It started back in May when we had a flood in our basement. Heavy rains, a failed sump pump, and a clogged drain led to 400 gallons of water sloshing around and while we got a company in quickly to clear it, the carpet was in worse shape.
It took us…a while to get a contractor lined up to redo the basement and we decided that instead of just replacing the carpet, we would also use this as an opportunity to do some remodeling there as well.
The plan was to remove the bar area, replace the carpet with vinyl tile, and clean up the walls and baseboards. We had notes on what we wanted done and picked out the tile and the cabinets – and the contractors gave us an estimate. We had plans to also add a shower to the bathroom in the basement, but that was going to be far outside our price range.
It then took them…a while to get started but when they did the demolition on the bar, we found the first of the problems – and it was a combo. The system of trenches to mitigate the water coming through the walls in the basement didn’t include the bar area – or, really, anywhere under the turret of our house. And under the bar were piles of rotting acorns. Ground squirel guess, we assumed.
So, this was going to need to be addressed as a separate project to seal the walls, patch the holes, seal up the cracks in the outside steps (the source of the water) and re-route the downspout to get the water away from the house.
Also, removing the carpet from the stairs revealed a problem with the risers that would need to be replaced.
They could handle these and since I was working from home most of the time I tried to keep the project on track. And paid for the additional materials along the way.
It took…months.
The actual work went quickly, but they kept getting called off on emergency projects or would have to stop and wait for material to come in.
And there were mistakes. The sink got installed in the wrong spot – they didn’t ask before cutting the hole in the counter – and so it looked odd without a cabinet above. They got an additional cabinet – which needed to be cut down since the ceiling wasn’t the same height there. But, the reworked cabinet was done off of bad measurements and had to be redone.
They also closed off an unused fireplace without checking with us and added a side section to the backsplash that was a surprise.
They reused most of the stairs when they replaced the risers, but some of the old stairs were uneven and then they had to replace all the stairs.
So, it was a lot of back and forth. I tried to keep an eye on things, but I also needed to work from home and there were sometimes issues when I would go down to the basement at the end of the day.
And we lost some time when Jim and I went on vacation. They had access, but there was concern if something expensive came up while we were gone, we might be hard to reach.
So, as December rolled through, the project finally came to a close. The cabinets and the new sink with a backsplash were done. The lights were replaced and the stairs are solid again.
There were some last minute issues – a slight leak to the sink and some touch up on the ceiling – but they presented the final invoice.
And it was a lot, since it covered all the extra labor from the projects that needed to happen before the main project could start.
But, we wrote the check and as I write this I’m waiting for them to show up to pick that up. Jim is already looking at paint colors for the walls and I’m working on a list of plumbing projects that will need to be addressed.
It seems like it never ends, but the house is almost 100 years old and the many owners have left their own mark.
So, again, we remain…homeowners.