Renovation (Week 18)

This week they started putting in the cabinets. It seems to me that this really just means that they've moved them to the locations where they'll eventually be put in. But it's really starting to feel like a kitchen now. The console (I think that's what it's called) against the south wall looks great. I also really like the way the grain looks.

The last week and a half have been pretty stressful because we just found some major water damage in the basement. I'd like to be able to blame someone, but the reality is that (using an overly used sports metaphor from work) a lot of us have dropped the ball. Laurel is really the only person who is blameless since she has been talking about the basement moisture since before we started the project. The problem is that none of us acted on it until now.

We tore up the carpet in the basement and then pulled out some of the drywall. We found that the part of the foundation behind the drywall was crumbling. The other two-thirds of the foundation (that which wasn't behind drywall) was restored a long time ago and is in perfect condition. We really don't know how bad the damage is on the back third of the foundation. We've been told by several people that if only the outer layers of the foundation are crumbling then we can we finish it, put water guards, and be pretty well off. This shouldn't be that big of a deal and this is actually a pretty common problem. If instead the foundation is shot all the way through the work is going to be extensive because they will be pouring a new foundation.

This weekend I dug two holes on the outside of the house and checked the foundation from the outside. It seemed to be rock solid. That makes me hopeful. Over the next couple weeks we will be getting a lot more opinions of our foundation. The next step, I believe, is to get someone who knows what they're doing to dig a ditch around that part of the house and tell us for sure how bad it is.

As always, all of my photos from this week can be found here.