Hey-ho, everybody! Sorry for going all incommunicado on you this week.
As you know, we had two major disasters in May and June with the basement flood and the tornado. June and July was spent on clean-up (well, actually, the remediation people were here last week to dry the last of the basement, remove mold, and spray stuff places) and so now we focus on putting things back together.
There’s two distinct areas of work:
- the yard (tornado damage)
- the basement (flood damage)
In terms of the yard, we’ve had the fence replaced. Next step is removing the two damaged trees that are still standing (on the schedule for the end of September), finding some way to shade the patio (since the tree that did so is now deceased), and re-landscaping (though we can’t put in new trees until the old ones are removed). The fence was the big thing, and the rest can get done whenever.
But the basement. Oh, the basement.
The basement has always been hard for us. Basements are kind of weird in general. I’ve almost always had them, because tornados are a thing (if normally rare) but we’ve never utilized them well.
In fact, the basement of one of my childhood homes was the setting of a re-occurring nightmare I had, despite the fact that it was arguably the nicest basement we ever had.
We don’t need the space; we don’t even need to go down there on a regular basis because our laundry is on the main floor. All attempts at making it a useable space that people wanted to hang out in on a regular basis have thus far failed.
But because the basement is literally in pieces we decided we’d try to put it back together in a way that made it more useful.
This includes:
- the addition of an egress window so people don’t die if trapped in the basement
- a door between the hallway and the “bedroom” so it could indeed be used as one if someone wanted
- a new hallway to close the finished portion (currently nonexistent thanks to the flood) off from the unfinished
- a complete redo of the basement bathroom, which has always looked vaguely like it was leftover from the 1970s and hadn’t been cleaned since then, no matter how many times you actually cleaned it
- including the addition of a utility sink closet
My spouse has never been one to procrastinate, so since a plan has been put into motion, into motion it must be. In theory having work people in the house shouldn’t distract me but in practice it is wildly disruptive and I can’t think.
Also we’re doing some of the work ourselves, which means I get dragged off to hold thing or give opinions, invariably right when I finally get moving on something.
(I realize this is all very first world problem-y. I have a house! It mostly works! Blogging in general is very first world-y.)
All this to say that I might be spotty on my posting schedule for the next month or so.
(The egress window is done, the drywall – new door frames, walls, closets – is being done as we speak. This weekend will be the new shower and lighting. Somewhere painting must go. Yay. The doors and then flooring – not carpet, never again carpet – and then finally furniture and bathroom fixtures.)
I hope you’re getting everything done that you want to be, squiders! See you next week.
