Stoop Work Begins!

This morning around 8:15 a gigantic jack hammer showed up.

Our Next Project

For the last few years we have been quietly observing and trying to ignore this gap and moving bricks. Coincidentally, our front screen door didn't really latch correctly but that I blamed on my children. Then, a few weeks ago our security alarm went off and it was our front door that had been, "opened." While it was comforting to know that everything worked the way it was supposed to (the police came, neighbors got called) Brian and I both knew that we couldn't ignore this anymore. So yesterday, we called Kevin and he had a mason came over.

Diagnosis: no foundation under the stoop and it's pulling away from the house. It's taking some bricks and the part the door is attached to with it.

At least it's not the foundation!

The poor guy kept apologizing and saying how sorry he was (he shouldn't be sorry, it wasn't his shotty work that caused this problem). The funny thing was Brian and I weren't too phased by this. I think we have a very different perspective on unexpected, expensive home repairs. I wasn't blogging when we had to replace our garage but building a new garage wasn't exactly something we planned to do when we did. We also didn't plan on replacing all of our interior drain tile. This is will be okay.

The Garden Known as the Compromise

Butterfly Garden

If it looks like it needs to be watered, I did. However, it's literally 100 degrees today.

Pizza Oven

Fully functional (May 2012), not quite complete.

Backyard Fort

Completed summer 2011

New Laundry Room

Completed Fall 2011

Mobile Uploads!

Here is the first of many pictures as I attempt to highlight the last two years.
Here's the new basement bathroom completed during the fall of 2011.

I Win

This week has been a test of wills and determination. Today universe I am the winner. I win, suck it. Yes, you leaked my toilet in the basement, the same night that we discovered our central air was leaking. I did not despair. I tackled the toiled with an arsenal of weaponry to leave Genghis Khan quaking in his boots.

Alas the weapons would not prevail. The frequent douses of urination had corroded the bolts. But the next night I came at you with a locking wrench and WD40. Yay, you gave way to me, after much grunting (which is usually reserved for sitting on the toilet not laying on top of it wrenching our the bolts). I wrestled you free and replaced the weakened seal broken by large arses such as mine. I prevail, not leaking and believe you me I put that toilet through it's paces.

I next tackled our leaky central air and we soon discovered the output nozzle was blocked. So we removed that only to have the unit belch out the contents that must have been gathering for quite a number of years. There were some problems with the seal of the nozzle as it's plastic and the output pipe is metal. I could not seal this thing for the life of me, and I really couldn't seal it once it cracked off in the pipe. !@#$. After a couple of minutes, I was able to remove the contents of the broken nozzle. Off to The Home Depot where I found a replacement part. This part was still not going in straight and I didn't know what to do. Until I had an idea. The output pipe is dripping into the Ale Pail, which is hooked up to the output hose draining into our sump pump.

Screw you universe, I win.


P.S. - Universe if you could see to it that you don't mention this to Brian and Patrick R., I would greatly appreciate it. I think this is somehow against the law of beer gods, but I'm not sure.

Backyard Renovation

Last year I was somewhat rushed to get the backyard completed before the NARI tour (first weekend in May). The landscape designer waited until the VERY last possible moment to do any of the work in the back because it was so cold there was a fear our plants would be given a death sentence just so we could have a completed backyard for the tour. Trying to plant anything the last week in April is tough in Wisconsin because there really isn't a whole lot of plant matter available. Kudos to my mother who was able to locate almost all of my perennials needed. The day that we did the flower install (I did the flowers, the landscapers did the bushes and prepared the beds - basically all the hard work) I still needed six grasses to complete the design. For the sake of time we went to a local nursery and were able to get the six grasses. Since they were the only six grasses in stock (left over from a job recently done) I wasn't too picky. I'm guessing that I didn't even read the tag. Last year the grasses were perfect, not too big or full, just perfect.

There is a saying amongst gardeners about perennials: the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap. Well, I think my grasses skipped year two and did their leaping last week.
This needed to be dealt with, and fast. There is a lot of pretty stuff back there you can't even see!
So, the question then became what exactly to do with these Jurassic Park sized grasses. I had about a dozen different ideas but finally settled on tearing up the side of the house that faces Jake and Tonya. This bed really doesn't have a focus or purpose. We used to have a really pretty vine on the trellis called a silver lace until the Japanese Beatles ate it all. There was a small hops that we had going but as soon as I had Brian's blessing to dig it up the bed cleared out. Since I don't really do a very good job of maintaining this bed, moving the grasses here seemed like a good idea.

Another "before" shot

Turned out this was a much harder job than I anticipated and needed the help of my three men.

Here's where the grasses ended up. I hope they take, Tonya is thrilled with how it turned out. Plus, it covers our strange, ugly, yet necessary sump pump set up. This is for our old, or original, sump pump.
Now we can actually see the butterfly garden! I hope to fill in vacated areas with appropriately sized grasses this week yet. One large grass remains for two reasons. 1. We only needed five plants for the side of the house and 2. We couldn't get it out. I'll deal with that problem another day...
The next plant on the chopping block may very well be my bee balm. While I think this plant is pretty I just have never had much luck with it. I'm already treating a nasty case of powdery mildew and it's only the end of June. This is the story of my relationship with bee balm. I'd like to replace the whole patch of it with pink coneflower. However, it's starting to bloom and I'm feeling guilty so maybe it will come out in the fall or as soon as the powdery mildew becomes too much to keep up with. The bee balm is directly behind where the grasses were so now with an increased air flow back maybe the mildew will be done for a little while.

Finally, here is the bed affectionately referred to as, "the Compromise." It became the recipient of a couple of plants that I didn't want to give away that were aside the house.

Weekend Warriors...

We have not stopped moving this weekend. You'd think that we would have moved everything back into the basement but alas, we didn't. You see, the weather was just too perfect for working outside to bother with jobs in the house. It rained Saturday morning so we were able to get the bookcase all put back together and that night we reinstalled the desk. Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday afternoon it was all work outside. The list of jobs to be completed outside is getting less and less so if the weather cooperates we should be, "maintaining and enjoying" by the end of next weekend.

I didn't take any "before" pictures but here is what we accomplished this weekend:

The ghetto trellis that was behind our garage is no more. After a substantial amount of nagging and convenient home projects by my brother and cousin, Brian was finally willing to do something about the disaster that was behind our garage. Granted, our garage sits almost right on the property line so there isn't much space to do anything which means little motivation on our part. There is still a disaster behind our garage but it's clearly not on our side of the property line. There is a rock wall that separates us from the guy behind us...can you see it in the picture?

This project should make my mother happy. Our neighbors and I cleaned out the entire back of our properties (I only took pictures of our side). I moved some grasses to the back of our property line and divided some hostas to fill in the empty spots. Pots full of impatiens are scattered around. There are still a crap load of weeds in the back but those are not on my side. Plus, in some circumstances weeds are better than the alternative. The disaster is behind those weeds too.

The area around the pergola and planters all got cleaned up and filled. In the background you can see my new chair, with a pot of wave petunias on it, for visual interest. The old chair had sat outside for at least 4 years and was falling apart. In fact, it fell apart into four or five pieces as I threw it away this afternoon. I might paint this one, I haven't decided yet. It very well might stay right where it is for 4 years.

This area, affectionately referred to as the "Great Compromise" by Brian and I, looks awesome so far. I thinned out the grasses and hostas and moved a planter/trellis to this side of the garage. I had a hard time getting things to grow where it was before so hopefully this location will be move successful. Right now there are some gorgeous peach colored putunias and morning glories planted in it.

We moved our little bistro set to the back door. We've actually had it here for a few weeks and I love it here. I can't believe I didn't think of this last year. The pots next to the stairs have my herbs in them. This seemed to be a good location last year so hopefully we'll continue to have luck. New this year is the hibuscus on the left.

Butterfly garden is growing...the delphiniums (in the back) are getting ready to open. Sadly, I think the butterfly bush is dead. The person at the greenhouse last year told me to be patient, that these plants look dead for much of the spring. Well, I'm giving it three more weeks and then I'm digging it up and buying a new one because I'm pretty sure it's dead. What's in three weeks you ask? The end of school!


Finally, our lilacs are blooming now. They are gorgeous.

Slight Change in Plans...

1. Carpeting is getting installed/stretched on Thursday

2. Carpet cleaners coming Friday morning

3. WE MOVE BACK IN THIS WEEKEND!

Two weeks ahead of the schedule we set for ourselves.

A few major things will still remain: molding and doors, but who cares! We are going to be able to move all our stuff back into the family room!!!

The Home Stretch

This post is long overdue but better late than never, right?

Last week Tuesday my uncle Frank came over and painted our basement. He made the offer to help months ago and trust me, this was not an offer I would easily forget. It's not that I hate to paint, I just don't think that I'm very good at it. Plus, it takes me days. Maybe if we had better equipment or if I just had a better attitude it would go faster. I don't know but I'm very grateful for Frank's help last week!

Here are the new colors! Flash photography doesn't really do the colors justice but you get the general idea. The color scheme now should flow nicely with the rest of the house and we already know that it looks awesome with the carpet. And speaking of carpeting...the carpet is going to get a new pad and be re-laid June 5. The carpet cleaners are coming June 6 and on June 7 we are moving everything back in. I can't wait!

This past week we also reinstalled the bookcase. Sort of a funny thing happened with this. Shortly after we had it screwed to the wall and it was clear that it was flush with the wall I made the comment that I had never noticed this slight gap that now appeared on the side. Brian looked at it and then it hit us both at the same time. Originally, the bookcase was installed PRIOR to drywalling. Now the part that was sunk inside the drywall is clearly exposed because the drywall came first this time. Oh well, this is what molding is for, right?

The first time we did the basement (five years ago) we took the doors that lead from the stairwell to the laundry room off and put them on the new closet. This way the doors matched the other closet right next to the new one. To solve our unsightly door opening we just hung a curtain. It was never meant to be a permanent solution but five years later we still had that curtain. Now, we decided to finish this they way it was meant to be. Brian and my dad are going to work on doors sometime in the near future. Due to scheduling, it probably won't get done until after the carpet is fixed but that's okay. Really, the doors are just aesthetics. You can see the difference in wall colors in this picture. the yellow on the right is the old "light" color in the basement. The other wall is the new color and the color on the left of the door is the color of the stairwell. The yellow wall will eventually be painted that color. I just didn't want to paint it knowing that work was going to need to be done and we'd probably just have to paint it again.

Finally, for this post, I'd like to leave you with some pretty pictures of my flowers!

Last year we didn't actually get to see this forcynthia bloom because it was done by the time it got planted. This year we got to enjoy it. I wish I would have taken a picture at it's "prime." This was taken the last week in April.
If I remember correctly, these are some tulips from bulbs that were brought back from the Netherlands. That was probably illegal but they got through Customs!
Our crab apple...all the flowering tress are so pretty right now!
And finally, my newest find: a bottle brush hanging basket! We had to get it, it reminded us of San Diego plus it's just so unusual! This was my little souvenir from Green Bay this weekend.

Quick Update

Tonight Brian finished priming the walls while I started putting things away. Now that we are painting the whole freakin' basement there was a pile of our stuff that needed to be moved to gain access to the pony wall. Tomorrow I plan to prepare the other walls to paint, we need to make a decision about the bookshelf (push it all the way into the corner or keep it where it was), and we need to move a few more pieces of the bookshelf. It's a big bookshelf if you remember.

Figures

Ok, so after learning that I needed a 14 inch taping knife, another coats, some pressure and a little patients, the walls ended up turning out good. I'm satisfied with them. The textured primer went on, albeit with help from Andi, a little slow, but looks good too.

Now we come to the problem. The color. We would have sworn that we had both colors of paint sitting with all of our other paint. As it turns out, we only had one. In a feeble attempt to get that paint, we headed to Menards hoping they were a little "Big Brother" and kept those records. They didn't. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that we'll need to finish priming all of the walls and Andi is heading to Ace right now for new paint colors.

!@#$

I think we'll be taking Uncle Frank up on his offer to help.

Check Out the Ugly Bathroom...

Last week (yes I know, this post is very much over due), we said a final goodbye to our ugly pink bath tub and horrible brass shower door. I tried to make these pictures especially horrendous.

Like that?

Check out the mildew...that caulk always got the better of me as I would try to clean it

The grout was pretty good and I really didn't have any complaints about the tile...it was just the bathtub. We tossed around the idea of doing a tub liner or re-glazing but also wanted to update the pipes in the wall. Since there is no access panel, one side of the wall was going to have to be destroyed. Updating the pipes and covering everything up with a full tube liner seemed like the way to go.

And here are the results!

Beautiful, don't you think!

By the way, don't think we won the lottery or anything. This project was actually partially paid for prior to the drama of the basement and was how we spent our tax return this year. If the basement would have sprung a leak just a few days earlier, we probably wouldn't have done this project.

Now, we just need to replace the ugly toilet! Someday...

Now, onto the basement...
We are finally ready to start putting our lives back together. We had some concerns that a few walls were still wet so a technician came out today and checked everything out. He checked all the access points and bleeders and it all looked good so I guess I should just chill out. I think that once you experience water in your basement you spend a lifetime freaking out over little things that might mean problems. I really just want this to be all over. I want the file cabinet out of my living room along with the ironing board and the boxes of items we didn't know where to go with. It's pretty bad over here...

Day 7: New Reason This is an Inconvience

We can't do laundry.

I don't know why this didn't occur to either of us during the planning stages. If you jackhammer concrete up to replace something, new concrete is going to be left. New concrete takes time to cure.
Washing machines, the tub they empty into and dryers generally sit along the wall. Drain tile is along the walls and therefore we have we concrete right where our washer, tub, and dryer sit. The dryer we were able to set up because the vent, gas line and other cords were long enough. However, the washing machine is going to have to sit for awhile.

Thank goodness we have such great neighbors. I've been running back and forth between our house this weekend doing laundry.

According to the basement people we should wait THREE weeks before we do much downstairs in terms of putting it back together. According to our friend who is a structural engineer, he said concrete will have 80% of it's strength after one week. I think we'll hook up the washing machine next weekend.

Catching Up on Day 3

And we are done...with this part.

The company that we hired finished up late Wednesday afternoon. They had brought an extra guy to work with them in hopes that everything would go faster since our city inspectors like to screw with people or have something personal against our property (seriously, I'm beginning to think there's an ordinance just for us. Discussing the drama we went through with the garage might make for an interesting post someday). Anyhoo, here's what Wednesday ended with...

That pipe coming up is one of four access points that will allow our system to be flushed out or have maintenance performed on it if necessary. This is in the "new" room...the dirty wall is our old exterior wall. Since there is old drain tile all along that wall that got replaced with new stuff. It might seem like overkill but once you have had water in your basement I don't know if you can ever be overcautious!

This is the wall/corner that had been causing us so many problems. Once everything is dry we can get started cleaning up and scrubbing the walls. Even though drywall is going back up I don't want all that mold/mildew on the walls.

Logan leaving his mark on the floor
Ethan leaving his hand prints in the basement forever
Why not? If you have wet cement, how can you possibly resist putting hand prints in it?

A while ago I stated, "This is not the most inconvenient project we have done." I'd like to retract that statement for consideration. Stay tuned...I'll explain why this weekend. It might move into 1st place.

Day 2 - Save the Drama for your Mama

I really didn't know what to expect. The guys from Badger Basement came promptly at 7:30. There wasn't much of the hard digging left, since the new basement was pretty much dug, there was only some little digging or expanding left.

There was a lot of noise. Jackhammers here, gigantic masonry drills there, you know the standard work. I managed to log into work and get a crap load of stuff done from home. I tried to dial into a bunch of meetings, but it was hard to hear over all of the racket. I would hear the frequent cutting of plastic, as I was certain they were cutting the lengths of their patented "WaterGuard" system. It was right around lunch when I was I hearing the pounding of the jack hammer.

Then it stopped. Then I heard an "uh-oh."
I don't know if I want to hear someone with a jack hammer say "uh-oh." It would be that they were poking holes in the cement blocks to relieve the water pressure and build up along and inside the blocks, when magically they sprung a leak.

Now to Andi and I this isn't surprising, as some of those blocks looked water logged. They had to open the bleeder holes in order to all for the outside water to seep in and into their WaterGuard system. It was after lunch that the drama started.

I heard someone else come over, and I presumed it was someone that these guys knew. It turned out to be the city inspector. !@#%, I said mildly. This won't be good.

You see, there have been all sorts of issues with the city and the city inspectors. I swear to god, they find fault, just to make work for others. It's like they don't want their constituency to succeed in any way. When the guy left, one of the workmen came up stairs and had to tell me about the change in plans.

It would seem that the city doesn't like how shallow they are digging. But that's what they do. The whole premise of the WaterGuard system is that it sits on top of your footings to direct water from the high water table away from the walls and floor to the sump pump. But if they have to dig down into the footings, that's a crap load of more work, and harder too, since the footings are so solid. So, what they decided to do was to ditch the WaterGuard system, and give us something close to it.

They're replacing all of the drain tile with newer PVC pipe of some sort. It's not the same as the corrugated pipe that is traditionally put down, and does crap for actually draining water (I read about that.) This pipe is smoother, and will allow the water to flow easier. They are also going to put in the wall diverter. It's hard to describe, but essentially it's a piece of aligator plastic (it's got all of these ridges, hence the name) that sits along the wall and footing. This piece allows the bleeder holes to drain into the new drain tile.

So essentially we're getting the WaterGuard system, just not in one hand dandy do it themself installation product. Also, this is more work becuase now they are hammering out a little more floor, and all of the drain tile.

That works for me! After all, we're hoping that we can prove to the insurance company that the reason the basement flooded was faulty drain tile. The tile was so old and full of gunk that it could not handle the water load and backed up into our basement. I'll let you see the pictures and you can decide if the tiles could handle the load.