I’m sure you’re wondering how on earth I could find any more to tell you, or even maybe catch your attention with, in relation to the basement. Well, I think you will be surprised when you get a peek at some of the before and during basement pictures.
Let's start at the beginning....
Once upon a time, about three years ago, my husband and I were newly engaged and ready to buy our first home. We started looking in a quaint area that features mostly older houses, specifically Cape Cods. One of the criteria for our purchase was to find a house that already had a finished basement or would have the ability to do so in the future. Unfortunately, there weren’t many contenders due to leaky basements and other foundation issues (this area is a little more prone to it), but we found a few contenders! One of which, eventually became our home. You’ll see in the before pictures that it definitely needed a little TLC, but we thought we could re-use what was already there.
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| We added the basement access from the dining room; prior to this you had to go through the kitchen. |
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| Not great, but not terrible. |
Fast forward a few months and we began discover that our house had some foundation issues as well. One morning, this came to a head. My husband and I were both traveling for work and we found that our basement drain backed up into the finished part. However, it was 6:30am and we both had flights to catch, so we had to leave it. The mold and musty smell we came home to was horrible, and quickly became an issue for allergies. We ripped out the previously finished basement and began the water proofing process.
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| As you can see by the carpet, the water issues have begun; and it got a whole lot worse! |
We were too invested in our house to sell at this point, so we decided to take an aggressive approach to our water problem. We did the following to waterproof our basement:
- Repair/re-route the sump pump (internal and external)
- Foundation wrap (external)
- New window wells (external)
- Additional braces/support for the basement (internal)
- Install proper drain tile (internal)
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| Right around here, is where I think our neighbors thought we were crazy. |
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| Back view of our house. |
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| After we tore the finished portion out, the foundation company used a jack hammer to go around the edge of the foundation on the inside. If you've never experienced this, it is i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-i-l-y dusty! |
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| After proper drainage was installed, they filled it back in with concrete. |
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| It took a LOT of concrete (and a cement mixer in our basement) to fill it in. |
After looking at the yellowish/greenish foundation walls for awhile, we decided it was time to paint. To make it less of an eye sore and further seal the foundation, we used a white elastomeric paint. Then, the floor was painted with gray patio/concrete paint. It really helped to clean things up while we waited and saved for the basement finishing project!
Lastly, before we began finishing, we applied fiberglass sheeting, which bumps up against the internal drain tile. If water would ever get in (I cringe even typing that), it will remain behind this and go directly into the drain tile, rather than molding the drywall.
This then brings you to where some of my early blogs began. As you can see, it took us awhile to get to where we are today, but we now feel like it was worth it. I’m moving on to our next room (our office) and my husband is leading the charge in adding final touches and sports memorabilia to the walls; after all, this is man-land!
I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our "little project”. J
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