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� September 6, 2010 To Whom It May Concern: � The following is a suminary of why we would like to be considered for a variance and what undue hardship our family is having with the property located at, 1015 Judith Avenue, Roseville, MN 55113. My wife and I purchased the property located on Judith Avenue in the spring of 1995. At the time we purchased the home, we were one of four young families living in the neighborhood. My wife and I were exited to be part of this new community and also excited to be in a neighborhood that was up and coming with young families or like ourselves, getting ready to start a family. As with any home, we started to decorate and update to our taste. The two major improvements made in our first three yeazs of occupying the home were a new roof and hazdwood flooring on the main floor of our home. Our home was one of the newer built homes in the neighborhood and had some unique features not common to the other homes. The style of home is a two story and we loved the fact that we had a main floor laundry room which was ahead of its time. No climbing two flights of stairs with baskets of laundry and this also allowed us to finish the basement level which already had a fireplace and partially complete family room. Although we love our home and community, repairs aze necessary in order to alleviate mold which is a health concern for our family. The basement has exterior concrete block walls with what is called efflorescence. This is a white crystalline or powder. It's caused by water seeping through the wall/floor/object. The water dissolves salts inside the object while moving through it, then it evaporates leaving the salt on the surface. We looked into the problem and a concrete professional told us the southwest corner of our garage floor was settling unevenly and water was pooling in that comer. He also pointed out the exposed aggregate on the bottom 6 inches of the wall were water was eroding the block. This wall is a bearing wall for the upper level of our home. The concrete professional also showed us that the gazage floor has already had a"Concrete Patch" and had been previously repaired. The concrete patch was also used in the northeast corner of the garage where we also aze having trouble with standing water. We had the concrete apron and side walks in and around the northwest cornet and the patio azea in the southeast corner removed and re-poured in hopes tttat this would take caz of the problem. The problem was eliminated for about 4 years when the concrete work azound the comers of the garage sank down about 2 inches again creating pooling of water. To resolve the problem, we consulted with an engineer who said that it does not appear that the footings have been extended out faz enough to support the concrete apron and the grade azound the northeast corner appeazs to be negative allowing water to flow under the service door. The wood frame and siding around the service door on the northeast corner has rotted and been replaced or repaired several times and the lazge overhead gazage door must be adjusted every spring and winter as the ground freezes and thaws due to the uneven garage floor. We also became aware of the grade problem on the east side of our home when the neighbor to the west installed a below ground pool. A lazge drainage pipe was found that runs east and west along the north boundary of homes on Judith Avenue. There aze only three homes on this part of Judith