Option #2 It Is

We have decided to go with Option #2 and are thrilled that an insurance adjusted is going to come out and take a look at our basement. While I highly doubt anything is going to be covered there is a small part of me that is hoping that SOMETHING will be covered. Even if that something is the carpeting or drywall - every little bit is going to help.

No date yet for the 3 day drilling out of the basement. Next week an insulation guy is coming to add more insulation to our attic, clean out the vents and properly vent our bathroom vents. Not exactly the sexiest home improvement project, but a necessity nevertheless. This was a project we knew we were going to do prior to the whole basement fiasco.

Like I said, our house has it's own Economic Stimulus Plan.

Three Options to Consider

We know we need to fix the basement. It's hard to blame the company that did the addition because, frankly, they warned us that we'd have problems if we didn't fix all the drain tile...someday. We hoped "someday" would come later rather than sooner. So we have three different options to pick as we decide how we are going to fix this problem.

1. Just replace the drain tile where there is known damage and add a 3rd sump pump...based on experience, I feel as though you fix the problem in one spot and then the problem just moves somewhere else. This is exactly what happened to us. This is by far the cheapest short term solution.
2. Just replace the inside drain tile with their fancy system. The company that we are considering will provide a warranty so we feel pretty good about that.
3. Replace the inside drain tile, basically redesign the sump crocks and (shutter) dig up the around the entire exterior perimeter of the house. The saleswoman wouldn't say "excavate" which started to irritate me. Instead a couple of guys are going to come with shovels and dig down to the frost line. How is that not excavating?

Option three causes me to have visible signs of stress...we have all that brand new landscaping out there, brickwork, gravel service path and DRIVEWAY. Since our walls are fine (everyone agrees that) I have a very hard time accepting option 3. It's also twice as expensive as option #2 and about five times as expensive as option #1. Therefore, it's not really an option.

July 2008

Oh Good...

4-8 inches of snow is coming our way by Wednesday. On Wednesday there are going to be a bunch of people coming for various projects around this house. Two different basement people are going to be here (we thought it would be responsible to get some other perspectives on our problem) and an insulation person. There is a chance that the snow will actually be rain. Perhaps the basement people will get to see a water show in the basement! I suppose, there really isn't anything left down there to get damaged. Bring on the leaks!

Our Own Economic Stimulus Plan

A look at the mess

I don't even know where to begin. First of all, this mess is not the most inconvenient project to ever happen in this house. The kitchen is an obvious first and when we rebuilt the garage is second. I'm tempted to put refinishing the hardwood floors in third but since that only lasted two days it's going to be knocked out of third place by what we are going to call, "Our Home's Economic Stimulus Plan."

Thursday afternoon Rick was able to come over and assess the problem. Brian had already pulled back the carpeting and things were starting to dry out. Rick had a little gadget that looked like a plug that measured the moisture content in whatever it was touching. The drywall was dry...about 2 feet up. Everything below needed to be torn out, along with the installation. Without having an expert coming in, his initial assessment was that it was drain tile problems...again. Our half clogged drain tile (if you don't remember this go look through the archives...mid September 2007) are overwhelmed with water and we are suffering the consequences every time the water table rises. There was a hope that the second sump pump from June of 08 and the partial drain tile replacement of 07 would fix the problem but it hasn't. Without ripping apart the entire basement the easiest solution is to replace two walls of drain tile and, are you ready for this...a THIRD sump pump. We are getting a second opinion on this but I do have to admit I'm relieved that the suggestion to dig up the driveway and the front of the house to get at the exterior of the walls has not been suggested.

Today we started demolition of the basement walls and moving all the toys upstairs. Just as Brian was getting started Rick pulled up (he had forgotten something when he was here on Thursday). He hung around for a little while helped Brian. Rick even left his Sawzall for Brian to borrow. Talk about customer service...we love these people.

So, here is where we are and how our house plans to stimulate the local economy:
- Our carpet may be salvaged. Brian contacted the business that installed it back in 2005 and they can install a new pad and re-install the carpet (hopefully). This is going to cost almost half of what we originally paid...geesh!
- Some concrete people and basement people are coming this week to either concur with Rick or not. I shudder to think what the "or not" might involve.
- This isn't the only project we have going on. We are continuing work on the bathroom with a tub liner and shower surround. We bought the new shower door today. The quest for fixtures continues. I expect to be on that company's schedule by the end of the week.
- We have only 5 inches of installation in the attic. This really shouldn't go ignored any longer.

We are trying to be optimistic about all of this and looking at all of the positives. For example, because large scale projects seem to happen around here every two years or so we have a third bedroom that has never been committed to any permanent use. Whether it's due to a lack of imagination on our part or utter laziness, this room has never had a real purpose other than to be whatever we needed it to be due to a home project. It's been an office, bedroom, storage and now a true playroom.
I guess it's good that while we got rid of three large pieces of furniture in January, I haven't picked out a new chair for the living room. This has left us with a vacant space that is now occupied by the computer designated for Ethan and Logan.
While I see a pile of carpeting that makes me sick to my stomach wondering if we are going to be able to keep it or not, the boys see a labyrinth of tunnels and caves. The carpeting is draped over saw horses and chairs and the boys have enjoyed crawling and pretending they are snakes.


Here Brian is admiring his removal of the drywall. Shortly after I took this picture he began removing the installation.

The House Rebels!

It's too bad that I didn't maintain this blog over last summer. My flowers were stunning and the yard was fabulous after the dirt we dealt with during the summer of 2007 while we were under construction. The solution to the water problem we experienced in June was a second sump pump crock in the new part of the basement. Over Christmas we experienced water in the old, finished part of the basement but attributed it to a frozen sump pump. After rerouting the piping outside it seemed our problems were solved. Tuesday night, during the big thaw, we again felt wetness in the finished part of the basement - along the same wall as we did around Christmas. This was just hours after I signed the contract to get a tub surround in the bathroom and rid ourselves of the pink bathtub and get our plumbing updated. Also, in that same afternoon we learned that we really should have another 10 inches of installation put in the attic. All Tuesday evening the wet/dry vac was going and we went to bed hoping that it wouldn't be any worse on Wednesday. Today when we came home from work it was so wet down there that the water was actually dripping into the drain - clear on the other side of the basement.

We have no idea what the problem is but have pulled the carpeting back and are bracing ourselves for the worst possible news. We can't ignore this water/basement problem any longer. There are a few things that we do know:
1. When we finished the basement in 2005 there were no obvious cracks or problems with the walls
2. Our drain tile is half clogged...which is why we had to have part of it replaced during the kitchen addition.
3. There is a corner of the basement that Brian has never liked how the drywall job turned out. I think he secretly is excited/anxious to fix it and prove to himself he has some useful skills. He won't admit to this.
4. Money is going to be flying out of this house at a crazy fast rate!
5. This is why we save money...if you can't afford to have your house rebel against you, maybe you shouldn't own a home.

This project isn't going to be fun. There will be no fixtures to chose from, no samples to show, no progress towards a dream. I suspect I'm going to become increasingly sarcastic about all of this.

We don't have a lot of "crap" in this house. There have been so many times of necessity to purge our house of all unnecessary items that we don't have a lot of "crap." It's been just about two years since the last purge (kitchen). It was two years before that one (basement, 2005). One year before that (built the garage and prepared for the birth of the boys). It's about time for another purge.