Basement Waterproofing

Basements + Water = NOT A GOOD COMBINATION.  Period.

Anyone knows this -- and especially those that have had water in their basement.

We have ALWAYS had water in our basement.  Here is a picture, when we first bought the place (June 2013), with the 'finished' basement.  The floor was never finished -- my guess is because there is so much water in the basement... continuously.  The water seeps from the walls.  Yikes.

I REALLY tried to salvage this... it was too wet :(

Wow.  I barely recognize those photos!

We took the 2x4s, insulation, and drywall out of the basement.  Normally, when you tear down a wall - you've got to put some gusto into it.  Welp, these walls just crumbled down.  They were so saturated -- and moldy -- and just plain nasty that they fell apart.  ICK!  Anyways, they went -- in June of 2013.  And -- we've been thinking about drying out the basement since then...

One thing I'd like to share - is how water gets into your basement.  This is all new to me, but here is a good photo describing it.  It's really either rain water or hydrostatic pressure from the walls or under the flooring.  Pretty incredible all the little nooks and crannies that it can penetrate to get into your basement, eh?

So -- we commenced the 'dry-out the basement project' about a month ago.  When you touch the cinder block wall inside our basement, it crumbles.  Ugh.  Tom works with water for a living, so he is very competent in this subject and we decided to tackle it ourselves.

We also decided to have the 'experts' come out and give us their opinion.  Truly?  A great idea (of course, it was mine!).  At any rate, they gave us some really, really good ideas.

We are doing an exterior and interior french drain.  Most waterproofing experts recommend an interior only french drain in a house this old.  Tom does not agree with this, as it means you are inviting water in through your walls and then draining it through the french drain in your floor.  Therefore, we are doing an exterior drain only 2 feet below the surface (so we can spare some beautiful rhododendrons we have!).  

We have started the exterior work and plan to do the interior work when it is TOO cold outside.  Most of you probably think its too cold already!  Hehe.  We are lucky enough for 50 degrees this saturday and sunday.  Hoping all the outside work can be done next weekend!  Whew.  I'm exhausted just thinking of that.

Here's a picture to basically show what we are doing.  This is if you cut our house in half.  All the red and blue arrows are airflow, which is not a concern for us at the moment.  You can see the exterior french drain and the interior.  We will also do a sump pump, which is pictured bottom right.  (I'm pretty sure, right Tom?)

Here are some pictures of OUR progress!  (Tom and I CANNOT wait until this is all finished.  Tom said this to me the other night, "NO major house projects for at least another 6 months, right?"  He forgot that I said that to him a week before that!  Haha!)

The below pictures were taken the weekend before Thanksgiving (3 weeks ago) and Tom had obviously done a lot of work before these pictures!  We also had the help of some hired hands - teenagers we know, thank God for them!

First up, dig a ditch.  Ever done that?  Me neither!

Next up?  Re-mortar the block.  Yup, me neither.  Closes all those holes, all the pathways for water to seep in!

Next up, apply BLACK TAR, aka NASTINESS.  Do NOT get this on your clothes.  But that's about impossible to do.  Just wear clothes you don't mind throwing away.  

Yeah, I've never done this either.  Had no idea what it was - apparently all homes get this applied to exterior of basement walls now-a-days!

Some pictures of the progress:

This was all PREP work, 3 weeks ago.  The serious business happened last weekend.

This past weekend was HUGE and serious.  4 truckloads of crap was delivered on Friday and Saturday we went to work.  We had 7 adults working Saturday:  2 were homeowners, 4 were AMAZING volunteer friends, and 1 was a paid laborer who happens to live across the street.

WOW.  Did we make serious progress. And WOW we were all super sore the next day.  Those 2 homeowners also went at it the next day (plus the hired help).  Man, we were defeated by 4pm Sunday.  

BUT I HAVE GREAT NEWS!

At this very moment, it has been nonstop raining for about 1 hr... I AM SO HAPPY TO SAY THERE IS NO RUNNING WATER ON OUR BASEMENT FLOOR!!!   

In the past, every time it rains, water seeps from the walls.

Every.  Single.  Time.  

I am crossing my fingers... I will be posting again, very soon, on what we did over the weekend and letting you know if this constant rain this evening appears on my floor.  

I hope this to be educational -- please let me know if you have any questions!  I'd love to help you with your wet basement, as much as I can, pro bono!   Water in your basement is an exhausting 'to-do' item... but you CAN do it!  And we will do what we can to help!  Because Lord knows, we couldn't have done it this weekend without our friends.

With love, muddy shoes, and no more grass in my yard,

Heather

Got Mold?

We do.  And surprisingly?  You do too.  Every house has it.  It's just a matter of if you have too much of it, and/or is it the one REALLY bad kind.  

Thankfully, we don't have that one really bad kind.  Whew.  But we do have too much of the not-good mold in our GA home.

We still own our house in Georgia - since we bought AT THE PEAK of the market in 2007.  You know -- like 5 months before the government offered that 'first time home owners $8,000 credit'.  Yeah, talk about bad timing!

Anyways, we rent out our home to awesome tenants.  They have had health issues since they've moved in.  Their doc asked about ducts being cleaned in their new home.  We don't know when that was done last so we cleaned them...

And then they found mold...

And tested...

And it came back bad.  Ruh-roh.

We found this out at 8pm on a Thurs. night.  By 7am the next morning we were on the road to Georgia.  Can you believe how awesome our friends and family are - to help us out SO much and take care of our kids while we do this?  I mean, I kinda can't believe that was pulled off so fast.  Especially since we have NO family in Pittsburgh.  Amazing!

We found the source of the problem - moisture.  We found the cause and that was a pretty easy fix, thankfully!  Its just the redmediation that is rough.  Rough on our pocket and also rough work!

Saturday I spent probably 6 hours crawling around in our attic removing the insulation.  Tom spent at least 4 removing every single vent and return, scrubbing them and inside of them.   Pancho and Carlos also showed up (Pancho worked for Tom years ago) - and we could not have done that work without them.   We worked for 12.5 hours on the house - it was a LONG day.  

And the LAST thing we did was pull up the plastic from the carpet... and we also put it on the hardwood.  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT PULLED UP THE FINISH OFF THE HARDWOOD!  Ugh.  That was at 8pm.  Talk about difficult to swallow!

I worked so hard that day I didn't take pictures.  I took one of Tom while loading the car at Home Depot at 8am.  

 






I will say blowing the insulation into the attic was pretty cool - and much faster than I ever would have thought.  Sorry I don't have any pics of that!

We went to bed at midnight Sat. night and woke up at 4 to drive home to get the kiddos the next morning.  If you know me, you know I need my sleep!  I worked so hard my entire body ached the next day.  A feeling I haven't had in a while -- and surprisingly I do miss it!

Whew!  At least we got dinner at Los Hermanos.  Best.  Mexican.  Ever!

 


Side note -- BOTH of my credit cards got denied while in GA.  I tried spending $350 at Home Depot at 8am on a Saturday, I guess it triggered their alerts (although we used it all along the drive down).  

I'm going to get back to blogging.  We dug some ditches, by hand, at our house in PA two weekends ago.  I gotta share with you what we are learning about basement waterproofing!

Get some rest tonight!

In my strongest homeowner spirit, 

Heather

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes!!

Hello blog world. 

LONG overdue post.  My apologies.  I'm not sure if I've missed blogging or not - but am inspired knowing 36 people visited the site last month without any updates since February!

Whew.  What have I been doing?  Since my last post, I battled our property tax assessment, and WON.  I filed our taxes (blech).  I fought the insurance claim from William's birth (18 months ago) and instead of paying about $5,400 we got a refund check for $670 from the midwife center!  YAHOO!

Anyways, my point is I've been SUPREMELY busy and not been working on the house.

BUT.  At LAST - PROGRESS ON THE HOMEFRONT!

Its July.  Last August I came up with an idea for shades in the living room -- without hiding all the beautiful woodwork we stripped the paint from Augusts's ago...

And my seamstress FINALLY has finished the shades!  I gave her the fabric in November.  I do like her, and would recommend her... just not if you're picky like me.  :)  (She has made two sets of curtains for me.  Both sets, she has the pattern running different directions -- note it's not visible to the naked eye).  This has been something I have been wanting to do for forever now... but not so sure I love the finished product.  What do you think?!?!

Middle of this page, there is a photo of the living room from about a year ago!  Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

It's honestly been one thing after another here!  We have been working hard on SO many aspects of the house.  Every weekend it's something here and there.  Last weekend Tom cleaned out the basement from the 4" of standing water we had the other day.  Whew.  5" of rain that day.  

And oh.  We got another stove.  Eeek!  We went through 2 of the same from Costco and realized we had had enough.  We had the same problem with 2 of the same stoves (many issues, but in particular the enamel coating was chipping away on the interior of the oven).

Here is our new stove!

I have SO many pictures I have stored and want to share with you all.  We even had a roomate this summer for 10 weeks - it's been busy!  I will keep this post short and sweet and share some more photos later (and also when I get my home computer connected to the internet finally!)

MUCH love to you,

Heather

A Victory + A Failure...

I believe in transparency.

I've been told I wear my heart on my sleeve.  I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

What you see is what you get with me, ya know?  I've never been good at telling lies anyways.  Just ask my Dad.  ;)

And OUR HUGE VICTORY this week is that we FINALLY finished our 2013 property assessment appeal!!  Yes, that's 2 years ago (doesn't sound right, does it?)

So, I feel this urge to be completely transparent with you and share the nitty gritty.  I mean, truly, you could look it up on zillow today if you wanted to.  Or, you can look it up on our county's website -- I do think its rather neat to look at the details of your own house...

-- CROSSTOWN BUS --

Allegheny county used to have a search function on their website where you could look up anyone's property using their last names.  Everyone was looking up names like 'Roethlisberger' and 'Lemieux'.  Surprise!  So, they changed it so now you have to enter the property street address instead (but you can still see who owns the house).

-- Back to my story... --

So --- I'm sharing this info because you can easily look it up for my house.  And yes, I can also look up what you paid for your house.  I can also see what your annual property taxes are.  (I can find it all, so don't shy away whenever it may happen to come up in conversation!!  Doesn't much, but I find it funny when people do shy away...)

-- 2013 Allegheny County Assessment --

I learned from our lawyer that Allegheny county is the SECOND highest taxed county in the United States (his fault if that's wrong).  And in 2013 they re-assessed all the properties in the county.  Here is what happened in our assessment:

• 2012 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2013 Assessed Value:  $322,800

Our house MORE THAN DOUBLED in value.  That means our taxes ALSO DOUBLED.  Makes my head spin!  So, as soon as we bought this house, I looked at all the info on that county website and found that our house was listed as 13 rooms, 8 bedroom, 7 bath or something ridiculous.  I filed the paperwork to appeal the value, but I also called the county to tell them of the discrepancies.  They came out to the house shortly after we bought it and inspected it and changed it so 7 rooms, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath.  Thank goodness.  They also lowered the square footage by 60 sf.  Then our assessed value went like this:

• 2012 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2013 Assessed Value:  $227,500

Now, we bought our house for $127,000.  That means the house is STILL valued at $100,000 MORE than what we bought it for.  Normally, when you buy a house, you buy it for higher than the assessed value and they immediately change the value to whatever you paid for it.  Because... that is the true value of the house, right?  So, then why don't they just lower ours when we buy it and its lower than the assessed value?  Wish it was that easy.

So, since they lowered the value they cancelled my original hearing.  I filed another appeal (Aug/Sept of 2013) - and the hearing was scheduled for Nov. 25, 2013.  I showed up.  Mountains of paperwork.  Three copies of everything - 1 for the administrator, 1 for the school board's attorney, and 1 for me.  Here are some examples:

Yes, I created all of those in excel (I know, I'm a nerd).  Yes, I spent a bunch of time on it but they look damn good, right?  All those issues and repairs needed - I also had quotes stapled to that.  (this was in 2013.  In the past 2 weeks, we've also received quotes upwards of $25k for wet basement, plumbing in basement and exterior masonry!).  ALSO - did you see the pictures of the homes it has us compared to?!?!  Well, our house may look close to that now, but it definitely did not in 2013- here's my first blog post!

So, I took that and more to the hearing.  They didn't change SQUAT.  I appealed again, this time it cost me $118 to do that.

And I decided to hire a lawyer.  Trautman was who I went with after a few phone calls.

-- 1.5 YEARS LATER --

Court hearing was scheduled, Feb. 18, 2015.  I called the lawyer's office and said I'd like to meet him in person, as I feel this case was unique and we were having a difficult time catching each other on the phone.

We met.  He seems like a good guy.  Schmoozer type, but geniune (I hope).  At any rate, he definitely seems to know everyone in 'the game'.  So I think that is good.  He called the county's solicitor and after a couple of back and forth's, this is what we agreed on:

• 2012 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2013 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2014 Assessed Value:  $165,000
• 2015 Assessed Value:  $180,000

The lawyer said that was pretty damn good and I should take it, so I did.  My realtor, Carol Dishart, said that she was amazed they went below 200.  I'm pretty happy.  That's like a $5k paycheck for me in refunds - but minus the lawyer fee we still make out decently!  Plus, our taxes from here on out won't change until another reassessment!  Whew.

And about an hour after we settled on those numbers - a pipe froze and burst in our house.  YIKES!

Well, that was exciting.  Hopefully no one is planning on coming to stay with us, as we haven't fixed it yet we just shut off the water to it! :)

Persistence pays off!

And here's to hoping that no one from the county ever sees this blog!  (oh boy I am sooo screwed if someone does!)

Heather

The Winter Blues?

Is it just me, or do you have the 'winter blues' too?

Its 2 degrees outside.  Yikes.  Thankful we don't have to be anywhere or have  to be outside.  Tom is choosing to go clear our walkway.  Yes, our 400 feet of sidewalk that keeps getting covered in snow.  Good thing we have a snow blower!

SO many things have been going on lately while we hibernate  (and I feel like this list is incomplete):

• William was bapitized! :)  My mom and Thomas came here from Indiana - despite a snow storm looming! :)

• We had a run to the children's emergency room... she was SO BRAVE!

• I went to work, for myself!  I officially left Walsh but have not officially started a business on my own or anything... but a woman found me on LinkedIn - she was looking for a certified ergonomist with industrial experience in Pittsburgh.  I guess that's hard to find :)  Good thing I'm on LinkedIn!  I worked at Timet, they make titanium there -- and they've asked me to come back! :)
• Carpet -- er, um, a 'runner' -- installed on our stairs!  

Original condition of the stairs.  Wow.  I haven't looked at that pic for a LONG time!

In process... July 2013

Bare stairs

Cutting the padding for each step

Adding the tack strip

Adding the padding

Laying out the runner

Stapling (?) it to the wood.
This is 'Hollywood" style - so that it completely wraps around the stair.
(the other style would have a gap from lip to corner)

Almost done!

DONE!

YES!  I've had people tell me it looks like its been there from the beginning.  I LOVE THAT!

• When we ordered carpet for the stairs, we also ordered carpet (that we turned into a rug) for the living room.  They bound the edges for us, which is, of course, an additional cost.  The best size to fit the room was 13x19 - that is a HUGE rug.  Mr. John came over to help us lay it out.  BOY does it TOTALLY change the look of the room!



Before we purchased the property...



Our first day owning the home.  June 7, 2013







This living room really bothered me because we have a HUGE room, but a SMALL play area (in front of pink coffee table)

Tom, admiring his mopping.  :)



IMMEDIATELY after we rolled the rug out - the kids played on it!

Photo taken 1 hour ago :)

• BIG oak tree trimmed by 50%.  Oh boy - yes, cost a small fortune to cut a 300 year old tree.  Took them over a month to finish it too!  (came out two Saturdays.  Most difficult part for us was getting all the neighbors to move their cars!  8am on a Saturday - SORRY!)

Want to play I Spy?.... I spy the man in the tree...

• I've been ordering ALL sorts of things for the home and personally online - why have I not really shopped online much before?  I know - I like to touch/feel/ and see whatever it is before I buy it! :)  I just ordered this for the home and I'm stoked!

• OH - one more thing (I think?) - Elcy has made us one London shade!  I picked it up from her two weeks ago and I still have not 'reported' to her how it looks/how to go forward.  We have 8 windows to cover - this is no small feat!  18 yards of fabric she has to work with and I am SO thankful we decided to make one shade first, see how its looks, and then make the rest of them.  There are quite a few small changes to make, but without the changes it does look great!
  
• I knew I wasn't done yet... ANOTHER item - I'm STILL contesting our property value from 2013.  Our 'property value' determined by the county, increased by more than 200% from 2012 to 2013.  It was valued at ALMOST THREE TIMES what we bought it for.  So, I've been fighting that for a long time!  I had to hire a lawyer and our hearing is FINALLY scheduled for this week.

Whew. That's a lot, eh?

And my word was left un-fulfilled.  My sincere apologies.  Good thing (I'm pretty sure) no one is really anticipating my blog posts! (But if you are, please comment below so I know!  Then, I promise, I'll be better on my word)

Stay warm my friends (not meant for Hotlanta friends!)

In the name of cold weather progress,

Heather

Ps.  On a side note, I just started working out every day at 6am with an awesome neighbor of mine.  I never knew how good it would make me feel - I never knew how much my body misses physical activity.  I feel as though I'm making SIGNIFICANT progress in EVERYTHING in my life because of this!  So, here's to much more progress, and more blog updates to come!