BASEMENT BLUES

About four weeks ago, on a Saturday afternoon when we were suppose to be having a backyard bbq with friends, Rob and I spent most of the day in the basement with a shop-vac he had to run out and buy. That was just the beginning of our "basement blues".

One rain storm and flood lead to more, and a bigger shop-vac lent to us by his Dad. After having a few different contractors come to inspect, we hired a company to find out what the problem is and fix it. That work begins this coming weekend.

The past few weeks haven't been a lot of fun. We've had a couple really bad storms, which meant really bad flooding again in the basement, I think we've been through it six times now, twice this past Sunday.

We had to clean out the basement completely before the work started, so we decided to get rid of most of what was down there. Gave a few things away on line, a trip to Goodwill and the rest is getting thrown out. We had talked about fixing up the basement a few years down the road, as there were other things we wanted to do around the house first, but with the flooding, the basement got put to the front of the line.

This past weekend Rob and his Dad tore down the wood paneling and the insulation behind it to get to the bare walls, and also the carpet and sub-floor. The basement looks like a dark hole now.

It's a fair size room and one day it will make a great rec-room type area. Our first goal is to get the water problem fixed. We will wait til after the spring thaw before dry walling and putting down a new floor. Want to make sure the problem is fixed before spending the money on that.

It's been a stressful few weeks, and I am looking forward to having a dry and leak free basement, but until then I am the shop-vac queen!