yes, we are still under construction.  yes, the ENTIRE house is being updated.  no, this is not glamorous.  we live in brookside.  our house was built in 1919.  since moving in eleven years ago, the basement has been pretty much as you see it here.  damp.  rock walls and concrete floors.  mr. shoemaker has done ALOT in hopes of keeping it dry.  a sump pump drain hose snakes across the ceiling.  grading, changing both our downspouts and those of our neighbors.  we love our neighbors, but not all their water in our basement.  by simple lay of the land, we get hit with a lot of water.  so, diversion is the first step.

we hope to have a dry enough basement to lay some raised carpet tile.  these have a grid on the underside to allow for water to seep across the floor, and air to flow in hopes of deterring any “growth.”  we hope to build just a few sheetrock walls to enclose a true storage area.  the rest of the area will still be basement, but we hope to have an area for teenagers to play ping pong, hang a tv on the wall for gaming, and put my treadmill back down there.  it won’t be a true finished basement, but we hope to add some useable space and let the kids be kids.

bucket and buckets of mud

as the guys jackhammer the perimeter for drainage, they fill 32 5 gallon buckets and then haul dirt, mud and concrete up the exterior stairs to the dumpster.

yup, it kinda rained last night

and remember that lightning storm and crazy rain last night?  yes, we now have a MOAT in our basement.

will this really be livable??