A Finished Basement
There has been a flurry of activity on my blog this week . . . you might have noticed. I got behind. Pretty much behind in everything.
Monday was spent catching up. Numerous blog posts. I still have more.
This scrambling or rather thrashing to keep my head above water (behind the scenes) was due to a rather unfortunate event . . . one that I don’t have pictures of.
The clean-up . . . has kept us busy.
I just couldn’t bring myself to take a picture of the excrement.
Our basement drain decided to poop. You might remember me mentioning this incident several weeks ago.
In addition to the brown backup . . . water was invading our basement and bringing unwanted visitors with it. Rather, it aided unwanted bacteria to travel and set up shop in our walls . . . our carpeting.
Once again, I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture.
And I always take pictures.
We were given a quote that to fix our basement.
$15,000.
Gulp.
You see . . . we pay cash. (By cash, I mean that we spend ONLY what we have in the bank . . . making sure to leave plenty in the Emergency Fund.)
(By the way, the previous owner left the TV. It is kind of . . . stuck.)
We agreed before we got married that we wouldn’t go into debt, besides mortgaging a house. And for the past 12 years we have stuck to our guns.
But when you have a serious sanitation issue, the possibility of roots in your pipes, and mold growing behind your walls . . . rational thought floats away . . . because at those moments you want to do anything you can to protect your children’s lungs.
I diffused oils.
The Engineer and I had long discussions.
Praise God that my man is soooooooo calm and level-headed.
And handy.
Let me introduce you to our new and improved basement. Paid with money that we had in the bank . . . we didn’t borrow.
Our friend, Tim from Amazing Drywall, did the (obviously) walls. The Engineer fixed the gutter . . . rented an excavator . . . added dirt . . . and installed drainage tiles that lead away from the house.
I painted, encouraged, and installed some of the carpeting. And the kids helped.
It was powerful. Bonding.
Now I am ready to tackle our bathroom. It has a leak in the shower drain . . . that has proceeded to drip into the school room. I have called 4 different contractors. None of them have called me back . . . even when I have hounded them with emails politely emailed them.
Looks like we may learn
how to install bath tubs and sauder pipes.
I find this a little exciting. But I haven’t convinced the Engineer that this too could be a bonding project.
(There you go Melanie!)
