Well for the past few months you have heard me randomly mention here and there throughout house tours and posts that we had a basement.
It was a lovely finished basement.
It doesn't exist in the form that it was known for here anymore.
Back in July after a family holiday Trevor and I got home at midnight excited to get to sleep and return to our jobs after a few days of rest and all I heard from my lovely husband who is sometimes prone to exaggeration when it comes to the amount of time things take, or is it me that doesn't listen and thinks everything is 5 minutes? Either way I heard.
" I think I'm going to puke"
Now outside of the context of the flu which I know he didn't have and a hangover which he definitely didn't have I initially wasn't grasping the joke.
It was a shitty joke.
I walked to the top of our stairs and just saw a waving reflection of my husband staring in disbelief at our new lake in our precious basement.
He got his rain boots, started screaming at me to get a camera for insurance photos, went and tapped the shit sump pump that also went on holiday and it began purring to life sucking the water out of our basement.
Now before we get ahead ourselves, we are very much aware things could have been worse. We could have had a house engulfing fire, we could have had a sewage backup, we could have been robbed so on the scale of bad this wasn't so much but to us and me especially with a load on my plate of running my lovely new business this felt like everything just crashing in.
We are those people who go above and beyond checking things, fixing things. We are irritating to ourselves lol. Our sump pump was less than a year old and just got stuck and stopped working.
So our basement that I would normally be sharing at this time of the year that looked like this....
Looked like this...
complete with dog running around in his own personal pool. this photo is after about 2 more inches had gone down already. so as you can see it's not like the water came up the walls a foot but all you need is an inch of water and your drywall starts sucking it up like a camel hump. these photos are pretty clear which is amazing because i was vibrating with anger and frustration.
the persian rugs we had collected had been sitting under water so long the one actually had holes being eaten through them from the water.
our slipcovers turned pink all along the bottoms and starting leaching up the rug colour.
So SUCKY like I said!
anyways quite a few of you have been asking for updates and if i was a good blogger i may have been taking photos all along and doing a full scale reno series but....
i didn't!
Trevor did most of the demo taking walls down that were not built properly in the first place and, the light at the end of the tunnel in all this is that the bathroom that is down here is finally getting done as we had to take the walls out, so why not?
We immediately installed a water back up for our sump pump that doesn't rely on electricity or a battery but water pressure.
We also installed a giant sewage pump that will remove sewage to our septic system instead of the illegal way this bathroom was plumbed by the previous owners into our sump pump and we never used. The door has basically been closed for 6 years.
Trevor spent weeks taking out all the flooring, trim, half the drywall, walls. The ceiling thankfully is good. My sewing centre in the garage is still surrounded by items I sorted in July that got water damage.
Trevor and our contractor have been working to put the framing right, and drywalling and all that fun stuff that isn't necessarily great for photos but makes me giddy because it meant we are getting closer.
Doesn't Trevor look impressed with his helpers while doing the insulation for the bathroom. You can see the monstrosity of a pump behind where our wine fridge goes. That sits about 3 feet into the ground. That dust ball was great fun while our plumber was jack hammering the concrete floor.
The state of the room the last few months. Clean dry and hideous.
Our lovely hallway that we revealed last year in November also revealed that the wall was not installed properly. Not really from the flood but from years of 2x4's sitting on wet concrete means this wall was on it's last legs. So we removed it and started properly. This is likely our forever home so living with mould and falling down walls is not really in the plan.
We now have this. Ready for the application I have planned. This hallway will continue to be black because I just love it and black makes this area feel glamourous.
and the peach tile....
oh the peach tile that i never want to see ever again. it was everywhere in our house.
i hate it!
our new flooring will go right over top again and with any luck and all the precautions in the world we will never ever have to redo this basement again.
So that's the story.
Now the update.
We have completed the walls, painting is done, the tile floor is in the bathroom and the new floor is 3/4 of the way in which means we are at the point of installing trim, re-hooking up electronics, doing a real backsplash on the bar and then......
DECORATING AGAIN! woohoo.
I am so looking forward to snuggling up in our basement again sans water.
So for today I leave you,
Have a great weekend everyone as the holidays get nearer
Meg
