Normally I wouldn't really be bothered by this, other than the nuisance of cleaning it up. But, there is a lot of stuff in my basement that normally doesn't "live" in my basement...like my kitchen cabinets, trim, my digital piano...stuff that normally lives on the main floor.
I've lived in this house for 14 years and have never had water in my basement, except for the time one of my hose spigots had frozen over the winter and when I turned it on one Memorial Day weekend, a whole bunch of water wound up on the basement floor.
My sump pump is working fine, but it looks like there was just so much water from an unbelievable downpour of rain that it just couldn't keep up, and I think I'm tied into the city storm drains, and since the street was completely flooded, that kind of explains it.
And I don't have flood insurance. Why would I? I don't live in a flood-prone area.
However, I do consider myself lucky. I called my insurance agent on my way to the house and told her my concern was not for the stuff that normally lives in my basement - it's mostly empty boxes and other junk I don't use but just didn't throw away - but the stuff that was down there because of the rebuilding.
I immediately got a call from the contractor and he said he was sending someone right away. And, just to illustrate how much of a miracle that was, several areas around my area were declared disaster areas due to the flooding...and emergency water mitigation companies were running in every direction. Home improvement stores were sold out of sump pumps. Roads closed everywhere. Now, of course, the contractor doesn't want to have to fork out the money to replace the stuff they put in my basement, so it makes sense that I would be high up on the list for them to intervene and get my stuff out of harm's way as quickly as possible. I still felt special!
I spent all day Wednesday cleaning out the basement, the water damage mitigation guy got all the cabinets and trim up on foam blocks off the floor and set up huge industrial fans and a dehumidifier to get it dried out as quickly as possible. I'm optimistic that the cabinets will be OK.
Thankfully, I had picked up a new shop vac the previous week, so I had that handy and ready to go. I teamed up with one of the Brady kids (who heard my basement flooded and immediately volunteered to help me out - what a guy!) and he squeegied while I shop vac-ed.
On the bright side, my hand was forced to take a look at what was down there and since I conveniently have a dumpster living in my driveway, it was time to part ways with some of the stuff that had been living down there for 14 years. We had a good time demolishing a couple of couches (and finding over $2 in spare change, beer bottle caps, even a bazooka joe bubble gum wrapper from the 80s - all courtesy of my brother and his friends during his teenage years).
As of Thursday afternoon, everything is dry. However, our lake is about 3 feet over its normal level, which apparently hasn't happened since 1973 (and I believe that because never in my life have I seen the lake level as high as it is). The dam is fully open and still overnight the water level continued to rise. I went to check on my boat at about 10pm Wednesday on my way back to my parents' house, and it seemed OK, but I had heard that piers and boats were starting to dislodge and float away. I also checked on a friend's pier and boats to make sure they were still where they were supposed to be.
This morning, my friend sent me a picture of my pier and it's completely underwater. By the time I checked it myself this afternoon, it was still underwater, so even though the dam is wide open, the level isn't coming down just yet. I wound up venturing out onto my friend's pier (which was technically floating) to tie one of their boats to the lift so it didn't float away!
OK so after all that drama, let's focus on the awesome progress on my floors!!
I'm so happy with the color I chose and I cannot wait to be able to take the protective layer off of the granite - it's going to look absolutely awesome.
For most of the floors, I went with Adura Max luxury vinyl plank in Sundance Gunstock color. I had looked at several samples and was a bit nervous about going so dark, but this was the color that jumped out at me and I'm glad I trusted my gut. It provides a nice contrast to the oak cabinets/trim and is perfectly complemented by the granite I chose. Plus, it's waterproof. It's not clean yet, because they're still working on the finishing touches, but you'll get the idea:
And, my sweet new jetted tub has been installed and the tile surround is placed and ready for grout! Tubby time is going to be awesome!
Carpet will be laid in the bedrooms and living room, and the kitchen backsplash will go up after the upper cabinets are reinstalled.
Despite the minor detour with the flood, we're still on track. Of course, I'll probably get hit by lightning next week...
Read on for T Minus 7