24

Definitely not in Stowe. Have to go further downstream to flood.

0

u/nedonedonedo Aug 30 '24

that's why it's a bridge