Basement waterproofing part 1

For the past week or so, my husband and I have been working on fixing our basement. It was a mess- dark, damp, dreary, cobweb-filled... Think perfect haunted house scenery... hmm maybe we should have left it that way and made some money in the fall opening our own haunted house. Shoot! Why didn't I think of this before!

This wall greeted you at the bottom of the stairs.

                                                                  

Welcome to the dungeon. We've got arachnids! (Think GNR)

When we moved it, the basement was in okay/good condition for a basement in our area- shoot, we could stand up in it and it was painted - heck! We had a basement!  The walls were painted, the floor was painted until it started to chip and crack allowing more water into the basement. That's probably not the reason for more water, but I'm gonna say it is! Actually, the truth is the water started to wear down the paint which lead to the peeling and chipping.

Shelves are solid. Definite keepers!

When I noticed this happening, I started to peel and scrape the paint thinking I would have it all finished in no time and looking beautiful. WRONG! This peeling/scraping etc. to remove as much of the old stuff as possible took forever! That happens when you have a 2-year old and are working. You only work on things as you can. It took a couple of years (during pregnancy I didn't do any work nor the first year of Everett's life). Could we have made it shorter and gotten it done sooner, probably- but would you really like to be in a dungeon that's getting scarier and scarier by the minute? I didn't think so. 



Finally, we took as much as possible off and decided to paint when my mom would be able to watch the little one for a few days. That just makes things easier right? WRONG again! I didn't know how big of a project this would be.  It took us a day to get the floors bleached to kill any mold/mildew we could see (we would later make a discovery), vacuum all the walls and remove cobwebs from the rafters, and gather all of the supplies. Finally, at 10 pm, we were able to start the waterproofing paint on the walls. Whew! Tired yet?

The next day we woke early. We put the second coat of waterproofing paint on the walls then started working on the trim work areas. In the process of painting trim, I came across a fixture that I thought was attached to the water heater/brick pole. Come to find out it was a terribly old air filter for the heater. I pulled it out to discover some black mold. It was a small patch maybe 5 inches long x 1 inch wide. Did some research and later in the day bleached the heck out of it.

  

We also pulled out an old shelf along the wall during this (that we thought was bolted to the wall and we were terribly mistaken) to find a little bit of mildew. No problem, bleach took care of that too! I learned to like bleach even though I can't stand it. I get sick from the fumes.   During the bleaching of the black mold, which I later learned was a smaller amount of mold than anticipated and more sediment than anything, the window that I opened slammed shut and shattered all over the freshly painted floor. I seriously thought I was going to die from either fumes or mold during this process. When the window slammed, I prayed it wasn't a sign. Thank you Lord for helping me live through this!  I've lived through it, but cost us who knows how much in a window. Of course, the window breaking caused a little tiff- because I clearly planned on breaking the window honey! It was in the plans all along... Not when we don't have the extra cash for it!

This is the window that broke.



The laundry shelf is no longer there.

 Then while cleaning up, I twisted my ankle and haven't been able to run for a week. :(

Today, the basement is still not 100% complete. It's about 85% complete. We have to move out the appliances to finish the floor and add a second coat of paint to the area behind the shelf we moved... oh yeah, and replace the window with our new glass block window! :)  By next week, it will be complete. Enjoy the pics of the 85% completed basement.