Basement Blues

I sit here a week plus a day later writing this because to be honest, we still are not done yet. Today is Sunday and this will be posted on Tuesday or Wednesday when my internet finally gets installed, unless something happens with the installation. To be honest that is the last thing I need.

Saturday

My goal was to start at 9 am and get it going ASAP but knowing how my father doddles. I had a feeling it would not be happening until noon. I wasn’t far off. We started at 11:45 and that was after the “first” load was unloaded from my father’s truck. He brought my treadmill from my best friend Emily.

At 9:45 I received a phone call telling me that my brand new bed would be arriving in less than 30 minutes. They came and had it set up in about five minutes and I was ecstatic. That was until I saw the Made in Vietnam sticker on two places on the bed. I called the company where I bought the bed immediately and demanded an answer. I purchased that particular bed because it was to be made by the Amish. Well, as it turns out, the Amish outsource that bed (among some other items in that line) to Vietnam because of the cheap labour and the wood. WTH?!?!

We got the two half ton trucks and my car loaded up and got a load done. J gave me my key to lock up because he needed my keys for the car for some reason on trip number two. To maintain comfort while moving I was wearing my yoga shorts that have a zipper pocket in the back of them and I kept my phone in there with the zipper closed. As I opened the pocket to put the key in there my phone stuck to my sweaty hand and came out of the pocket and directly into the toilet. FML!!! Luckily the toilet was literally just cleaned and it was in there for not even ten seconds. I ran out of the bathroom and went to my really slow internet capable computer and tried to find out what to do. I read many instructions and I turned it off but it kept turning itself back on. It did so at least 5 times. Why it did not short out is beyond me. I grabbed a baggie, paper towel and my expensive Basmati rice and placed my phone in the baggie with the aforementioned rice and paper towel. I placed the bag on the dash of my fathers truck since it had a groove in there and my car did not.

People say that bad things happen in threes. I have only recently started believing it. This is number one of three.

We managed to get 95% of the large items and a few dozen boxes done.

Sunday My birthday!

I turned 25 for another year. J got me Adobe Lightroom 3 and a new 1TB hard drive. Lil’ Man made me a drawing of a house with a kid (not him) skateboarding down the side of the house while he is out in the family photo on the lawn AND driving the tow truck that is towing J’s and my father’s truck along with the trailer.

I didn’t do too much moving. My dad and J moved the washer and dryer to the basement as well as moving the fridge from the garage (that is where they left it) to the kitchen.

Lil’ Man and I went to the Capital City FC game where we were up 2-0 against Montreal when we left because the rain got so bad that it almost turned my umbrella inside out. While we were walking to the car my flip flop broke and I had to drive back to the townhouse to grab my back up sandals. That was number two of three. The final score was 3-0 Ottawa.

I rented some movies for Lil’ Man and I to watch that night but first I needed to get some work done. I hooked up the TV, DVD player and all of the electronics. He started watching Alvin and the Chipmunks – The Sqeuakquel. About 45 minutes into his movie I went to go watch a bit with him and to tell him that it was bedtime after the movie. I thought I saw something in the laundry room and looked closer. I saw a reflection of the kitty litter box that was used to hold our laundry room door open. I flicked on the light and there was a ton of water. In 45 minutes my basement flooded and was inches deep with water. I panicked and called my dad because I didn’t know what to do. He told me to call Alan (my Realtor) and he came down (he lives about 1-2 kms away). He called the plumber to come take a look. The plumber took about 15 minutes to get there. Luckily we are in a small country area and he lives nearby. The plumber looked at the pump and said that it was shot, he replaced it and the water drained in about 20 minutes. We placed fans at the entrance of the laundry room from the rec room.

After all of the water drained I needed to get things cleaned up on Monday, it is a good thing that I was on vacation for 4 days last week but I had vacation plans with my son that I was not willing to cancel so J took time off work to deal with quotes from companies about the extent of the damage. One was trying to rip us off saying that we needed to call our insurance right away so they can get to work before the basement gets worse. Yeah, generally people know that we are going to get more than one quote and will never start work right away.

Since that night I have not slept all that well and probably won’t for awhile. I am so paranoid about the new sump pump failing that I check it every time it rains; we flush the toilet or use any water. I realize that the sump pump has nothing to do with 99% of household water operation; it makes me feel better to know that it won’t back up. I really need to purchase a generator just in case the power goes out.

Tuesday (the week after)

Belfor came yesterday and inspected my basement. More bad news. He came and showed me all of the moisture in the basement and the Mealy Bugs that are hiding in the corner of my basement. EWWW. (Apparently they usually live on plants and suck moisture out of them, he never knew they lived on concrete - great, just my luck!). He told me that the only way to know if water is under the sub floor is to tear up the floor. Unfortunately that would cause for a whole basement renovation but I can't afford that at the moment.

He went around and looked at the whole basement and took about an hour doing measurements and marking where there was wiring on his plans because he'd have to contact he electrician and his flooring people because the walls were built on top of the sub floor. He showed me an area at the corner of the house that there was water seepage into the house through the concrete which happens to be right near the septic tank outside. He said it wasn't the septic tank leaking because we would smell sewage - whew! Some good news. He suggested that if I went ahead with the basement that I should get the vapor barrier put on the foundation to repel anymore moisture otherwise the work in the basement would be useless when the moisture makes its way into the house in a few years. He showed me the area on the foundation where one was done only by the deck at the back door but the old owners didn't bother to do the whole house. ASSHOLES!

If I did the vapor barrier around the whole house, I would have to do it soon before the ground freezes. The landscaping would be moot and I SHOULD have window sills (the ones where you dig more earth out and have the metal things in) put in for the moisture to drain rather than it being right up near the windows causing more problems. Not to mention that the two windows in the basement that are sealed shut should be replaced with ones that can open to allow better airflow for the basement and add an extra exit in case of a fire. They are no where near gas lines or anything so they SHOULD be alright.

I am torn as to what to do. I know I should do all of this but I really can't afford to and I can't really afford not to, for that matter. I don't want to have an insurance claim this early in my policy especially for something that may or may not need to be fixed. It doesn't smell musty at all in my basement and it isn't damp since we have a dehumidifier. Unfortunately the foundation isn't covered under my policy so that would come out of my lint covered pockets. I'd say look under the chesterfield cushions but we just moved and found all of the change.

UGH!!!!

Oh yeah, if I go ahead with the basement, it will take approximately 2-3 months to do it all with the tear down, the new floor, drywall, wiring, duct work and inspections. There goes my storage, my family room and laundry. We'd only have access to the laundry at night and nowhere to relax until after x-mas.

Is this the universe telling me I should have kept renting? I hope not because I really love sitting in my office at night looking out of the window to the star covered sky. Albeit, it is a little cloudy tonight.

Would anyone like to donate to the Musings on Main Street house fund? All proceeds will go directly to my gym membership to help me work out my frustrations. :)