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.