Basement Repair Portends Whole Winter Project     

It all started with a leak in the basement.

When there was a sizable rain, we noticed wet carpet along one wall in the great room, the biggest room down there. This one was probably our fault since we had seen a leak there even before we bought the house.

But at the time, a disconnected downspout was blamed for redirecting a recent heavy rain right to that wall. To be more certain, we had a couple holes drilled into the wall to check. Nothing. It was dry and looked undamaged by water. We figured it was a one-off and bought the place.

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote about probably never updating the basement. It was functionally finished and a great place to store old furniture, which I arranged in the great room so I could have a TV down there. Sort of a low-cost man cave. It got comfortable and that’s what led to the water leak discovery.

Wet brown carpet behind a brown bookcase doesn’t exactly scream at you that there’s a problem. But there it was and the stains proved it had been recurring, like growth rings on a tree. We hadn’t even noticed. Great. How much bad air had we been inhaling? There were only two things to do: fix the leak, then remodel the whole basement. Right?

Coordinated Chaos

After arranging a fix, we immediately started planning the remodel. We know from experience that these projects take a lot of time because so many people are involved. We wisely worked with a designer/contractor and started planning in September. However, it took until December to get work started. It should be finished by March except for some furniture that won’t be here until May when I’ll be setting up my hammock on the patio.

The leak was fixed in late August which included removing the carpet, jackhammering the concrete floor along the wall and installing a drainage system, complete with sump pump. Turns out, the wall wasn’t the problem. The water was coming up from below in heavy rains. Who knew? Well, it was more feasible than a disconnected downspout years earlier. The system hasn’t been tested in a big rain yet.

To accommodate that fix, we moved as much furniture as we could outside to the patio and covered it with tarps. It didn’t help that a lot went out in August and has been there all winter. The things that had to stay inside had to be moved several times as work progressed.

The big remodel was thorough. Scrape the popcorn ceilings, cut access holes to reroute ductwork so that the upstairs/downstairs zoning actually works. Replace and add lighting. Patch and re-roll the ceiling. Install built-in bookcases, cabinets with countertops and a small sink. New paint and carpet. Tile the office and bathroom.

And finally, install as big a TV as you can fit in the great room. Complete it with a digital fireplace underneath. And, of course, a huge reclining sectional. The kind I said I’d never buy. And a bar-height table and chairs.

The Carpet Color Caper

The carpet was a bit of a concern. When the first room, a bedroom, was carpeted I was shocked at how white it was. A careful comparison revealed that the carpet sample was nothing close to actual.

After a lot of discussion and anguish we stayed with it. It’s a great carpet but anyone living in Minnesota knows that you’re just asking for trouble with white carpets. We decided that the rug’s nap was designed to always look a bit dirty. Plus, we have no pets or kids anymore to ruin it.

I’m grateful that we didn’t have a ton of snow during the project because I had to shovel a path around each side of the house so the crews could get their equipment to the basement without constantly entering the front door.

The hardest part was that much of it had to be done in a certain order. You don’t install carpet before painting. So the project required waiting days and days for the next crew’s availability. This is typical and why we hired someone to keep things on track.

We already see other things we need like shades for the great room, pictures to hang and battles over old furniture. I bought a digital radon detector to make sure our radon mitigation system wasn’t affected by all this.

And finally, once that last layer of dust is removed, we’ll have a clean, bright place to store more junk.