Construction Zone

After a couple of chaotic weeks, contractors in and out, and a lot of dust, dirt, and debris, I think our basement is slowly returning to normal. In my last blog posting about our basement, I shared how we decided that we would install a sump pump. Here are a few photos of that process.

First, a trench needed to be made throughout the entire basement. This was done by cutting the concrete, removing all the chunks, and digging out some of the excess dirt and rock. Next, perforated (i.e. holey) pipe was laid in the trench. The purpose of this pipe is to collect any rising ground water and direct it to the sump bucket. The pipe was then recovered with gravel.

To install the sump pump a 3-foot hole had to be dug to hold the bucket. The pump was then installed in the bucket and the plumbing connected. Additional drywall had to be cut in order to get the plumbing up and over the concrete foundation and outside of the house.

Then the entire trench and area around the sump pump was recovered with concrete. The guy who did this part did an awesome job. The new concrete is really smooth and matches the old stuff very well.

After the floor was complete, the drywallers came in and did their thing - new drywall and lots of texturing. What a mess that was! At this point, the basement was starting to come back to life. Getting the drywall done was a big deal, because it meant that if we could hurry up and paint our laundry area we could reconnect our washer and dryer! The race was on and Tuesday night, thanks to our neighbor Kraig, we finally have our laundry facilities back! WAHOO! And we even installed a new floor under them.

One thing we really learned about ourselves is that we absolutely take our washer and dryer for granted. Hauling everything to our neighborhood "Bubbleland" was a large pain and I hope we don't have to do it again anytime soon! But the other day when I saw a lady get off the city bus with her two young kids and a laundry basket, hiking through a busy parking lot to get to the Wash-o-Mat, I was gently reminded that we didn't really have it that bad.

This morning we went to look at some carpeting and this afternoon we primed all the new drywall. We'll be painting soon. There's still lots of work to be done, but the end (at least for the basement repairs) is in sight.

PS - Sorry for the combined paragraphs. I'm having trouble spacing things properly. Technically illiterate, I guess!