Water Woes

Well, the recent deluge and melting snow caused all sorts of fun in the basement. I thought I’d set a record last year when I filled our 10-gallon shop vac 6 times when this happened last year. This year…I had to spend the evening Tuesday and all day Wednesday running the vacuum every 20 minutes (I mean every 20 minutes) just to keep up with the inflow. I started to lose count after I’d drained the shop vac for the 15^th time.

Tuesday night I kept it up until about 10:30, and realized there’s only so much I could do. I’d have to go to bed and let the inevitable happen. When I got up at 6am the next morning, I was greeted with the sight of water running from the fireplace all the way into the bathroom 20 feet away. I was able to get it cleaned up and kept it at bay in the fireplace area, and laying towels to corral the water, and then changing those out when they got saturated. But it was constant work. I laid down for a quick nap around 2:30, and I paid for it when I let it go for about 40 minutes without attention. It never stopped coming in until about noon on Thursday. Shaunn took care of the final vaccing and cleanup on Thursday when I went back to work.

During the 16 or so hours of this party, I had plenty of time to contemplate various ways to solve the problem. The first and most needed thing is to fix the poor grading around the house. I intended to do it last year, but after the spring rains, we had a dry spell that lasted most of the year, so it was forgotten as a priority. I’ve found a company that will deliver it – right where I want it around the house perimeter – for about double what it would cost to have it dumped in the driveway for me to handle. I think it’s worth it, as my back still has not so find memories of filling in my parent’s in-ground pool in 2005. A cubic yard of dirt weighs about as much as a car, and we’re getting 7 of them delivered. Shoveling that and moving it around the house would take a few days even with help, and then I would no energy left for the other project to fix the basement.