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Found out you can't get a double-sided wood stove in the US - they don't meet EPA standards. Apparently you need firebricks on three sides to get hot enough for the secondary combustion. Oh well, probably go with something like this for that space but with stacked-stone and full depth stove. Probably no pillars. re: insulation talk We'll sit down and have a good long talk about all this with the builder. re: completion time Not worried with this guy. We know of 3 houses done on time and we're not on any kind of deadline to finish. I'll try to get some worse-case type timeframe written in but it doesn't need to be a major part of the contract. It was a big deal with the other guy who said it would take a year.
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May 16, 2016 16:46
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Talked to the builder this morning. Things are happening! The plans are into the lumber company for review and a stamp, should have all that done by Tuesday. Builder picked up building permit application and is going through it. As part of that, needs to get a hersch (sp?) rating for insulation / energy, apparently the town is an energy star town and has higher requirements than most. So we're going to get that report then go through the insulation plan again. He's going to the conservation committee today to get an affidavit signed for the permit. He's hoping to have everything together for the building permit by Wednesday. Got his insurance in order. He is planning on putting up hay bales / silt fence once he has the conservation approval. Possible that happens this week. I gave him the list of things I need for the bank loan, and he'll get all that together today.
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May 18, 2016 13:33
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Gounads posted:Found out you can't get a double-sided wood stove in the US - they don't meet EPA standards. Apparently you need firebricks on three sides to get hot enough for the secondary combustion. Oh well, probably go with something like this for that space but with stacked-stone and full depth stove. Probably no pillars. That looks like a Vermont Castings stove (or a photoshop of a Vermont Castings stove). We have a Defiant Encore for our smallish house and it's awesome. If you can find a good dealer, their stoves are really nice. Being able to load wood from the top is so handy.
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May 18, 2016 15:44
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Gounads posted:Builder picked up building permit application and is going through it. As part of that, needs to get a hersch (sp?) rating for insulation / energy, apparently the town is an energy star town and has higher requirements than most. So we're going to get that report then go through the insulation plan again. He's going to the conservation committee today to get an affidavit signed for the permit. He's hoping to have everything together for the building permit by Wednesday. HERS. I believe you are required to get a HERS under 70 (maybe 65), where 100 is 2006 IECC code minimum energy usage. 2012 IECC code minimums (which you otherwise would have been required to meet) should generally come in around a 70 HERS rating anyway, so it doesn't add any significant requirements other than an extra audit to make sure you actually met the requirements (and also you have to pass the "thermal bypass" checklist I linked earlier).
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May 18, 2016 18:02
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Now that I know how to spell it, I found it in the codes. Under 3000sqft of conditioned space is 70, over requires 65.
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May 18, 2016 18:26
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Builder gave an update today. Should have the plans back from the engineer tonight and he's visiting conservation/planning to get their signatures today. Plans on finishing up the permit application tomorrow and submitting it on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday).
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May 27, 2016 00:11
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Your builder is moving fast  It's happening!
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May 27, 2016 00:44
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Builder couldn't file building permit this week. Turns out we do, in fact, need a special permit on top of our special permit to bring in the amount of fill we need to bring in. So there's no avoiding the planning board. Builder really did all the leg work, figured out everything needed to be done, sweet-talked the town planner, and is taking care of it all. He's confident there won't be a problem and said even with this, it's one of the easier permitting processes he went through since we had most of the work done. Planning committee meeting not until the end of the month, so ~3 week delay. Builder put in all the paperwork to extend our current special permits. A bit of stress, but I'm hopeful it'll all work out and grateful I don't need to do much. fyi - turns out we need ~900 yards of fill. oh. my. god. That's 35 trips from a truck like this:  Also met with a realtor today to start talking about selling our current house. Gave an estimate about $20k lower than I was hoping for our house. It never ends...
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Jun 3, 2016 00:48
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Gounads posted:~900 yards of fill Jesus. You know, I used to think it would be fun to organize the building of my own house. Getting less and less sure about this
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Jun 3, 2016 03:37
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slap me silly posted:Jesus. You know, I used to think it would be fun to organize the building of my own house. Getting less and less sure about this You just need to find a cheap, flat lot with good packed dirt, no protected habitats to worry about, and good access to services. How hard can it be?
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Jun 3, 2016 03:57
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slap me silly posted:Jesus. You know, I used to think it would be fun to organize the building of my own house. Getting less and less sure about this Me too. But, so far, glad we picked this builder. All that fill was included in his bid (just the amount wasn't listed so it was a bit of a shock to hear it).
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Jun 3, 2016 13:04
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Gounads posted:
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Jun 3, 2016 13:17
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Nitrox posted:you're still welcome to list it for the amount that you think it's worth. Realtors are very happy to list properties below the market value for faster sale. Yeah, probably will. Also might talk with another realtor. She gave us a things-to-know bout selling your house booklet thing. Like 3 pages of it were dedicated to talking about how great it was to list slightly below market value so you get more people interested and how it can magically lead to higher eventual sales. Typical "I want to sell house fast and get my commission" stuff.
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Jun 3, 2016 13:29
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A difference in 20k is real money to you but probably only like 600 bucks to them comparatively.
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Jun 3, 2016 14:18
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stupid puma posted:A difference in 20k is real money to you but probably only like 600 bucks to them comparatively. Studies have shown that when realtors sell houses that they personally own, they get better prices than when they sell houses for other people. The value of that extra $600 (and thus the extra $20k to you) vs. the value of getting to move on to the next property is not hard to balance. EDIT: not that I'm necessarily suggesting that you try to sell the property yourself, though.
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Jun 3, 2016 14:21
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stupid puma posted:A difference in 20k is real money to you but probably only like 600 bucks to them comparatively. Right, not much money, but might make the difference between a quick sell in few weeks or actual hard work for them over a few months.
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Jun 3, 2016 14:22
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Gounads posted:Yeah, probably will. Also might talk with another realtor. This is so timing and market dependent, though. In my town anything listed below market value will have multiple offers at market value within a few hours, but price yourself even slightly high and nobody will even look. It's weird.
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Jun 3, 2016 14:59
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Gounads posted:Right, not much money, but might make the difference between a quick sell in few weeks or actual hard work for them over a few months. I guess some people would just prefer a quicker sale for a slightly lower amount vs. setting the price higher and not knowing if or when it would be sold. Houses that stay on the market for a long time don't exactly appreciate in value either so you might even lose more money putting it on the market too high.
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Jun 3, 2016 15:36
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uXs posted:I guess some people would just prefer a quicker sale for a slightly lower amount vs. setting the price higher and not knowing if or when it would be sold. Yeah, my mother who just sold her home went through this. I felt she could have had $20-25K more easily, but she did get it sold in 1 day to a realtor (not as a spec, they were the same as us when we got it, a small family)... In my experience realtors are usually just marketers, not experts on local value by any means. Verify with other opinions, but what you think is probably just fine.
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Jun 3, 2016 19:38
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Keep in mind the possibility that a realtor isn't being lazy, and you might possibly end up contracting your house for more than it appraises for.
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Jun 4, 2016 03:09
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Did the realtor give comparables to backup their estimate? I've only sold 1 home (and it was with a 1% fee realtor), but they showed me a bunch of comps and suggested listing between $145k and $150k. We wanted to sell quickly so we went with $145k.
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Jun 8, 2016 14:56
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Hashtag Banterzone posted:Did the realtor give comparables to backup their estimate? That's still coming. This was the gut-reaction at-a-glance estimate, nothing official, it's also a few months early which things can change in. The literature about pricing below-market is more what got me worried. We are going to talk with one other realtor that's somewhat of a family friend. Been doing various minor improvement jobs around the current house. Also having Mass Save come do an energy-audit to see if I can get them to pay for part of a new furnace. Ours is on it's last-legs, and apparently that can really hold up a sale. Going to go out and meet the neighbors, especially since there will be a planning board meeting for that fill. But the build is pretty much a waiting game for the next few weeks.
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Jun 8, 2016 15:11
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Go ahead and get a quote, but don't replace it (unless it's unsafe). That's poo poo realtors tell you because it's your money to make their job easier. The vast majority of buyers won't care and your money will be wasted. If they do care, then you can credit them for the amount of the quote or get it replaced then.
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Jun 9, 2016 01:59
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Builder called. SURPRISE planning board meeting in 5 hours and I should be there. Luckily it's not a problem for me to show up. Apparently he got a call from the town planner asking if he would be there and suggesting that I should definitely be there. I guess the extension of the permits isn't as much of a rubber-stamp as we were led to believe and we'll need to plead our case a bit. I guess they specifically want to hear what I was told about the permits when I bought the land. I'm kind of glad to have just found out about it, because I wouldn't have slept last night if I had known yesterday.
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Jun 14, 2016 20:22
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Got back a little while ago from planning meeting. It was both terrifying and mundane. The mundane... got the extension, no problem. We're good until March or something now. So we don't have to worry about that running out. The terrifying... We talked briefly about the next planning meeting in 2 weeks where we go over the fill permit. Getting that permit is not an automatic rubber stamp. They're going to potentially want to revisit the conservation committee results, which I don't actually have any paperwork on right now. So looks like I'm trying to track that down.
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Jun 15, 2016 01:24
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Builder called, town hall can find no record of our conservation committee approval. Even went so far as to watch videos of the meetings. Called the company that did all the work (luckily my brother-in-law works there so I had an easy-in). Nice lady remembered the project and was nearly certain everything got filed. Is going back into their records to look it up. I'm crossing my fingers she comes up with something. Surprise 10:30am meeting to go to tomorrow to try and figure out what to do. Good news: Was told the crotchety old guy on the planning board that might have been a pain resigned.  Maybe I should run  Hopefully this crap will get resolved soon and this thread can get interesting again.
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Jun 21, 2016 16:27
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I hope you can start doing stuff with your tract of land soon!
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Jun 21, 2016 16:42
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So, quick recap: We need planning board approval to bring in the amount of fill we need to execute on the driveway plan the planning board has previously approved before we can get the building permit. Planning Board meeting was tonight, and it could have gone better... In this great state, if you're 100' away from wetlands and 200' away from bodies of water, you don't have to go to the conservation board to get approval. We fulfill these requirements. We should be fine. The conservation board has a process called a "Request for Determination". Essentially, they look at your plans, say "yes, you are in fact far enough away" and it's an official record so they can't come fine you later for building there. You don't have to do this. Most people don't. The planning board has decided we need to do that before they will give their approval. Ok, no problem.. so... when is the next conservation board meeting? July 13. 2 weeks, that's not horrible. When is the next planning board meeting? July 12. gently caress. So we can't go back to the planning board until the end of July. It could have been worse. The planning board had the July 26 meeting canceled because of not enough business. But they decided to move their July 12 meeting to the 26 to accommodate us. I really appreciated that. So anyways, these meetings. All the abutters get notified about them and they can come have their say. AND BOY OH BOY DID THEY. 9 people from 5 residences showed up. They bitched about quality of fill, junk on the property, drainage, wetlands. I mean, I get it. I wouldn't want someone building next to me if I had a nice empty space there forever. After the meeting I scooted out the door and caught them all. Turned on the charm. Explained it all, showed plans. Talked about my kid, how much we love the town. Painted the picture of the nice house and landscaping. Pretty sure I satisfied all of them except one guy. Talking to his wife, I figured out why. They own two plots of land. The only way those plots would ever be usable is if a road went right down my property. They were under some misguided impression that this was a possibility. Sorry dude. His wife was super nice. So anyways most likely won't be building until August now. There is one super-slim chance. I was reading the applicable laws. There's a chance we don't need planning board approval. The wording is very unclear when it comes to defining the threshold of when you need board approval. It's either if you are bringing in 500 yards of fill. Or it might be if you are filling 500 yards. Since we need ~700 and we're digging ~400 out of the foundation, there's only a net of around 300 we need to bring in. My builder is going to check for sure.
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Jun 29, 2016 01:47
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Another week, and mostly just waiting. Engineer is putting together a new driveway plan that will meet building codes in regards to turn radiuses (radii?) Builder got the building inspector to look over plans so we can save time later. A few minor things need clarification. Builder gave me a small scare because he didn't get conservation committee abutter letters out in time, but called back an hour later after going to town hall and fixing it. Met with a lawyer to understand my responsibilities to the right of way along the edge of the property, nothing surprising or worrisome. He'll draft up a legal opinion letter for me just in case it comes up. Conservation committee next week. Planning board again 2 weeks later.
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Jul 8, 2016 14:57
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Another week, another rejection. Conservation wouldn't approve the plan without a site-visit first. When the one guy tried to go last week, it was raining and he couldn't get down. At the next planning meeting, we'll ask them to grant the permit conditional on a negative finding from conservation, no idea if they will go for that or not.
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Jul 14, 2016 01:15
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Spent a couple hours yesterday evening treking through overgrown woods looking for wetland delineation flags and property boundary flags, hung new ones to make sure conservation could find them on their site visit. Two of the boundary flags that I had seen many times in the past mysteriously went missing. Coincidently, they were the flags along the border with the grumpy neighbor who keeps showing up at all the meetings. This guys's lawn encroaches on my property by a good 10 feet. Not suspicious at all. Hopefully we'll hit a point where he sees construction as inevitable and starts trying to be a good neighbor. We didn't replace those, after I get my permits, if he's still being a dick I'll get them properly measured out and put a stake right in the middle of this guys lawn. Sunday, I get to pull manhole covers to measure the depth to the trough so we can get a utility plan made. (and so I don't have to pay a few hundred dollars to get the engineering firm to send a guy to do it). A new enemy: Japenese Knotweed. This stuff had completely blocked access to some areas.
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Jul 15, 2016 15:52
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Gounads posted:Two of the boundary flags that I had seen many times in the past mysteriously went missing. Coincidently, they were the flags along the border with the grumpy neighbor who keeps showing up at all the meetings. This guys's lawn encroaches on my property by a good 10 feet. Not suspicious at all. Hopefully we'll hit a point where he sees construction as inevitable and starts trying to be a good neighbor. We didn't replace those, after I get my permits, if he's still being a dick I'll get them properly measured out and put a stake right in the middle of this guys lawn. And hope he doesn't try to sue for adverse possession. Anyone can sue, right or wrong. Good luck!
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Jul 15, 2016 15:59
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ok, so here's some paranoid conspiracy thinking, I know it sounds crazy. I went back and reviewed the video from conservation committee. The guy with the missing flags... the only question he asked the board was when were they going to do their site-visit. Why would he ask that? The only reason I can guess is if he planned on removing flags before then. I know. Paranoid, probably nonsense. Tonight, I'm going down, checking the flags are still there, and setting up the construction time-lapse camera to make sure they don't get taken down.
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Jul 15, 2016 18:40
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Gounads posted:ok, so here's some paranoid conspiracy thinking, I know it sounds crazy. You'd be surprised at the lengths people will go to to be dicks. Do the construction cameras have night vision? Something my in-laws did at their cabin when they were having issues with some of the year-round neighbors "borrowing" things like canoes or whatever was to set up a couple game cameras. Caught one of them red handed. Edit: consider posting no trespassing signs at the same time and consult a lawyer about your state's adverse possession laws and what you need to do to prevent it. Our neighbors' driveway overlaps our property line by a good 3' and it's pretty much impossible for them to get to their garage door without that. When we bought our house, we had the seller get a signed contract with the owner of the neighboring property that states, in effect, "we know it overlaps, we still own the property up to the property line, we can revoke access (i.e. by building a fence) at any time" that then got filed with our title. Magnus Praeda fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Jul 15, 2016 |
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Jul 15, 2016 18:57
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Gounads posted:ok, so here's some paranoid conspiracy thinking, I know it sounds crazy. Have you caught the bastard yet?
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Jul 27, 2016 23:54
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I saw a weird "easement" and thought of you, op 
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Jul 28, 2016 00:29
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This week's updates... Had planning board scheduled Tuesday, and conservation Wednesday. On Saturday, I had our engineer re-flag the wetlands and the conservation committee came out for their site visit a couple hours later. Everything went smoothly. On Monday, the town engineer came back with his report on our plans. There were about a dozen issues to address. Mostly minor things, but since we only had a day before the planning board it wasn't enough time to get our engineer to do it. So we had to file for a continuance. Another two week delay. It was awfully nice of him to sit on the plans for a couple weeks and give it to us the day before the meeting. Only bright side is I hope the abutters all showed up for nothing. The one item the builder is slightly worried about is "The roof drain shall discharge into a groundwater recharge system." we're hoping that just means a dry well and not some sort of retention pond. On Tuesday, the conservation committee gave their approval, as expected. No abutters came. Talked with my builder, and he's worked through the building inspectors office to get the house plans all set. So that permit should be quick once we get this planning board piece finished. Also made sure we're not in danger of losing him to another job, and he just started a ~1 month renovation which will probably fit in pretty well. Safety Dance posted:Have you caught the bastard yet? Nope, no more went missing.
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Jul 28, 2016 12:12
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For your viewing pleasure, the current monstrosity that will be my driveway: Red lines are the most current ones, black lines were the original. Black topo lines are new, grey dashed are existing. I drive a small car and am relatively sure I'd be able to do a 3-point turn on that curve.
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Jul 29, 2016 14:59
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Looks like you can start your daily commute with a spot of gentle drifting down the mountain.
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Jul 29, 2016 17:27
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So you have like 20 feet of drop? Fun stuff...
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Jul 29, 2016 20:07
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